Thanksgiving

Well, folks, we leave tonight and head to beautiful Seattle for Thanksgiving with the in-laws. Although, upon checking the weather forecast I noticed a trend in "slight rain in the morning followed by showers in the afternoon" for the entire time we are there (interesting to see how many different ways one can say "it's gonna rain all day") . Plus I think it will be kinda cold (30s-40s) compared with the in the 60s temps we are having here in Chicago, but I am still expecting it to be fun times all around. Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday and have the chance to break away from the busyness of everyday life to really reflect on and enjoy all of the things we each have to be thankful for. God bless!

Food, food, and more food

Yes folks, it seems that all I did this weekend was cook and eat. That is not entirely true (as Neile and I did see The Prestige on Friday), but at some points it sure felt like it. I did had a wonderful talk with my good friend that has to live oh so far away. I worked with the 3 year olds, went to church, celebrated my brother-in-law's birthday, saw my little sis (it's been 3 months!) and we had small group. And yes, in between all of that I cooked.

We cooked the pheasant and just to let you know it turned out great. It was not the most fun to clean, but thankfully Neile did all of the “gross stuff”. We ended up using a recipe I found online. You should check it out if you ever have the need. =) Saturday and Sunday were just so busy and we knew we weren’t going to be home at all on Sunday except maybe 45 minutes so I needed to use the good ole crock-pot. So I woke up early and set that bird a stewing only to come home at 12:30 and find out that something didn’t work just right with the crock-pot settings so for who knows how long, that bird was just warming away. Luckily, we had to stop at the apartment for about 5 minutes to grab a present and some deviled eggs for the birthday party, so I was able to reset the machine. Fingers crossed we walked out the door once again. This time we returned at about 4 and that bird had been cooking beautifully that whole time. Praise the Lord! I gave Neile the pleasure of de-boning it seeing as he was the great hunter that brought that thing home and off we went to small group with our beautiful potluck entrée (of course if it hadn’t worked we already had our back-up plan….the grocery store is on the way to small group!). Yes, it was a big hit, and yes, we would make it again if given a pheasant or two, but mostly we are content to stick with the easy stuff like chicken - you know that’s already been cleaned and all.

Oh and I have to share another recipe that was tried this weekend and was fabulous. This was a big hit with the family. Pan fried apple and feta pizzas. YUMMY!

Flower arrangement class down the drain

I’m a little bummed right now. About two months ago my mom asked me if I wanted to go to an arrangement class with her mid-December. I was so excited because my grad class would be over and I could just enjoy some creativity. Plus I love hanging out with my mom and I love making things with my hands…but alas, I found out just 2 days ago that I will not be attending said class. “sniff, sniff” The exact date of the class (which happens to be on a Thursday) is also the date that my husbands office is having their Christmas party! What are the chances?!?! I mean who has an office party on a Thursday night?!?! No I am not really upset and I know I’ll have fun at the party, I was just really looking forward to the arrangement class and the awesome center piece I was going to have in my apartment. Bummer

Down time at last

Yes, it has been a long while since I wrote last. I’ve been working away at a research paper for my class and haven’t had any real down time. In fact, when I do get it I don’t even know what to do with myself. Well, the paper is done (mostly) and Neile is out with the guys and I find myself with a little down time. First on my list is blogging ‘check’. Next, read a chapter from my book for class, followed by a little reading from a book I just ordered – “Natural Birth Control made simple”. I know it sounds a little odd, but I find that kind of stuff pretty fascinating. Yes, I will probably read more than a chapter of the new book and really the class book is just so I can rationalize having fun reading time – which I have missed so much. Now if only I’ll be able to make the most of this down time and not just pass out on the couch out of shear exhaustion.

On an entirely unrelated note…anyone have any good recipes for pheasant. Yes, I have a bloody pheasant currently in my fridge awaiting the joys of being cooked up into...well something and hopefully something good. Neile got to try his hand at hunting for the first time and lucky us got to keep the one bird that was shot. Perhaps the first thing I should ask is if anyone has advice on getting that thing cleaned…including all of the buckshot?

Oh yes, and if anyone cries easily and wants to shed a few tears…well, I came across this blog with a woman telling the story of the day she gave birth. Funny, emotional, and a little scary all at the same time.

Oh and in case you were wondering based on the book I am looking forward to reading and my reading of a baby blog….no we are not pregnant and no we are not planning on being so for a least a little while longer. Although, I am more than excited for that day!

So many random thoughts…is it obvious that I haven’t had much people interaction in the past week???

Recipes!

I am a bit recipe obsessed. I cannot really pass a recipe book without noticing it. I am by no means a gourmet cook, but I really enjoy trying out new things. Neile and I always joke that whenever we have people over or take a dish somewhere it is almost always something we have never made before. This really never struck me as odd until I kept getting asked if I cooked very much (which I am pretty sure I do). This originally struck me as a strange question to ask, but as it turns out does make quite a bit of sense considering I was always telling people I had never made such and such dish before.

Turns out I come from a family that does this very thing - often. Not too surprising I suppose, but interesting. Just the other day we were talking with my sister about how we always bring something new and she said that she does the same thing. In fact, it was just about a month ago that my mom and her friend made a feast (at least 4 main dishes) just to try out new recipes – because they sounded good. So how is it that I never noticed any of this?

That is one of those interesting things about being married. I can live for 26 years not even realizing I do something a certain way or think a certain way and WHAM my way is not the only way. Most of the time this is just humorous to me, but sometimes it is very very annoying and downright upsetting. I knew that I was getting into a situation where I would probably be continually humbled in my thinking and actions when I ventured into marriage, but I don’t think I thought of the benefits (nor do I recognize them all by any means) of all of this. I love my family and frankly I love how I was raised and how things work at my parents’ house. It is what I grew up with and what I know best. BUT some things are just going to be different for my home and that is something that is both good and I have enjoyed. For one – I like be the woman of the house. I had never been in that role before, but I slipped into it without looking back. In fact, sometimes I get a little concerned over how much I enjoy this role. Before Neile and I got married I joked with him about being a stay-at-home-wife. Truth is, I would probably love it and become more than just a little Betty Crockery – but then again I would probably get pretty lonely without my people fix.

So all this to say, I love seeing change and perceptions adjust and discovering those subtle things we do differently than before and yes I love recipes and find those cookbooks on my shelf entirely too distracting!

Can we say OBSESSED?

Ever have something that gets on your mind and no matter how hard you try to forget about it, you simply cannot let it go? Well, I’ve just had that horrible experience. I say horrible because in my case I lost something. Mind you, this is not something soo valuable as say my wedding ring, but it is important enough. Okay, let’s be honest, it is not even close to my wedding ring. Plain and simple it is a book. More importantly though it is a book for my class that I go to twice a week. I have not read this book yet, but I have to very soon. Will I fail if I don’t read it…no. It would probably only affect my grade by the smallest amount. So why is this so upsetting to me? I do NOT lose things.

Yes, I know everyone does sometimes, but that is not the issue at hand. I had thumbed through the book a mere two weeks ago on my kitchen table and now it is gone. I of course didn’t notice until Tuesday of this week – seriously though, the reading isn’t due until next Tuesday so why would I have noticed any earlier? I look everywhere in my apartment. We only live in a one bedroom apartment so there are only so many places it could be. No luck. So yesterday I get Neile to look everywhere…and I mean everywhere. He basically started in one room and worked his way through the apartment (he even checked under the bathroom sink—go figure). Still no luck. I started getting even more desperate. I knew I had never taken the book out of the apartment, but I went ahead and called my parents to have them look in their house. I went out to my car and looked in it. Eventually I had to just give up. So I got online and started checking the local libraries (I already bought the dumb book once and didn’t want to do it again). No luck. I tried Amazon.com and compared it to my college’s bookstore. I decided to give it one more day. So all day today at work I was thinking of possible places in our apartment that it could be. First thing I do when I walk through the door – look through the same places that I have looked through only about 10 times now. Ughhhh. Yes, I hate the book, but more importantly I still can’t get over that I lost something. It is actually making my skin crawl and I can’t even carry on a conversation with my husband at dinner because the stupid book is all I can think about. I keep telling myself I need to move on, just get over it, it is only $16 dollars (seriously why am I obsessing so?) and I can buy a new one tomorrow. Finally, I resign myself to this and decide to write a note to my aunt.

Nicole: Neile, do we have any stamps?
Neile: If we do they’re in that shoebox on the shelves.
Nicole: …….(speechless because right there in the shoebox is my precious little book…..yes my precious)

All I can say is this book better be the best book I’ve EVER read in my life!