Yeah... a little blog slacky.. but nothing compared to INGRID!

Not a whole lot going on this week. Settling back into work after vacation... work is very quiet this week... which leads to boredom... which leads to me getting myself into trouble ;-)

Doing well with the switch to WW from low carb. I was afraid I was going to not be able to control myself with NOTHING being off limits, but it's been fine. I am still watching carbs though because I have learned that overdoing carbs causes me to break out and feel yucky and stuff. I also learned today that a pint of Ben and Jerry's Heath Bar Crunch "only" has 27 points, and I have 35 flex points a week... that I have not used at all yet this week so life is goooood :-D

No big plans this weekend. I think Jessi has her first paid babysitting gig and I'm sure she will be super excited when I tell her when I pick her up. She has been DYING to babysit and has even taken a "certified babysitter course" ...but we don't really know anyone with little ones, so she has never been able to use her skillz 2 make sum cashmoneyz. LOL

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Thai-ish chicken Curry Soup

Jessi and I made the YUMMIEST SOUP EVER last night!! It started with a recipe I saw on the weight watchers website. (Oh yeah... I decided to switch from low carb to WW over vacation. Low Carb served me well... but it wasn't really working anymore, and my motivation was fizzling fast!) Once I got to the grocery store... and as I got home... it morphed into an entirely different recipe... maybe even better! It may not suit everyone's tastes, but Jessi, Rick and I all loved it... Sean not-so-much.

I think I'll call it Thai-ish Chicken Curry Soup ;)

1. Saute boneless chicken (cut into little soup-sized pieces) in dutch oven in Sesame Oil. Once it's a little brown, sprinkle some soy sauce all over it and saute some more.
2. To the chicken add some fresh grated ginger and minced garlic (we used about a 1/2 tablespoon of ginger, 4 cloves of garlic), also add about 1/4 cup at least of very thinly sliced leek. Saute that all around a bit and add salt, pepper, and curry powder.
3. Once it's lookin' all ready for some liquid, add chicken stock and let it simmer for awhile, tasting and adding stuff as necessary to taste.
   
4. Once the broth is where you want it, add a package of of chinese rice noodles and cook for 3-5 more minutes. Oh yeah... I also added a package of snow peas.
   
5. Before serving, add a couple tablespoons of lime juice to the soup. When we first tried the soup, it needed "something" and that "something" was TOTALLY lime juice!!

I think next time I will use some chili paste to give it a little more heat in place of the pepper we used because I think it will go more with the dish than regular pepper. Also, when I was packing up the leftovers, I thought they would be no good because the noodles would soak up all the broth and get all congealed and nasty... but they didn't at all!! LOVES the rice noodles! The soup was EVEN BETTER the next day!

Sorry I didn't take a pic.. didn't even think of it. And also sorry about my directions or lack thereof. There is a reason that I don't write cookbooks.

So I was sitting here friggin around with facebook and glance over at Sean's play area....

Do you think this poor soldier even saw it comin'?

And since I had the camera out anyway..... We got some more snow yesterday and last night...

That makes Lucy one happy dog!

Bloggy Slacky... Facebook is Cracky.

Yup. That's me. I finally allowed all the facebook freaks to suck me in... and I must admit, it's kinda fun and I have had lots of little chats with lots of people that I haven't talked to in years! We had a very nice little trip to Portland. I had Orange chicken for lunch BOTH days... damn I love that stuff! We went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse. What is supposed to be so great about that place anyway? Boring food. Boring decor. Expensive.

Of course our first stop was Cabela's where these Geese plotted to kill me. Geese are hands down the most evil creatures on the planet.

The kids got LOTS of use out of the pool and hot tub at the hotel. We were only there 1 night and I think they went swimming 4 times!

Is it just me or does he do the 'dead man's float' a little TOO well!?

We had breakfast at IHOP and I finally got to try Eggs Benedict. They were ok... but I really want to try REAL Eggs Benedict now... not the chain resturant version. Sean lost TWO teeth while we were gone and was afraid to eat anything, so we wasted a lot of money ordering him food. He also has a little cold, so he still probably wouldn't have eaten. And just FYI... he does NOT appreciate all the "Soon you are going to only be able to wat baby food and look like a Grandma" jokes that we have been doling out all week ;)

All photos taken with my phone because since I used Nicole's camera... I hate mine and I am going to sulk until I get a new one (ok... not really.. but sorta) .... plus I didn't want to carry it around ;-)

Ahhhh...... vacation...... LOVES IT

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The latest Buzz.....

We have been planning a 2010 trip for awhile, and the plan WAS Disney. But the kids started talking about wanting to go somewhere else, and Sean somehow got hooked on Hawaii... which led to other beachish discussions and then to CRUISE discussion! Nicole has always talked about how great cruises are and I am dying to see for myself! ...and when I priced out vacations and the cruise was $1100 less than Disney's cheapest hotels for the same amount of days... I was in!!

My Cruise bug appears to be contagious! As of today I think Len and Dyan are coming along, and Mom is tossing around the idea as well. It would be SO fun to have a whole bunch of us take over the ship!!!!! And it's the PERFECT group vacation because everyone can do thier own thing... AND because the kids have THEIR own "clubs" to go to!! LOVE THAT!!

Maine State Cheering Competition

Today I took Jessi and a friend to the high school state cheering competition. Dyan, Len, and Nick also came along but the sissy boys couldn't handle the wait in the cold and took off to do errands. I had no idea what I was getting into until I turned into the auditorium parking lot and saw the line all the way past the horse track! We stood in line freezin' our arses off for over an hour!! It was all worth it though, we had a BLAST! Some of the stunts those kids do are just CRAZY... I told Jessi that she had better ALWAYS be a base and not a flyer or I may have a heart attack seeing my kid getting thrown 20ft in the air! I wish I had thought to take a pic before the end when they were judging... I forget that as long as I have my phone... I have a camera!

Hampden didn't place... Bangor too 3rd, then Lewiston, and Biddeford won. I'm sure you would have thought this blog was VERY lacking in detail had I not mentioned that ;-) ...and I am also sure you will sleep better tonight with that knowledge tucked safely away in all your little craniums :-D

Here's Biddeford's routine... gotta love that youtube..lol!

Ugh.

I feel like crap this week. I am not sick... well, I don't think I am anyway. I am just having a REALLY hard time with the low-carb thing and have not stuck to it very well. Then I feel crappy in my brain about cheating... and crappy in my body because eating a lot of carbs makes me feel really cruddy... bloated... tired...and my skin breaks out... and when I feel cruddy... GUESS what I feel compelled to do!!?? I am a sick twisted individual when it comes to food. Of course... this could all be PMS related as well ;-) (Sorry... TMI, I know) And I have a killer headache this evening, which is weird, because aside from caffeine issues, I am not a headachey person at all and this headache is not a caffiene related one.

On a lighter, less bitchy, note.... Just in case you forgot what rednecks we are up here....

If your kids can use a dead car in your driveway as a snow hill to sled down.... you MIGHT be a Maine redneck ;-)

(taken with my new celly :-D)

With Cheerleading over... we've now moved on to theatre ;-)

It's Superbowl Sunday.

Sampson and I are super excited.

;-)

I think Jessi and I may hit the mall for awhile.

We can live with 3rd place ;-)

Even if it's out of 4 ;-) LOL

It's competition day!!!

Last night they all got there hair did ;-) I don't know HOW she slept with that craziness on her head, but she claims she slept fine. They are all wearing thier jeans rolled up with long socks because... well.... because they are weirdo 13 year olds.

I am going to get there early and save seats for all my peeps.... you know much much people LOVE seat savers, right!? LOL

Following Nicoles lead... with the tofu thing anyway ;-)

Tonight I made a tofu stir fry, it was quite yummy, but I thought the tofu would be crispier on the outside since I read a bunch of recipes for crispy tofu and cooked mine the same way... but not-so-much. Oh well. I DO think crispy tofu would be just delightful! :)

...and for the record I am trying to follow lots of other things Nicole made on her list, but some of those things.... like being nice... and not gossiping just don't come easy!!! LOL

Suddenly a Saturday evening get together has formed itself!

So... Saturday night, same time same place ;-) I'll not be farming out the kids, so if you have some to bring... bring em on over!

Nicole thinks we should play outdoor winter wiffleball under lights.

Do I DARE!!??

Why YES, I believe I DO!

Jessi and I took a little stroll over to Best Buy to check out the Verizon phones today. We had Unicel, but Verizon bought them out and everyone has to switch to Verizon. I WAS going to wait a awhile since we have til March to switch, but Best Buy made me an offa I cudn't refuse, ya know?

Rick and Jessi are the proud owners of new env2 phones, PERFECT for them since they have a full keyboard and they texting fools! And I am the very proud owner of an LG Dare. LOVES IT!!

This past week has been pretty "blah" ...hence the no blogging, sorry Nicole ;) When I wasn't "blah" ..I was busy! Friday night I took Jessi and some of her friend's to Bucksport to cheer on her A Team cheerleaders at their competition and I must admit, it was REALLY fun! The girls are so cute and Sassy!! Karyn convinced me to go since she was going to cheer on her daughter who is on the Orrington team, and I am glad she did! This Friday night is Jessi's B Team competition and it should be even more fun since my kid is actually a participant! GO REBELS!!!!! ;-)

Sooo....... we got a little snow....

P.S. the day they DO climb to the top of the roof and slide down... they had better keep right on slidin' down the road and on to Texas because I will kill them dead!

Kids don't care about snot freezing cold.

If I had MY choice... I would have spent the evening snuggled up on the couch with a blanket. INSTEAD I took Sean to the pool to go swimming since Karyn was there with her son and his friends... then I stopped over at Jessi's school to visit her at her "dance-a-thon" (and I use that term VERY loosely since I saw no dancing when I was there...lol. They should have just called it a "hang-out-a-thon" and asked the parents to donate money to get the kids out of the house for the evening...lol!!) and take some photos. The girls even decided to show off thier routines so I could take photos. Who would of thought that teenage girls like to get their photos taken!!?? SHOCKING....LOL!

SNOT FREEZIN' COLD!

And I am NOT even kidding. This moring I walked outside and it was so cold that the air made me cough... and then I sniffed... and my nose stuck shut because my snot froze!

Sometimes... ok LOTS of times... or even MOST of the time... I HATE MAINE!

The current temperature is 19 degrees BELOW ZERO!! Which means it has "warmed up" a few degrees since we left for work and school this morning.

Look what _I_ FINALLY HAVE!!!!!

We are 95% there! The shower and toilet are up and running, but the sink isn't done yet because Scott's glue was frozen. (Don't ask, I have no idea!) I still need someting for over the toilet. I really want some black shelves or a cabinet to go with the towel bar on the opposite wall, but I haven't been able to find something that I really like. SO EXCITED to pee in my own ROOM! ROFL

P.S. It's kind of hard to tell, but the walls are a creamy white color- not yellow, "Linen white" to be specific ;-)

FINALLY DONE!

I have been working all week on my "book of 2008." I had been agonizing with my perpetual question lately of to scrap or not to scrap and if NOT to scrap, what the hell am I going to do with all the bazillion photos that I take!!?? Then I made my mom a "book of Sean" for Christmas at her request because I made her a scrapbook all about Jessi before Sean was born and she had nothing like that for him. But.... I REALLY didn't want to make a scrapbook, nor did I really have time to make one since she didn't ask me til December ;-) THEN I got an e-mail from clark photo that they were having a sale on photo books and the lightbulb went on over my head! So I made her one and when it came I wished I had ordered one for myself too because I LOVED it!

Then this past Monday I got an e-mail from Winkflash that they are having a flat rate book sale til Jan 26th. All books up to 100 pages are one flat rate. Lightbulb again!! A book of all my 2008 photos!! And I used every one of those 100 pages! I can't WAIT til it arrives!!!! I reallllly hope the Winkflash ones are as good as the Clark one was!