A little quiet

My guests have all gone out shopping for a little while. It is quiet in the house. It's nice to have a little quiet time now and then. They are a very fun, boistrous family! But we are a quiet family. I think the cat and dog needed it more than I did!

The chihuahua thinks he needs to protect all of us from Tuvok. He snarls and growls at him. Poor Tuvok doesn't know what to do. Jean Luc chases him all over the house. We've been scolding him and he's getting better. Other than that he's a pretty good chihuahua. Princess the cat is just staying upstairs in her room. She is not very social. I used a big clear bin to make a temporary home for Stephen the turtle. I felt bad for him in his little travel carrier. He's almost as big as it is! He seems a little happier with room to swim around and a rock to bask on. He does hold a grudge though. He's not his normal jovial self (according to the family). Tuvok and Lilly think he's pretty cool. I think they'll like it when my tortoise comes to live here.

I made cinnamon rolls from scratch. They came out so good!! We ate about half of them already. I may have to make more in a couple of days. I need to make banana bread first. They brought some bananas that are at the right ripeness for bread. Yum! I'll probably do that tomorrow.

Here are some pictures of our snow today. I took them as the sun was setting so the light was gorgeous.






I called my aunt Margo to see how they fared the storm down near Lawton. They were without power and had no heat or way to cook food. We offered to let them stay with us if they needed to. A few hours later she called me back and accepted. We raced to get the house cleaned up and ready for her, the two kids, a large collie, a chihuahua, a cat, and a turtle. When my uncle gets in from San Antonio he'll stay here too. We don't know yet if he'll make it tonight or sometime tomorrow.

Lawton is expected to not have electricity until Tuesday and they live near a small town by Lawton so they could be here for a while! They're bringing lots of food and stuff to do so hopefully it'll all be ok. Tuvok and Lady the collie will have fun together. She stayed with us after Christmas and they were fast friends. Lilly will not be so happy.

I am glad that we're able to help them out. We don't often get an opportunity to help others in such a big way. I have nobake cookies and fresh homemade cinnamon rolls cooling on the counter. I hope I can make their stay as pleasant as possible!

First up, a commercial. On the left of this picture is a ball of fur I got off of Cinnamon (who is currently shedding) by petting him for a few minutes. On the right is a ball of fur I got off of Cinnamon using the Zoom Groom in less time. He liked it too! His fur is too dense for a comb or brush and he doesn't like me pulling tufts of hair off him. The zoom groom is a perfect solution.



I got a new piece of carpet for Cinnamon's area. Before I cut it up, I made it into a huge play area for him. All the animals loved it!.

Here are Matt's lights. He's the kind of guy that overdoes everything he does. :-)

Work has not slowed down at all! I am so exhausted when I get home and on the weekends. But I am thankful for the job security. There are many people who aren't blessed with consistent work like I am. I also figured out that the B vitamins I take last about 10 hours. Since I was taking them at about 6:30 in the morning the evenings were even harder. Now I'm starting to take them about 10:00 so they'll wear off about the time I'm ready to go to bed and I'll still have energy in the evenings.

We are in the 2nd day of a winter storm. Yesterday I got to work at 6:00 in the morning so we could get as much done as possible before the ice hit. I ended up leaving about 3:00. It made for a long day! We had freezing rain from about noon to 2:30 or so and then it changed to sleet. The sleet lasted until the evening and then we had a break. Sometime in the middle of the night the sleet and freezing rain picked back up again. It wasn't doing much at 7:30 but the roads were a solid sheet of ice. I decided to not risk going to work. I have a feeling there are very few people there today. I slept/dozed until noon. It was awesome!! I have been pushing very hard at work and I needed the rest. When I got up the 2nd time it had been snowing for a while already. It is still snowing. The radar is showing the back edge to be in Chickasha right now so I estimate at least a couple more hours of moderately heavy snowfall. When it ends I'll go measure.

I need to get some motivation going. The Christmas decorations are STILL up. I plan to get all that put up in the attic this weekend, along with stuff from the garage that needs to go up there. It should go a long way to getting the garage cleaned out, which is the big project we had planned for this month. I am going to try my hand at cinnamon rolls for the first time today. DH wanted some this morning but I told him they're an all day thing so now he wants them for tomorrow morning. I have been craving cinnamon rolls lately too. Saturday or Sunday I'm going to make some bread. I am borrowing a whole grain cookbook from a friend and it has the most wonderful whole wheat bread recipe! DH loves it!!

I'm going to start the cinnamon rolls. Maybe later I'll upload a bunch of pictures.

tough week

I ate well all week. It wasn't as hard as I was thinking it would be. I enjoy doing good things for my body. I didn't cheat even when the opportunity presented. I think I'm feeling better for it but this week at work has been so hard that it negated any energy and general feeling good I may have had. Today I slept until 11:30 and tomorrow is supposed to be warm and sunny. Hopefully I'll be doing well by the time Monday comes.

I have a lot planned for the weekend. Not much of it is going to actually get done. Today I'm going to clean up the house a little and clean the bunny. Then my friend and her 18 month old are coming over for a while and we're going to the dog park. I may go to their house tonight with DH and his friends if I'm feeling up to it or I may stay home and have a quiet evening.

I need to go to the health food store, put up all the Christmas decorations (yeah, the tree is still up), and do a bunch of gardening stuff. But right now I'm going to sit here at the computer and drink my tea and have random vegetables to eat for lunch.

Today was sunny and relatively warm and I didn't get to go out and enjoy it. I was working from 7:30 to 5:15. Ugh. I know I shouldn't complain but I'm just tired and worn out. I need some sunshine.

Today was day 1 of eating well. I had my steel cut oats with soy powder for breakfast, a salad of romaine, avocado, tomato, chicken, and snow peas for lunch, a tangelo for a snack in the morning, some triscuts for the afternoon snack, and a bowl of popcorn and some tomato juice for dinner. I may have some soy milk or something in a little bit. I don't know. DH begged and pleaded for brownies but I didn't give in. Oh yeah. I had a square of 86% chocolate after lunch.

So I've pondered something on and off for a while now and it came up again today. They say God should be your first priority, followed by your family, and then work. But work has to be first, or at least second. Because if you don't put everything you have into your job, you don't have your job anymore. I can't just walk out at 5:00 if the work isn't done. I use all the energy I have at work and then I don't have anything left for my supposed higher priorities. If other people have this same problem, wouldn't there be some way of dealing with it? Do I just not have the same amount of energy as other people? Am I just lazy? How do I put my home first and not get in trouble at work? I spend more time there than anywhere else and I can't change that. That's the way it has to be.

Sorry, I'm just feeling depressed today. I'll be better soon.

You know what I said about getting on here more after the holidays? Yeah, I don't know what happened. I've still been really busy. This last week I had errands to run each evening so any interneting was limited to email, facebook, and gardenweb. This morning I finally caught up on all my lols. Which means I visited www.icanhascheezburger.com and looked at adorable pictures of cats. Then I made some chocolate chip cookies and now I'm making some carrot orange mini muffins. All the female members of Mom's side are supposed to go to the youngest aunt's house today but she's not awake yet so we're all still waiting. I have to leave there by 4:30 because my boss is having a chili party tonight and I want to go and take the choco chip cookies.

So we have an arctic cold bubble over Oklahoma. Actually, I think it's over America. Florida's concerned about the oranges. Yesterday morning it was 7 degrees. This morning it was 8. It is 13 now. We southerners are not equipped for this! I have learned that my greenhouse heater keeps it 20 degrees warmer than the outside. Most of my plants are inside right now because 27 is too cold for them. But the peas, thyme, and oregano are out there.

(I just looked over at my mini muffins and thought, "I love to bake!" I'm such a nerd.)

So anyway, I'd like to plant some seeds this weekend. It's about time so start cabbage, broccoli, radishes, catnip, eggplant, peppers, and a few marigolds. I already started some broccoli. The seeds came with the sprouts kit I got for Christmas. I'm supposed to eat them, and I'll eat some, but I figured I'd grow some plants too. I like full sized steamed broccoli better than the sprouts anyway. I just do not like raw brassicas. I have peat pots and stuff out in the greenhouse. But it's cold outstide and I don't want to go get them.

Perhaps I'll see about uploading some pictures...





There ya go. That's Tuvok and Lady (aunt and uncle's collie) and my Lillibutt.

2010

Funny how the new year feels a lot like the old one. I tend to ease into new years; by February I'll be fully integrated into 2010 and I'll have done lots of the things I wanted to do. Like clean out the garage.

I did resolutions in 2008. They sort of worked. I think the reason they worked is because I put them on the fridge. I'm not sure if I'm comitted enough to make resolutions but here are some things I would like to happen in 2010:

Stay healthy (no freaky thyroid issues and such)
Be a better gardener
Lose 15-20 pounds healthily
Eat 3-5 servings of veggies daily
Stay on top of housework and yardwork

#1 is mostly out of my control, but may be improved by doing #4. #4 and #1 will directly affect #2, #3, and #5. So my first and most important task is eat more veggies. If I do that I have a better chance of achieving all 5 goals.

Now it is time to get ready for our postponed family Christmas celebration tomorrow. Have a good day!