Random Thoughts

Biopsy Results
My biopsies from my colonoscopy came back.  I had 3 polyps removed.  They were all very small (<0.3 cm), but two of them were of the kind that frequently become cancerous.  All 3 were benign.  I will be going back in for another colonoscopy in 3 years.  Seriously, if you're around 50 and you haven't had a colonoscopy yet, what ARE you waiting for?  The bowel cleanse is actually easier than a stomach bug.

Washing Machine
The washing machine broke 3 weeks back.  Husband was certain he could fix it.  He ordered the part he thought was needed and replaced everything.  Proudly put everything back in the machine, turned it on and - the machine came to a grinding halt, water spewed everywhere, and we had smoke.  We unplugged the machine and hit up the laundromat again.  *sigh*  Time to start researching washing machines.

Progress in the kitchen
Our pantry is this small little cupboard, located just behind the kitchen door.  It's always been a pain, it's in a tough location, and because it's so deep, stuff tends to get lost in there.

Husband recently built some gorgeous built in rotating racks for the canned goods.  He raised the shelf in the back, so that stuff would roll down hill, and then he made the dividers out of extra wood that we had laying around the house that was leftover from other projects.  I can drop a can on the top, and it rolls to the back, drops down, and comes up to the front.  It's fantastic for making certain that I use the oldest canned goods first!

 

So very nice!

I am going to need at least one more set for the kitchen island before all is said and done.


Rain, Rain, Rain

We've had a lot of rain in the Mid-Atlantic recently.  (7" in 2 days)  Not nearly as much as Kentucky, though.  Kentucky has been hit hard.  Honestly, when it rains hard in the Baltimore area, the rain all ends up in the Inner Harbor and the Bay pretty fast.  We've had some wicked flash flooding over the past few days, but no lives have been lost.  Take a look at these pictures that were posted online by ABC 2 news yesterday:

(images: https://www.facebook.com/pages/WMAR-TV-abc2newscom/51379687226)

The ducks are swimming OVER the steps from the harbor to the Science Center.

The Maryland Science Center is at the top of the steps, you can see it on the right.

On having 5 people with jobs and only 2 cars:

We've been making this work.  Husband rides a van pool to work.  Oldest son carpools with me, and daughter has been able to take the 2nd car to get back and forth to her work.  Middle Son is a resident at the camp where he works - I pick him up on Monday night, and husband takes him back on Weds. morning.  Today has been a balancing act.

Daughter, oldest son, and I all had to be at work at 8.  Daughter works 30 minutes north of where we live, I work 30 minutes south.  Middle son works an hour and a half northeast of where daughter works.

So, today, I drove oldest son and myself to work.

Husband drove daughter to her job, middle son to his job, and then hotfooted it 2 hours south to his job.

I get off work at noon, pick up middle son, and then head out to pick up daughter.

I really can't complain.  We've had 5 drivers, with 5 jobs sharing 2 cars since the beginning of June, and this is the first day we've had an issue.  Granted, there are times when one of us is stranded at home for a period of time, but those times have been few and far between!

Fuzz Therapy

Have you ever noticed how much a fuzzy little animal can make the worst days seem just a little bit better?  Princess Luna has been putting in some overtime with me recently.  My black shirts may now be gray, but hey, I'm a very content person! 

Princess Luna wishes you a fabulous day!

Prime Day

Disclosure Notice: This link contains affiliate links.

 Tomorrow is Amazon Prime day.  Amazon will be celebrating their 20th anniversary.  As part of the celebration, they are supposed to be offering more and better deals than they offer on Black Friday.  There's one little catch to the deals, though.  They will only be available to member of Amazon Prime.

Here's a cool little twist:  Amazon is offering a free 30 day trial membership to Prime.  I joined last week in anticipation of Prime Day.  In the meantime, I've been enjoying all of the benefits of Prime Membership.  My copy of Go Tell a Watchman shipped for free.  I've been streaming videos and music from Prime, and I've utilized the Kindle lending library.  I have 3 weeks left in my free membership, and I am planning on taking full advantage of as many of the benefits as possible.  I want to see if it's worth my subscribing to Amazon.

If you're interested in checking out Prime free for a month, check out the link below!

Grocery Expenses Week of 7/7 - 7/13

No trips to the grocery store this week.  That's a good thing, considering how much money we spent last week!

Dinners this week have been fairly simple.  We've had a couple of salads made with the lettuce we picked up the week before.
In addition to the two nights of salad,  we had:
Arroz con Pollo (my Mom's recipe)
Salmon Pasta Salad
Fish Tacos (where I used a tiny bit of the chipotle chili peppers AND the adobo sauce)
Scrambled Eggs, mixed with a lot of veggies

Saturday night, all of the kids were out at work.  Husband and I packed a dinner of sandwiches, watermelon, and chips and went down to the park for a picnic dinner.  Holy Cow!  It was just the two of us!  We were able to go walking after we finished eating.  It made me realize that I'm really going to miss everyone when they head off to school in the fall, but it will be oh, so very nice to have my husband all to myself again!

For dinner tonight, I'm planning on pulling out the waffle iron and making a big batch of waffles for dinner.  We can freeze the leftovers to use for breakfast later.  Even better?  The waffle iron doesn't really heat up the house.  That's an extra bonus!

Fun Fact: during our last shopping trip, husband picked up 2 huge packs of chicken thighs on sale. You know, the big kind that has about 20 or more pieces to a package?  He pulled the chicken out, skinned it, and then packed them 3-4 in a bag and ran them through the vacuum sealer.  We've now got 15 packs of chicken, packed in a single meal size, frozen in the big freezer.  The next time I need chicken, I can just pull out a pack and run with it!

Salmon Pasta Salad

This is one of our standard, fall back recipes.  I found the original recipe in The Woman's Day Cookbook.  I've tweaked it over the years to meet our own likes.  It's a very quick and easy recipe to make.  It's even in the book of recipes that I gave to oldest child when he graduated from college.

Salmon Pasta Salad

Lemon-Dill Dressing
2/3 cup vegetable oil
6 TBSP lemon juice
1 tsp minced garlic
2 TBSP chopped fresh dill, or 1 tsp dried dill
1 tsp salt

8 ounces pasta, cooked, rinsed, and drained under cold running water  (we use gluten free spaghetti, roughly broken into quarters before we drop it in the water)

1 red onion, chopped roughly
1 can (15 ounces) pink salmon, drained and skin removed

1 16 ounce bag of frozen peas
* NOTE - place the peas, frozen in the bottom of the colander before you drain the pasta.  The heat from the pasta water will thaw the peas out and give them just the right crunch.



Mix the dressing in a small bowl or large measuring cup, mix the ingredients for the dressing.

In a large bowl (or the pot that you cooked the pasta in), combine the peas, pasta, onions, and salmon. 

Whisk the dressing one last time, and pour it over the salad, stir gently to combine.

Serve immediately.

*another note* if you are using gluten laden noodles, this salad will hold well in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.

Trapped in a parking lot!

(originally published on my now defunct blog, A Mom's View, on 5/26/2011)

Seriously, I was trapped in the Wal-Mart for a couple of hours last week.  I had just dropped by the church and thought I would run inside to pick up a thank you card for one of the kids' coaches.  That was my big mistake of the day.

Just about the same time I pulled into the parking lot, the back-hoe that was digging in the parking lot of the bank hit a gas main.  The driver of the back hoe hit the ground running, fearful of a gas explosion.  Unfortunately, he forgot to turn the engine of his machine off.  Since the gas main was leaking, no one was allowed close to the back hoe to turn it off.  They had to wait for the fire department, in full protective gear to show. 

The police officers and construction workers onsite were shuffling all of the shoppers out of the lots and into the Wal-Mart (which was deemed to be safer) while they were waiting for the fire department.  Needless to say, traffic came to a screeching halt while ALL of the roads were closed down. 

I was enjoying watching people whiz around the Wal-Mart lot, looking for a way around traffic when I was told I had to go inside of the store where it was "safer".

I'm no genius, but somehow, I don't think that cruising around the Wal-Mart for an unknown period of time, armed with a credit card is a good idea. 

I live in a fairly small town, so I actually had a pretty nice time cruising around the Wal-Mart.  I ran into my daughter's retired 5th grade teacher and her father.  I ran into my aerobics teacher.  I ran into some friends I hadn't seen in a couple of months, and I found a couple of employees who are home from college for the summer, that had been in Boy Scouts with my boys.  The Subway did a lot of business as we all bought our breakfast, and pulled the tables into one great big table and had a huge gab-fest.  People would get up and move around the tables periodically as they finished one conversation and began another.  Dates for lunch were set, plans for barbecues were made, and pictures were proudly displayed.  It was probably the best, most productive, and fun two hours I've spent in quite some time!

Eventually, the fire department sounded the all clear, and opened traffic on the main roads again.

I picked up the Thank You card for the coaches and headed out on my way.

I'm not certain, but I think being trapped in the Wal-Mart for two hours, forcing me to slow down and talk with friends old and new was probably the best mistake I have ever made.  I need to make more mistakes like that!