Retreat!

Tomorrow is the ladies spring retreat at church. I have always wanted to go to a retreat and so I signed up months ago for this. Now. . . . . I'm not so sure? I know it will be fun, but to be honest I'd rather be home with my family on a Friday night!

I don't know anyone else that is going yet. No one in my small group Sunday school class is going, and I haven't really asked at the bible study on Wednesdays, although I did ask at my table and no one there is going! That doesn't really bother me, because I'm pretty social and can chat to just about anyone, but I just feel like 'why even bother'. I just don't feel in the mood for packing an overnight bag and heading off somewhere to be with women who I don't even know and who probably have all arranged to go with their friends (sigh)! Oh well, it's paid for, so I will go, and as I just said, I'm sure I'll have fun. It's only for one night and I will be home by Saturday afternoon.

The retreat is at Summer's Mill near Salado, TX. You can CLICK HERE to see it. I will take my camera too and maybe get a few nice pictures of the place. It looks very pretty on the website. I heard on the radio today that showers are forecast for Saturday, but I just checked yahoo weather and it doesn't mention it, but it will be nice and warm - mid 70's on Friday and 79 by Saturday afternoon. I can handle that!

Not much going on today. I have to go to the church library and sit there for two hours. That is starting to be a bit of a chore I'm afraid to admit. Really, because no one even comes in to use it! With that said, better head off to get ready, need to leave in 30 minutes. Have a great day!

A Runaway Week!

Yes, it feels like the week is running away from me once again. Here we are already mid week and time is just flying by as usual. I took Kristen to the hairdressers straight after school yesterday. She hasn't had her hair cut since last Summer!!! I know I should have it trimmed more regularly. We had probably nearly 3 inches cut off the bottom and it looks so nice. I still tie it back for her for school though. I hate the thought of her hair flying all over the place, especially when she's out at recess, it gets so tatty! But I hate the thought of 'head lice' too!

Not much going on here. Just thought I'd write a quick few words incase you wonder where I've gone to! Had surprising news this morning about the earthquake in England. My family live in the North of England but when I called mom this morning everyone was fine and apparently the tremors had moved south from the epicenter and not north where they are. My mam said she felt the roof rumble a little but she thought it was just the wind, that's how slight it was. No deaths are reported so that is a wonderful thing.

Speaking of wonderful things, I keep forgetting to update on here about my pap test results! Praise God and thank you for all your prayers, my results came back normal :-)
I got a letter (I should say envelope) from the Dr's in the mail last week but when I opened it there was nothing inside! So I called in to the office the next day to ask about it. The nurse came to talk to me and told me then that the results were normal and the Dr (who'd just had a baby 3 months ago, must still be suffering from 'mommy brain' she said) forgot to insert the letter! That's ok, so long as it was good results. I just have to go back in 6 months to follow up with another test, but that coincides with my yearly physical in September, so I will go then.

OK, so that's all the news for now, hope you're all having a good week in your little corners of the world.

Yo Yo Weather and other stuff. . . .

88 Degrees!!!!! That's our high for today - can you believe that? And THAT'S why I love living in Texas :-) Tomorrow will be 63! (that's what I mean about yo you weather, it's up and down from one day to the next).

I totally forgot to watch the Oscars last night! I wanted to see all the fancy dresses on the red carpet. After church I had my inlaws over for lunch. I made pot roast in the slow cooker. Got up at 6.45am to put it in so it would have plenty of time to cook and I wouldn't have to spend hours in the kitchen when we got back from church. I also made 'Heather's Make Ahead' potatoes. This is a recipe that my friend Heather gave me years ago which I swear by now. I make it at Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter - whenever we are having mashed potatoes really. What's great about it is I can make it the night before, wash up the pan and clear up all the peelings, and the next day I just need to pop the casserole dish in the oven to reheat. I also made Yorkshire puddings! They didn't rise very much, but they tasted good.

For dessert I made a Key Lime Pie (thank you Paula Deen) for Jason. SMALL confession to make - I've only been married 11 years and did not know this was one of my hubby's favorite desserts! When he mentioned it this week (while I was asking what should I make for dessert on Sunday) I knew I had to find a recipe and try to make one. Found Paula Deen's recipe on Foodnetwork.com with a huge meringue topping! I forgot to take a picture of the whole pie this weekend, but I took a slice out of the fridge this morning to show you.


HUGE confession to make - this did not go back in the fridge. . . . . . . . I ate it for breakfast! And that's all I'm gonna say about that.

A Fun Night!

Book Club last night was a whole lotta fun :-) I mentioned that our host would be doing some Afghan treats, so I thought I would share with you all, what they were. She took the trouble to look up online some traditional recipes to have as snacks and I managed to remember the names so I could search for info on them and tell you about them.....

Asabia el Aroos (Brides Fingers) These are an Afghan dessert made with filo pastry and filled with sugar and pistachios,(with a similar taste to Baklava) and as you can imagine they are rolled into a long finger like shape. I was trying to find a picture of these online but the only one I could find was this link on Foodnetwork.com Not exactly the same recipe - Emeril has stuffed his with dates as well as the nuts, but you get the idea - Mmmm, so delicious!

Bachuk? I'm sure this is the name Sharon told me (I even asked her to spell it) when we were eating little triangular pastry parcels of meat and cheese, but I cannot find reference to it anywhere on the web.

What I did find was recipes for 'Samboosak' which were the same thing, although in this picture they didn't create a triangle. These kind of reminded me of Samosas (probably are the same) as they can be filled with vegetables, or meat or cheese. Very tasty!

Naan Bread Now this totally surprised me for the simple reason I have been searching for naan bread ever since I moved to the States and found one of my favorite 'indian sauces' here (comes in a jar) made by Patak!

I have never been able to find the bread here! Sharon advised me that she bought it 'frozen' at our local HEB grocery store. Well of course I was straight down there today looking for it - didn't find it :-( I have an email in to Sharon as I type this asking which store exactly did she go to, and what aisle/section did she find it. I could not find it in the frozen bread section. Now that I know it's here, I won't rest til I buy some. With that in mind, I did pick up some of this . . . . .

Ahhh yes, it will be Indian Take-out (at home) one night soon in our house :-)

So that was the 'treat's we had, along with some not so traditional cheese and crackers, and cheese and watermelon kebabs, and wine ;-) - but all very yummy and lots of fun. The discussion we had about the Afghan culture and the book itself was very lively and interesting. This is the only night I go out each month now, and I really look forward to it, and really enjoy it. Oh, and there were 10 of us there last night (including 2 new members), the most we've ever had at one meeting! Did I mention it was lots of fun?


Our next month's read is Peace Like A River by Leif Enger.

Busy as usual. . . .

This week has just flown by and as usual I have been busy flying around with it! I can't even remember half of what I've done, I just know I never seem to sit down until the end of the day when Kristen has gone to bed. On Tuesday I took Boo to the groomers and ran a few other errands while I was out. Yesterday was bible study at church until 11.30, then I just came home to catch up with laundry and clearing the kitchen (why do I feel like that is all I seem to get done each day, and nothing else!).

Today was my 2 hours at the church library - it's 12.30pm and I just got back home. I've put yet another load of laundry on, fed Boo and am about to make myself a quick lunch. Before I know it I will have to run out again to get Kristen from school and it will be after 3pm.

Tonight is book club :-) I just got finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini which was the choice for this month. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it as much as The Kite Runner but I soon got in to it and am happy to say I enjoyed it just as much. I'm looking forward to the discussion tonight, not to mention that our 'host' (the lady who chose the book) also said we'll be trying some 'treats from Afgan' that she has recipes for! That sounds very interesting (and no she's not from Afgan!).

One last thing, my email is FINALLY all sorted out, and is working fine now. Now that I don't use my website deniseschulz.com I need to set up another (free) website so I can post background graphics for this blog. You've probably noticed the lack of them by now!

Ignore that part. . . . . . .

What part? Urmm, the part where I said I'm all back to normal and my email is up and running - yeah, that part! My email is still having problems because Jason is trying to have it forwarded to our austin.rr account but it's not going through. From what I can tell some people are having the email bounce back to them.

So please bear with me still on this. Or you could try sending mail to deniseschulz@austin.rr.com
until we figure out the problem.

(thank you Sadie for the sweet valentine graphic gift)

More Pics. . . . .

It is indeed a rainy cold day... although we haven't had lightening or hail yet. It's very yucky and wet. Kristen is playing in here with Connor. She keeps wanting to go ask Emily to play but she's been over twice already - first time she was told Emily was doing her chores and tidying up her room! After an hour or so she and Connor went over again to ask Emily over to play but her mom told her that Emily was playing on Epets.com and didn't want to come out. Kristen has since asked if she can go ask AGAIN if Emily wants to play, but I told her no. No means no, and if Emily (or her mom) has said no twice and Emily hasn't come over on her own then she (Kristen) has to accept that her friend just doesn't want to play today.

With all that said, nothing much is going on here today so I'll leave you with a few more pictures of the game room :-)

Above: I tried to get a view of the whole room so you can see the layout a little better.

Another picture of the bookshelves, this time filled with more books and my collection of snowglobes on the top.

The two new desks for me and Kristen to sit at. I still need to get two new chairs - I'm thinking THESE will look nice (I don't want huge ones, like the one in the picture, which is a mess because the plastic (it's not leather) is peeling off around the seams), and hope to get to Ikea again next week to buy them.

A better view of the paint colors. The cream color is called Riviera Sand by Behr, and the orangy color (I little too orange, I was hoping for more of a terracotta look, but it didn't darken as much as I thought it would) is called Sizzle, by Gliddon. You can also see that we have a little music area set up here (the bottom right of the picture). This is where Kristen practices piano, using Daddy's keyboard, and Jason has just bought a new amp so he can play his electric guitar again.
As you can see the walls are still very bear and I need to buy curtains too. But all that will come in time. So far we are both very pleased with the results.

p.s. you may be able to click on the pics to see larger images.

I'm a Spammer!!!

Apparently that is the reason 'A Small Orange' suspended my email account - I was sending SPAM! Can you believe that. Of course I wasn't sending spam, but someone from my account was?!!! I don't know how, but thankfully it's all sorted now and I have retrieved my email from the past few days. We'll probably cancel our account with them now. I was a bit mixed up earlier when I said I didn't know why our internet was working but my email wasn't (I'm not very savvy about these things) but apparently we use Time Warner Cable for our internet service - and we use ASO for my website host and email (deniseschulz.com). I don't use my website now and my email can be forwarded to our austin.rr.com account, so there's no need to keep the web host account. My email won't change, so don't worry about anything else. As of now I'm all back to normal :-)

OK, so now I just need to add some pictures of our 'nearly complete' game room.... well first off, here is a picture of the room all prepped and ready to be painted.

As a reminder, here is how the 'cluttered' game room looked last year. . . . yeah! can you believe I've been able to get rid of all that mess :-)

and here is a picture of the new 'Billy Bookshelves' we bought from IKEA this week.

Now I know you can't really see the wall colors yet, but I just went through the few pictures that I took already, and most of them are pretty blurred!! So you'll have to bear with me and I'll try to take some better pictures over the weekend.

We are forecast to get some heavy rain storms tonight and tomorrow, possibly hail and lightening too it said, so it will probably be a 'stay at home' day. So I promise, I'll take better pics and post them soon.

Would You Believe It?!

I can't believe the timing of this but, our email isn't working!!!! Jason finally got one of the desks put together last night and he connected my computer back up too - the minute I go to check my email it wouldn't work. I thought it was something Jason had done, but he checked his mail and it wouldn't work either! Can you believe it? It's worked fine all this time. If it could have just waited a few more minutes before going on the blink I could have at least downloaded my 5 days worth of emails!!!

Jason has had to put an email in to our web host (A Small Orange) to find out what the problem is. I hope it's fixed fairly quickly. The last time we had a problem it was because the cable had been cut outside from the workmen in the neighborhood. But the strange thing is, our internet is working fine?

Well I hope no one is waiting for an urgent reply to any mail. I'll keep you posted on that. Next I need to upload my pics to the computer cos I know you're all dying to see our new 'game' room :-) That might not be for another day or so cos I'm really behind on things right now. I went to bible study today then had to drive to the music store to get Kristen her next piano books! The days just pass by in a blur and I haven't done a spot of housework today at all. Tomorrow I do 2 hours up at the church library, then head to Kristen's school early for their Valentine Party.

I still haven't caught up with my blog visits either :-( I hope all is going well for you and I wish you all a fun and happy Valentine's day for tomorrow.

Still not connected!

Jason got the desks on Sunday but didn't get them put together, reason for that was because he also bought all the shelves we wanted (and doors) and he started putting them together first. There is a total of 4 large bookshelves and he finished putting them together last night and hung the doors. He didn't get finished with those til 8.30pm so I told him I could wait one more day for my computer desk. We also had to move the 2 seater sofa back downstairs as I'd gone to IKEA yesterday morning and ordered the sofa! They are delivering it today :-)

I will take pictures as soon as I can and post once my computer is set back up. Just wanted to let you all know, I'm still here, but still busy getting this room all finished. Of course it's never really finished until I can accessorize - and that will have to wait a week or so until I go out and buy some stuff for the walls etc.

OK, gotta put coffee on, and wake Kristen up for school. I might have time to catch up with some blog reading today. Thanks for stopping by and leaving comments, I always appreciate it. I hope to do the same and visit your blogs soon.

Painting. . . . .

Just a quick note to say that I started painting in the game room yesterday. When I gave away the desks earlier this week I had to disconnect my computer upstairs and because I knew I was going to start painting I haven't connected back up there yet (that plus the fact I don't have a desk to sit it on right now!). I'm using my laptop downstairs for posting to my blog, but I don't have Outlook Express on here which is what I use to check my email. So if anyone has emailed me in the past few days, that is the reason I haven't replied yet, cos I haven't seen it!

I hope to finish the painting today (yes I have taken before and after pics) :-) But we'll be going to church first then probably lunch with my inlaws, so I won't make a start on it til after 2pm today. Tomorrow I hope to go to IKEA and buy 2 small desks that I know I want for me and Kristen. Then I'll have my email back to normal.

Hope you all have a lovely Sunday.

That reminds me. . . . . .

I know last month I forgot to mention BSE day at the beginning of the month, and here we are already the first week of February over with and I still haven't mentioned it! So, let me mention it now - BSE day! Ladies, when did you last do a 'breast self-exam' ? Do yourself a favor, after you've read this just take a couple of minutes to go to your bedroom and do a BSE. Early detection saves lives.

This morning I am going to the Dr's for a repeat pap test! My last test had a-typical cells again so I have to have another check up. I'm praying for clear results and I'd appreciate your prayers too. Thankfully it's not something that I worry too much about. That wasn't the case a few years ago when I got my first 'abnormal' test result, and when I called the Dr about it I was told just to reschedule in 6 months. I was a nut case back then! Totally freaked out to put it mildly. Kristen was only 2 at the time and I instantly thought things like "by the time she is 3 will she still have a mommy"! Oh goodness, when I think back to then and the panic I was feeling, not a nice thing at all. I was so sick with worry I literally felt nauseous in the mornings. This thankfully only went on for about 3 days.

Then I told myself this was crazy, I couldn't live like this for the next 6 months. And right then and there I knew what I had to do - Give it to God! I prayed about it and told God I was handing Him this burden. His word tells us that he will bear our burdens, and this was something I needed Him to carry for me, because I couldn't carry it alone. The peace I felt after praying was amazing. I got through those next 6 months without hardly thinking of the pap results, and when I went for the repeat test, it came back clear. Since then, over the past 5 years, I've had abnormal and clear results. I've done some reading on line (here is a good article on a-typical pap results, if anyone is interested.) and I know there is no need to worry at this stage. And so long as I keep up with regular tests I know everything will be fine.

OK, sorry to waffle on a bit there, but I just felt like sharing.... I won't get results back for a week or two, but I'll keep you posted!

How Hard Can It Be?

Seriously, you'd think if you were giving stuff away - ***FREE*** - that it wouldn't be that difficult! In my quest to get the game room cleared out so I can start painting it, my next task was to get rid of this big (ugly) office furniture! And like the entertainment center, I don't want money for it, I just want it OUT of my house!

With this in mind, I turned once again to Craig's List! Yesterday I put the details and some pictures on there about these desks. We actually have another two like these shown in the picture. I have already dismantled them in the attempt to make a little more room and give me an idea of the space I have in the game room. Within minutes I got a call from a lady who said she could come pick these up at 8pm last night, once her husband got off work. I got other calls soon after that and a couple of emails. I took the ad off Craig's List 10 minutes later, so that I wasn't inundated with phone calls. Long story short - the lady turned up last night with her husband and their truck. Problem? Their truck had a 'lid' on the back so the stuff wouldn't fit in there (and not for the want of trying). So after about 20 minutes they gave up and said they didn't want to take the stuff!!!!!

So I got on the phone to the 'next in line' only they didn't pick up. So then I emailed a lady who had said she was interested in the desks if I still had them. As of 12 noon today she still hasn't emailed me back or called me.

I just got home from my 2 hours at the church library, and because there was no email response from this woman, I call the lady that I tried to call last night. Still no reply but her voice mail gives a cell #. I call the cell # and still no reply to that. So I finally just email the last lady on my list.... and while I was typing this the phone rings! It was her, and yes she can come tonight to pick the desks up . . . . . Hallelujah!

OK, fingers crossed she actually does want them. Now I'm off out again to get a couple of things at the store then go pick up Kristen.

And my weekend tasks? Pick paint for the game room - YAY! :-)

One last day.....

I'm missing bible study today because Kristen is still off school. Sue asked why the kids were off - the school calendar says it's for 'staff development', so there ya go. Today is the last day and tomorrow we'll be back to normal. Can't say I'm looking forward to that! I've gotten spoiled this week and slept til 8am every day! Kristen has been getting up at 7 and coming downstairs to watch cartoons!! In some ways I've felt like a neglectful mother, but then part of me says it's only 3 days so just enjoy it. She's at an age where she's totally safe to come downstairs for an hour on her own. And if she wants breakfast she usually will come wake me up!

I feel like I've needed the extra sleep what with these allergies! I still can't breath and I can't smell or taste anything. I'm so stuffed up today and Claritin is doing nothing for me. I've gone ahead and re-filled my prescription for Nasonex. I always use Nasonex but I ran out recently and cos I was taking Claritin-D which seemed to help the stuffiness I never got around to ordering more. Big mistake as I am figuring out now. I think it's the Nasonex at this time of year that helps me keep a clear head. My concern at this point though is that I am so stuffed up the Nasonex won't work and I'll have to go to the Dr for a prescription of steroids to give me a 'jump start' so to speak.

I have a Dr appointment on Friday but that is for my repeat pap, so I know I won't be able to do anything about the allergies at that time. I can ask her about it but I know I'll be told I have to make another appointment cos I've been told before that the Dr can't see me a 'sick' appointment and a 'repeat' appointment at the same time. Insurance silliness, no doubt.

It's piano lesson today. We'll leave here at 4pm. Other than that Kristen is just playing next door with Connor again and I'm taking it easy in doors. It turned cold today, a high of only 60 forecast. Might not sound cold to you, but after nearly 80 yesterday it's a big difference to me - my heating's back on!

Allergies!

These allergies are driving me nuts! Despite taking the Claritin-D every 24 hours I am still stuffed up and can hardly breath. Can't taste or smell much either and that drives me crazy! There's nothing worse than eating something when you can't taste it - it feels like you haven't eaten at all, it's so frustrating.

I was just sorting some papers out in Jason's office and I'm down on the floor with my knees bent. For some reason I've never been able to sit with my knees bent for very long, and when I stand up too quickly I feel light headed and a little dizzy - more so now when I'm really stuffed up. So I've just sat down on the couch for a minute to rest! Kristen is over at Connor's right now. The weather has turned very warm, I think it will be about 80 again today. Thunder and showers are forecast in the next day or so - not surprising with this heat. I had to put the a/c on again last night because I just get so hot when I sleep and it actually wakes me up! It seems crazy that it's only just February and here I am sweating during the night with the ceiling fan going and the a/c on like it's the height of Summer!

We all had a nice quiet day yesterday while Jason was off work. He bought a new game for the Wii and played with Kristen for a while on it. It is only a one player game but they take turns to play and Kristen likes to watch a lot as her Daddy tries to solve the puzzles and problems on it - often times she's telling him how to do something! :-)

Today I am once again catching up with laundry and housework, and squeezing in a little knitting as usual ;-) One more day off school tomorrow then it's back to early rising at 6am on Thursday. I get quite used to these days off school and find myself going to bed later and getting up later - not a good habit to get into really.

OK, nuff waffling from me today. Have a good one, whatever you're doing - until next time!

Boring Posts!

I feel like my posts have seemed boring of late because I've nothing to blog about and not even any photos to share. But I do still like to try and update when I have the time, even if there's nothing exciting to report.

Kristen is back to feeling 100%, I'm happy to say. Thank goodness that whatever she had came and went pretty quickly. I hate when she has a tummy bug. There's nothing worse than seeing the panic in her face when she throws up! We've been pretty lucky so far this season (knock on wood!) and none of us have been sick yet, until this small episode. Hopefully we'll get through the rest of the winter season without any other illnesses. The only thing bothering me right now are allergies. I can't believe how much I'm affected this year. Cedar Fever is rampant here right now and it seems to be really bothering me this year. I'm taking Claritin-D every day just to help me breath, but the past few days my throat has been scratchy and I'm so 'clogged' up, like I have post-nasal drip or something I still feel very stuffy and my head and face ache :-( Not much I can do about it but persevere through it. Some people have it much worse.

Jason is staying off work today. He was working Friday (and flying home) for a total of 16 hours, so he's taken today off. He's just popped out to the bank and the game store and when he gets back I'll pop out to get the weekly groceries in. I'll just be doing laundry and clearing up a bit later and taking it easy. To be honest, with these allergies I don't have the energy to do much more than that.

I got off track last week with my healthy eating so I've planned our meals out for the week and hope to jump back on our healthy eating plan. That's it from me today, hope the start of your week is going well.

Sick for a day. . . .

It's not me! Kristen is the one that's sick, or at least she was yesterday. She was fine during the morning, but she was playing outside with Connor in the afternoon while Jason and I were out there washing our cars, and she started complaining that her tummy hurt. I thought she might just have gas, which is often the case for her and the pain in her tummy passes quickly, but by late afternoon she still wasn't feeling good and lay on the sofa when we came indoors.

She wanted to go to bed at 7pm, but then while I was upstairs with her she started crying a little saying her tummy really hurt. I didn't want to leave her alone and then have her throw up all over the bed (even though I had a dish right by her!) so I brought her downstairs again and lay her back on the sofa. Not long after that she threw up (thankfully in the dish, sorry if that's too much inf0). Then she went to sleep. At 10.30pm Jason carried her up to our bed and he slept in the spare room so I could be with her all night incase she was sick again. Thankfully she slept all night and woke up at 7.50am this morning feeling much better. She didn't eat much all day yesterday so I'm sure she's a little weak this morning but she's had some toast and seems pretty much back to normal. Hopefully it was a quick 24 hour bug and it's already out of her system.

Jason arrived home safe and well late Friday night (actually Saturday morning at 1am!). He seems to have the sniffles but it's more due to the dry Denver air than cold symptoms. This happens to him every time he goes to Denver. His nose gets very dry but then seems to overcompensate for that and starts 'streaming' and it gives him a cough too. Actually I seem to have similar symptoms right now too - it's all down to allergies (for both of us). I thought I was coming down with a cold round about Thursday when my throat started getting dry and scratchy and my nose was really blocked dispite taking Claritin-D every day (like I have been doing for weeks). Cedar Fever is really bad here right now but what puzzles me is that it's never bothered me in the 3 years we've lived in Texas until now - if indeed that's what it is that's bothering me, I really don't know for sure?

Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny day with a high of 71 :-) As I mentioned earlier we were outside washing our cars because it was so nice and warm. I love the cul-de-sac we live in. There's kids for Kristen to play with, and with a total of just 4 houses it's a really cozy and friendly place. Today is supposed to be even nicer, getting up to 78 degrees, although that's hard to imagine at the minute because it's pretty overcast and grey out there!

Well I better jump off here today. Oh, it's Superbowl tonight isn't it? We aren't big football fans but I'm sure we'll be watching it. What are your plans for the big night? Anyone having a Superbowl party?