For my single friends...all two of you.

Go to crosswalk.com and look up an article by Hudson Russell Davis. It's called A Loss that is Not a Loss. You can find it by going to the website and on the left side under Channels, click on Singles. Right now it's on the recent articles part. It's a two part article and pretty much spells it out. That's all.

Apple pie and a fleece

Man, if I hadn't named my blog already, that would be it.."Apple pie and a fleece." Hmmm. Well - first the apples...I have all these apples, right? So, I took apples to work in my crock pot and made my office smell like warm apples, and when I was done, turned those into some lovely applesauce. That, however, does not solve my apple-abundance problem. I decided to make a pie. Ha Woo! I haven't made any kind of pie for a while, so in turn, I haven't made crust in a while. And to top that off, I usually buy my crust. Well, since I decided to be more 'frugal' ,if you will, I decided to make one. An actual pie crust that you roll out and fit into your crust. It was great fun, and I hope good tasting, as well. The recipe was one my uncle had written out, actually, and so I'm sure it will be good. My pie turned out beautifully, even though there is some of it on the bottom of my oven floor. I KNEW I should have put a cookie sheet underneath it! Oh well, next time, maybe. So now the windows are open, letting the smoke from the burnt apple pie go out. I can't wait to clean that one up! :-)
And on to the fleece....if anyone actually reads this and has comments (especially on the fleece part) I would be interested to read your point of view. :-) Just a little background on the fleece deal...remember when Gideon was supposed to go into battle, but he was afraid that God was stearing him wrong - because we all know that we know more than God, right?! :-) Anyway - so he put out a literal fleece and asked God to make it wet with dew in the morning, but the ground around it dry. Lo and behold - it happened. Then he wasn't satisfied, so he wanted the opposite the next day. And again - it was so. So I don't know if it's just the church I grew up in or what, but we set out fleeces. Not because we are wanting to seek signs from God, but it is not wrong to ask God to confirm His will to us through however He chooses.
I set out a fleece last night about an issue in my life, and it was answered. Now, after just writing the paragraph before this one, I thought, maybe I should set out another fleece to make sure? Not that I want a different answer, because God and I had a little chat, and I'm okay with the outcome, but just for a double confirmation. But what then if I get a conflicting answer? Oh dear... now I'm stressed out....:-) Not really, but I just normally don't set out fleeces because it freaks me out...what if I don't like the outcome? Then am I going against God if I do the opposite? I think so - if I set the fleece out in faith that God would answer it. So the one I set last night was set in a way that either outcome would have implications, but that one way would be a little more scarier than the other. And that's how it was answered - (the little more scarier way). So I asked God when I set this out, to help me be okay if it ended up the way it did, and I can honestly say I do have peace. Not that I'm not gonna freak out in a day or two, or whenever, but I have faith that since God said no on this one, that He has something else in store for my life.
Whew. I think I'll go make another apple pie - that seems easier than a fleece! :-)

This one's for you, Abbi!

SO - I read in the Readers Digest about a guy who didn't spend anything for a whole month. He paid his bills, of course, and eventually set up a spending limit of $100 for groceries for his family of four. But he didn't spend any extra money on things. I thought that might be fun to try, so I did it. Kinda. I cut my grocery limit to $25 - since I am a single loser - and off I went. It was rather fun, and I kinda have a new look on spending money. The first time I went to the store after I decided to do this, I almost felt guilty! I spent $6 exactly on mushrooms, salad, and milk. I would be going home from a late appointment and think - "Oh, I'll just stop by Sonic and grab something to eat." Then I'd remember my little deal. Rats!! So home it was. I usually eat peanut butter and jelly in the morning on a tortilla, since I'm half Mexican :-), and I ran out of tortillas. Rats again. So - I can make a decent tortilla, and so I got out my rolling pin and recipe and with a few quick texts to my real Mexican friend I was off! The tortillas turned out pretty good - I told Sarah they weren't good enough to make her gramma proud, but they were good enough to make white girls jealous! :-) So now I had tortillas! Ha woo! Grocery store avoided! Then another test came up - muffins for church Sunday morning. I was out of flour, and low on a few other key ingredients - but I remembered I had bread flour in the freezer. Ha woo! I found a recipe that called for cereal, and not as much flour so that's what I did. They were ok. Not a keeper, but they were edible. I made the most wonderful applesauce from apples from Tom and Camilla, and made a perfect soup from beans, carrots, celery and other stuff around the kitchen. That was fun because I made a whole crock pot of it and brought it to work and the people ate it like there was no tomorrow! I started noticing my dog food was getting low, so I cooked rice and some gravy to add to it, making it go a little longer. Highland ate it better, too. He's such a skinny little rat, that he needs to eat all he can. Dmitri on the other hand.... :-) So - long story short, I made it three weeks plus a few days, until I realized that the dog food really wasn't going to last and I only had $7 to last one more week, and we were eating out with the church Sunday afternoon, and I had squeezed every last bit of toothpaste out of the tube - every last bit! So I caved...I went to WalMart and bought groceries. So I failed - but I learned a lot, and it was tons of fun.
So I've already made changes:
In my dogs food - rice is cheap, they like it, and it will make the bag of dog food last longer. Ha woo!
I haven't eaten fast food since before the day I started this. It's definitely on my bad list!
I'm making tortillas from now on...it's more work, but they were just as good as the kind I buy, and if I keep making them, I WILL make Sarah's gramma proud! Or at least keep making white girls jealous! :-)
So that's all for now - but it was rather fun, and it made me think of Abbi. And that was fun, too!

Dude

So - I haven't blogged in a while. Things around this silly little house have been nothing short of crazy go nuts. Things have picked up at work, so that keeps me busier later, so my evenings aren't like they used to be. I've started teaching lessons again now, also. So Monday evenings are piano lesson filled, Tuesdays are my token late night at Farm Bureau, Wednesday is church night, so that leaves Thursday and Friday. The past few Thursdays and Fridays I've had appointments that last well into the evening. Like 7:00. Or last Thursday - 8:15. Hoo yi. Who really wants to talk about insurance that late anyway?!?!?! Yikes! Wow - I really don't have a life! Saturdays I teach a lesson then work at the blasted Sewing House, then who knows what happens after that. It seems like there's always something. Last Saturday was our annual meeting for FB. Fun and exciting stuff there. :-) I think this Saturday I'll mow after work. I'm not really sure where the days go. I really never thought my life would be like this...hmmm. Oh well, I guess you work with what you have, huh? Well, time for bed, so I can get up and do it all over again tomorrow. Big sigh. :-)

Your next spelling word is:

Efflorescence. As in: "The white, fluffy stuff on the basement floor was not mold, but in fact was efflorescence." Yes folks, I had mixed emotions on Monday. Happy because the Iowa State Extention office guided me in the direction of efflorescence (a good reference website - http://www.aldonchem.com/popup-ab-efflorescence.htm ) and it tuns out that is exactly what is on my basement floor! Ha woo! So all this time I was actually feeding it by watering it with whatever I had plus water, because - what efflorescence is, is when water has travelled through concrete, in this case, and has carried with it salts. The water evaporates, but leaves behind the salt which is the white fluffy stuff that I have mistaken for mold. So cleaning it is not quite as easy as you'd think, but I have used Dan's handy dandy brush to brush off the efflorescence, and - who knew?! - it hasn't come back. All this time...yi. Anyway - different websites recommend different cleaning and removing tips, most of which call for very strong acid not reccommended for use in enclosed basements such as mine. So - I might try a vinegar solution, or just clean water to rinse off the residue and keep an eye on it.
You may ask what the mixed emotions were that I was talking about earlier...well...my hopes and dreams of A)being a mold farmer and B) being involved in a very high tech and rare scientific discovery leading to a life of wealth and dry basements for everyone is no longer a reality for me. Sad day. :-(
Well, I'm off to bed, very happy that I have a new big word to throw around at work. We needed a new one...we were getting tired of our other big words - like thorax, affluent, and magenta.

A Moldy but a goodie...

I am on the brink of a major scientific discovery. If any of you would like my autograph before I become famous, now is the time to ask! I have been fighting a mold in my basement now for a week. I know that doesn't really sound all that long, but you'd think I could get this whipped in a day or two, huh? This mold is a nice white fuzzy type that is unwilling to die. I have tried 2 different strengths of bleach water, two different types of detergent water mixture and just tonight I'm trying a detergent/borax mixture. Here is the scenario the past week in my house...I go to my basement, spray the mold with whichever solution I am trying out that night, scrub it with a nice deck brush, suck it up with a sucker machine, then let it air dry with a fan blowing and a dehumidifier running. I even left the lights on thinking, that since mold likes dark, it won't grow back. Then I do the whole spray/scrub/suck routine again, and then go to bed. I wake up the next morning, anxious to see how the solution of the evening went. Before I can even get to the bottom of the stairs I can hear the mold laughing at me saying "ummm, no. Nice try, but that didn't work!! Haha!!" So then I'm crabby and annoyed. So, I've pretty much decided that this mold I have is a rare form of bacteria that no one has ever discovered, and I'll sell my un-killable mold for millions, and buy a new house. Or maybe I'll just cry. I am so very thankful though, for my boss at work. Dan has been so great to let me use all of his equipment. He's brought over the sprayer, the brushes, the sucker machine...I just don't know what I'd do without his help!

Brownie Bottom Cheezecake

Yes, I know it's an s, not a z, but for some reason, I like to spell it that way. Especially when it just came out of my oven! :-) I've been quite the chef lately - Lemon Tarragon Chicken with oven roasted potatoes. Yum! Arroz con pollo. Yum! and Creamy Chicken w/Spinach over pasta. That was pretty yummy. I made cookies the other day for the people at work and Dan asked me if I cook as well as I bake. It made me sad, because I realized I don't cook as much as I used to. I've gotten pretty lazy with that the last few months... like since January or so...wow. Anyway - Tom and Camilla gave me some dog treats today for Dmitri and Highland. Two different kinds - cranberry and peanut butter. I was so excited to get home and let them try them! Even my dogs are eating better! :-)

Try it again, Sam

Ok - this time the blog part actually works. And I have nothing to say! I love my life. Isn't that the way it always happens? Hmmm...yup. Nothin'.
I did get a letter from FEMA the other day saying that they're giving me money to help fix up my basement. That rocks! I'm planning on buying a dehumidifier and a good push broom or squeegee or maybe both. That way I can do the whole bleach water cleaning deal. Hawoo! I might buy a dryer, but I've been doing so well without one for the past month and a half, I might just wait. The rest of the money is going in my "fix the basement walls" fund. The way I look at it, I should have enough to do that in 2012. :-)
Ummm...lets see. Work is going great. We're just about to hire someone, so that means I can get out of the front office! Yea! No more filing and faxing and copying! I am going to miss babysitting the guys, although somehow, I don't think I'll ever be done with that duty! :-)
Maybe I'll try to post a photo...
Nah, it took too long. Dial up is wonderful. Maybe next time when I have an hour to kill I'll post a pic or two...for now - I need to go to bed!

Whaaat?

I can be a nice person...

So I just got off the phone about an hour ago with a company that shall remain nameless and they made me really mad. So I tried to be sweet and nice, but it didn't work - it just came off somewhat sarcastic...which I tend to become when I'm angry. So I felt bad after I hung up, because, after all, he was just doing his job. I felt bad enough that I thought about calling back and trying to find out who he was and apologize, but then I kept remembering the stupid things he would say (like when he asked me what date do I want the automatic withdrawls and I said the 22nd and he wanted to know why the 22nd? Why not the 23rd or the 24th? He asked me. And then didn't like my answer...so I told him the 23rd was fine, and he said how about the 24th, it's up to you, you just need to tell me what you want. I told him that the 24th would be the most perfect date in the world. I want it with all my heart for it to be the 24th. I thought that was sweet and nice, he thought I was being sarcastic...I told him he was right and I apologized..I figured he wouldn't argue with that.) and the lies I caught this company in...so I didn't call.
Well, I had to call yet another company to find out why my budget billing went up so much after losing someone in the house. (You'd think it'd go down when there's only one person to use the utility, not two...) Anyway...this lady I talked to was very pleasent, and helpful. (And no, I didn't get what I wanted - a lower bill) Hmmm...even after being pretty angry with the former call, I managed to actually be sweet and nice and NOT come off sarcastic. I hung up and actually said out loud - "See? I can be nice person." HA!
I'm such a dork!
This confirms my sad little theory that I react to the way people treat me, which is not good. I suppose I should be not so reactive...Ahhh another thing to constantly improve upon in my blasted life. I can be such a terrible person if we clash. I've got to stop that. Will I ever get it right?!?!?

Does eat oats, and mares eat oats...

Hoo Yi! I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Colorado to be in my cousin's wedding. Bah. :-)
It was a stressful trip - complete with hail, wind, rain, tears, bridesmaid dresses, high heels, tears, food, fun, laughter, tears, and general wedding stuff. Like pictures. Do you have any idea how much I hate pictures?!?! Sarah's lucky I love her! :-)
Anyway - It's late so I should head off to bed. 16 hours of sleep since Thursday, and we have to get up for Bible school in the morning! Uftah.
My bosses kids are coming to Bible school with me and that makes me soooooo happy! I am glad about that, but sad that my dryer broke. Yikes...what am I wearing tomorrow?!?!
Gotta go....

Blogland

I have nothing to say except now I am an official blogger. How fun is that? Probably not a whole lot! I really have no premise for this blogspot, except that maybe I can keep in touch a little more with people. So we'll see what happens!