Monday is over

So today was rough!  Sasha basically booted me out of bed.  She seemed to need lots of stretching space so I decided to crawl into the guest bedroom.  Also it was partly b/c I couldn’t go back to sleep w/out noise and I can turn the radio on in there to sleep to.  I also had to be at work early since my CCT3 was out to attend a funeral.  

The nice part about the day was the early to work shift, early quick lunch, and early to leave and come home! Everything else was a bit up and down through out the day.  The morning was easy, the kids refuse to sit and listen during circle, gym was a blast, lunch and nap was a headache, snack was easy, then we just danced.  That’s it really.  

During the a.m. my CCT1 informed me that she was going to be about 15 mins late only to come in a couple hours later to let me know she wasn’t coming in at all b/c of staffing!  In case that doesn’t make sense to you, I didn’t get paperwork today!  I really needed it too.  

At my place I took care of dishes, lunch, AND dinner!  Dinner was a new one and my own creation. Before that though here ‘s the rest:

Bfast – banana blueberry oatmeal

Lunch – soup

IMO – it was sooo good.  It reminded me of my fav tomato

        soup from Aldi’s.  However this one was 4WW+’s instead of

        2, all b/c of the pasta??!?!  I really wish I could recreate this

        soup.  It’s my favorite tomato.  

Snacks – apple, cantaloupe, four bites of cookie, an indulgent treat of graham cracker w choc syrup and whip topping!  

Dinner – an Asian dish

Fresh made lentils w mandarin spices

Sautéed onions and red cabbage w soy and chili paste

tossed w mango and left over wild rice

IMO – delish!  Def not picture worthy (lentils are

                hideous), but yummy.  Aaron came home and said ‘it

                makes me want Chinese food’.  Also that he’d eat it, but 

                would like some chicken or shrimp added. I also had a

                half glass of vino, just didn’t feel like finishing it

The best part of the day was hearing hubs comment the yumminess of my dish.  It was what I was aiming for!

How was your Monday???

a new way to 'sneak' in a veggie

Today was another normal Sunday.  Sasha had to wake me up early again today.  The clock read 6:22, but at 7:45 I realized we forgot to set them forward; which means in reality when I picked up the phone at 7:45 it was really 8:45!  I called dad and thought we’d only chat for 15 or so minutes, but it ended up being a 45 min conversation.  It only ended b/c Sasha was ready to play!  

After getting all ready and gathering all my s%!+ together we went to the park.  Sasha was a big fat meany today!  There was a cute 5 ½ month mutt that was teeny and it was the first time she’d ever been to the park; well Sasha was very adamant in playing chomping on her neck!  I tried to get Sasha away and the little girl ran back out which was Sasha’s invite to play again.  After getting Sasha away the owner and little mutt left :’(.  

Another curious happening; some trendy fashion gal had a pit bull girl.  I don’t mind the breed, but they didn’t match, know what I mean?

Before going to IL’s we stopped at Aldi’s so I could get a few items.  She had lots of fun playing w Bosco and I’m pretty sure she allowed him to satisfy himself.  Normally she sits down when dogs try to do it, but she just stood there and stared at me while he tried.  

While they played I did the normal net things: email, blogs, pinterest, & winery research.  

At my abode I prepped and made dinner, washed dishes, and made lunch.  Hubby helped a little.  Now we are watching House and it’s an episode that’s got Joe from Medium and his name is Joe in this too!!!

Kay, now to wrap it up:

Bfast – apple spiced farina

Lunch – crab salad 

½ serving crab

1 stick celery

2 pickles (1 sweet & 1 sliced burger dill)

1 radish

1 roma tomato

MIX w a squirt of mustard and a dollop of s.c.

TOP spinach and romaine w ‘salad’, sprinkle Old Bay &

        SERVE!  

IMO – I LOVED IT!!!  If I had time and planed ahead it

                might be even better if he had time to ‘merry’.  

Snack – 1/3 celery w pb, a handful of trail mix, ice coffee

Dinner – Hawaiian Pizza over Cauliflower crust

4 oz LO Christmas ham

¼ fresh pineapple

2/3 can tomato sauce 

Abundant amt of chz

MAKE ‘crust’ to this recipe – do it in smaller pizzas; we did

        one big rectangle and the middle was extremely soft!

TOP and leave in warm oven for cheese to melt

IMO – TASTY!!!! Hubs said he really liked it and we

                could make it again.  Next time we will do it smaller.  

Dessert – pumpkin spice pop tart w spiked java

Most about my pizza being a hit!!!

If you’ve made the crust b/4 got ne tips?

a nice start to the week

We had another decent Monday as far as the come and go.  Nothing out of the norm in the am.  I pulled a couple pieces of duck jerky for Sasha and she was so excited that she made getting into her kennel uber easy.  With that I was able to get to work with plenty of time and checked my emails and paid a bill; woops I forgot to pay the other one and just now realized!  EEK, hopefully I’ll get to it tomorrow. 

My CCT had to work the late shift, as in later than me!  Instead of staying w the rascals I got to take our kids back to the room.  Man Dear Fussy is a very unfriendly Monday morning kinda person!  I said something to CCT3 and she said that’s how her Monday’s always are.  Other than the grumpiness it was easy. 

One of the girls came in wearing panties today!  A family I sit for actually.  Mom told me that they were going to try it over the weekend and if little lady did well she’d wear em’ today; guess she did well b/c she only had one accident!  I used my phone as a potty alarm and she loved the song she picked out.  Abstract Impy will be her name, lets hope I remember!  The only pee she really did was in her pull up during nap time. 

Since CCT3 worked the laste shift she got to take an hour lunch AND I got to take the early one.  I checked and deleted all the unimportant bogs as well as uploaded almost all my back logged entries.  I almost got done uploading yesterdays, but had lots of links so that slowed me down a bit. 

While my CCT3 was on her break I basically completed one of my tallies of an assessment that had to be done ASAP.  I’m pretty sure I forgot to mention it last week.  One of my friends, who has a kid in the room, has concerns about his language due to what her parents said.  She voiced it to our HR lady, who passed the concern on through the vine and finally got to us.  He’s doing fine!  His lowest score was 3 yrs and 4 months.  Several of his scores were at 4 years and he won’t be 4 till June or July. 

The floater, my old CCT1, came in at 2:10 to give us paperwork.  I was a bit flustered b/c she always comes in late.  I tried to figure out what it is that keeps her, but didn’t go about it the best way b/c she got ticked when I asked.  She said ‘you’re never ready when I come in anyways so I come in late’ and ‘I’m usually here at five after’.  I had to tell her that ‘she’s normally there around 2:15 and part of the reason we aren’t ready is b/c we aren’t sure whether or not she’s coming in since she’s always late’.  Then she said something about she hasn’t had a lunch break in three weeks anyways and was pissed about that.  Basically nothing was settled and I’m not sure if she’s still mad at me or not. 

Also I think my CCT3 is ill w me too.  Last week she went on Monday the entire time and when I asked her about me going the entire time like discussed she seemed a bit perturbed; she went the entire time then too (I’m such a sucker – I know there will be times I’ll need more than she does and hope she’s willing to share/give up her time).  When our relief came in she said ‘you can go the whole time since I took ups o much last week.  I know I’m probably reading too much into it, but that’s my personality.  I wonder how we’ll split the time on Wednesday.  I haven’t started the LP for next week.  I took care of the kids assessment and then scored my data sheets so I can start typing the summaries. 

When I went back to class there were very few kids and they were willing to listen so it was easy.  Few kids = 6 w 2 leaving at a quarter after and 1 getting therapy ASAP.  So I really just had 3 to play and color with.  I took em’ on an excursion and practiced drinking from the water fountain. 

Of course when I got home I took care of lunch, dinner prep, and then the dishes.  Now we are watching another movie.

            IMO - thank goodness we saved a dollar

I’m not so sure I did well today:

Bfast – blueberry peach 7 grain hot cereal

Snacks – a handful of caramel rice crackers and a cupcake

Lunch – minestrone soup w black beans and extra veggies

            IMO – WAY better than w the extra spinach I did last week

Snack – five veggie straws, cantaloupe, and 2 bites of chocolate

Dinner – LO spaghetti squash casserole revamped w tropical salsa, extra zucchini and onions, tossed w balsamic vinegar. 

            IMO – edible, not the best. 

I enjoyed watching the kids drink from the fountain the most today.  It was cute watching em’ try to hold the button and drink at the same time.  Mr. Sensitively Susceptible was my fav; he said it tasted like lemonade!  To cute and imaginative.

I’m thankful that today was a nice one, and hope tomorrow will be too! 

just a good ol' day

Can you believe that January of 13 is over?!??!  I wonder how all those people who thought we were ending in Dec. 12’ feel? I have to admit I had suspicions just b/c of what was going on w the peeps we know, but once it got closer it didn’t feel any different really.  I wonder if it’s supposed to or not?

Anyways on the way to work this morning I heard the horrible news about an amber alert out of Memphis.  A 24 yr old black male, black hair, and brown eyes stabbed the mother of his two month old, was nice enough to take her to the hospital (I think if I heard correctly) and then kidnapped the infant. 

I had a few minutes to spare b/4 clocking in and finally got all my late entries posted!  I can not believe that I’ve finally caught up!  The only thing I didn’t complete was link love and I did that on my lunch. 

The morning went really well.  In the 1^st room I chatted w the Metro SLP, I’d love to make friends w her, she seems like my kind of people.  Then in our room I was able to finish my basket drawings for our art and my CCT3 helped me cut out more (larger too) images for the kids to paste like they were packing a basket to take to grandma’s like Red.  Morning circle went really well.  It actually went for an extra seven minutes!  The best part was the kids telling the story of Red and The Pigs.  By the end of the The Pigs you would have thought we were having a party it was loud and involved. 

Some of the kids really loved the art, esp Dear Fussy.  She kept asking for specific foods to go in her basket so I was scrambling to find them.  She stuck w the activity for so long she didn’t have a chance to get in to a tizzy. 

Nap was a little rough, there were three aftercare children who just did not want to nap! 

The afternoon went smoothly too and we actually got paperwork time!  Not the full 1 ½ like we were supposed to, but good enough for me to complete my summaries!!! (I did the other half yesterday)  The kids enjoyed our math circle and majority of them got involved. 

Aftercare was pretty easy.  The kids thought my ‘game’ (really goal) was fun and then we danced until it was time for us to go. 

Pretty nice huh?!?!  The reason I do what I do. 

At home Sasha and I got to play outside for twenty minutes or so.  The guy two houses down asked if we had somebody taken care of our tree yet, funny thing is I couldn’t hear him so Sasha and I walked over there and he was scared of her!  She’s 4 ½ months tomorrow, can’t wait to see how much she’s grown in a couple of weeks.  BTW I still haven’t looked up that bug yet.  Aaron said it was a hair follicle bug that just makes her itch. 

Then I came in and marinated dinner, took care of cleaning, and then prepped my lunch and got dinner started.  I decided to make fried rice finally and took responsibility to make the rice yesterday (after two days of waiting on hubby to make it).  However DA me didn’t take it out of our fancy schmancy hold all the heat in pots so the rice on the bottom was still soft, damp, and easily mashed; so in other words made fryin hard!  By the third scoop I realized a little trick: get the skillet hot, pour oil in, and WAIT for that oil to get hot.  That was the greatest sound ever: little crispy rice poppin sound.  I made two separate batches of rice; the first had way more oil so I let Aaron eat it since he can have the extra cals and I ate the second which was just lightly fried IMO. 

For anybody who ever stumbles across this here’s what I did:

In advance marinate meat (we did country style ribs from Aldi’s – so frickin’ tender)

            dashes of: garlic asian spice (garlic, white pepper, and ginger)

                             wasabi powder

                             hoision sauce

                             soy sauce

            smaller dashes: fish sauce

                                      rice and apple cider vineager

We have these vacuum seal sucker containers that marinate in 30 mins, but I should have done this earlier, you too if you want more flavor. 

Sautee: ½ bell pepper (mine was orange for color contrast)

             3 leaves of purple cabbage

             ½ purple onion

Set in dish in warm oven to maintain heat

Working in serving spoonful batches now – heat skillet, heat oil, dump in rice and stir stir stir.  Once crispy place in warmed dish w veggies and continue w the rest of the rice. 

Now it’s time to prepare meat. 

Cook in reserved rice oil till nice and brown.  (I left the juices which made for softer bites, if you want crispier ones pour off marinate first). 

Serve in bowls and top w Sriracha and extra Soy, eat w chopsticks b/c it’s fun!!!!

Okay, now that I’ve gotten the silly bug out I’ll tell you about all my eats today:

Bfast – blueberry peach oatmeal

Snacks – clementine’s and a piece of cheese

Lunch – another new soup from Campbell’s (1 serving = 3PP) w cilantro, sriracha, and extra veggies

             IMO - will buy again!  Tasty and filling.  The rice is a bit strange, but love the beans in it.  Def good

                        good in a pinch.

Snacks – grapes galore

Dinner – fried rice served like Biz; she always puts a bed of spinach underneath her food.  I love that idea and going to try to incorporate it when I can.  It was really pretty: orange, purple, and green w a gorgeous glass of vino.  I also ate two extra bites of Aarons b/c I like to taste how he changes his and the 2^nd bite was b/c he just couldn’t finish. 

Dessert – 2 chocolate covered espresso beans and one chili truffle. 

Now onto the best part of the day, oh wait totally forgot to complain about the thing that pissed me off most today!!!!  Did I mention that I didn’t get paid for a half hour of OT last period?  Well I didn’t, not at all, not OT or even my regular rate!  I emailed the DR early this week; Mon or Tue and she never got back w me, but we have to hand in our time sheets tomorrow so I really need to know whats going on…. Sooo I went into her office and asked.  Basically the payroll lady said she isn’t going to pay me OT b/c she paid snow pay (we closed early one day during that week, but I didn’t get snow pay b/c I was to leave at 4 anyways), but she would pay me my regular rate for the half hour. 

My ? is – since I don’t get the OT time, do I get the snow pay?  If I don’t then I should totally get OT.  Does this make sense?  I know what I mean, hope she does too b/c I’m going to try and talk to her tomorrow.  Or I though about just adding in 1 hour snow and ½ hour of regular time and see what happens and go from there. 

Okay now onto the best part; the kids telling the story after circle time.  I really wish we could have video taped it. 

Can you eat with chopsticks?  My MIL can’t and it’s fun to try teaching her!  Thanks for letting me vent there in the end…

going with the flow = more $ spent

Man today was kind of a bust! We were supposed to go to the Battle of the Food Trucks and I of course had our whole day scheduled around it!  I wanted to go to the Chili Festival, but didn’t win the tickets :’(   

So I got up and did my regular Sunday morning routine; sort of.  Did some laundry, the dishes, and put away some clothes.  After hubby got up we went to his parents so he could look at his 401K stuff and I checked my emails and blogs as usual.  I had suggested we swing by 100 Oaks b/4 the battle and he said we could so instead of going to the battle we just shopped until around 5 or so.  I actually only got a belt!  I say that b/c we me checked stuff for a good while.  I saw soooo many boots at Ross’ that I really wanted!  I also took awhile looking at glasses, scarves, x-mas like stuff, and purses at Burlington.  Then at the shoes.  I was really trying to find a pair of black flats that I’m in love with at a decent price and that’s comfortable.  I still can’t believe I spent 40+ on that other pair.  I’m a bit worried they look like old lady shoes rather than cute.  

After fun shopping we popped into Wal Mart for a few essentials and dinner: a market pizza and then headed home.  The pizza was a 16” pepperoni and sausage w four cheese that was 11WW+ for 1/6 of the whole.  I added zucchini, onions, and bell pepper to my 1/3 and ate half.  I also crumbled up some fresh dried basil and it was amazing!  I love how something so simple can make such a huge difference.

I guess the best part of my day would be that I finally decided to keep the 36.00 purse!  I changed all my stuff over into it.  

Hope your Sunday was relaxing before the week…

hallmark holiday

Happy LOVE day to you!  I’m not saying the whole ‘v’ day word for various reasons, but I won’t go into all those b/c really do you care?  It’s the way I feel and have felt about it the last several years.  I’m sure I’ll feel the same next year and the years after. 

For bfast I mixed pumpkin and gingerbread spices in my bowl of oatmeal.  It was good.  Kind of spicy w creaminess from the pumpkin. 

In my email box there was lots of dialogue/conversation about our weekend plans.  When I left work the last I know/knew about was dinner on Fri night at this place (I could go into a wicked long rant about it, but I’ll just say it’s crazy expensive – I mean the burger entrée is the cheapest and its 16.00).  Plus the reservation isn’t until damn near nine, and as u know me that’s too f’n late, but I’m not going to complain to them, just btwn us.  Sat morn we get to go to my choice and the day is open for play.  We haven’t decided dinner yet.  Then bfast/brunch on Sun will be from here (once again could ramble bout it, biggest question is y?  The menu doesn’t just scream yummy to me, but a few other peeps have spoken up and want to go).  And to round out the weekend I think we are going to shop till we drop so to speak before heading back to N’ville.

I spent my morning running around trying to finish the last three v-tines day cards for our parents.  Our new kid had an amazing day, the waking play part that is.  He sent the entire nap time crying which caused me to want to rock.  Oh yeah btw he has 16 goals!  That means 8 a day, really 6 b/c 4 aren’t measurable for some reason that I won’t go into boring details here, at least not yet.  Since he cried the entire time I was not able to work on my DN’s.  Luckily the DR allowed me to work on them until I finished.  After finishing and entering them online I still had time so I did all my contact logs for T/R.  Also I noticed that our new kids is only covered for five hours of service.  We are hoping that’s a mistake (I don’t think I told you that last Wed. we learned the gov’t was changing the way children are allowed to attend socialization/education centers; it’s going from 5 hours a day w 10 hours a week max to 3 hours a day w 10 hours a week).  We are in the process of trying to fix it and make it right for our little guy b/c we didn’t think it was starting till July. 

I spent the last hour jumping back and forth btwn the Giraffes, infants, and toddlers.  Oh yeah want to remember that Colin, a little guy that I used to play w everyday in the baby room, who is now in the toddlers, well his mom made ginormous (please tell me how to spell that word) red velvet whoopee pies and included me in the giving! 

Also Lindsay sent me a link to a new deal site that I’m super excited about and need to take some time to investigate it (unless you want to tell me more *wink wink*). 

When I got home hubs and I had a wonderful heart to heart about being adults and the prospect of having children.  I’m trying to figure out how to explain to him what I need b/4 being a hundred percent ready.  After our chat I prepped lunch and made dinner.  I made another successful dish: shrimp salad w soy cilantro lime vinaigrette.  I wish that I had a better way to grind the coriander or some fresh leaves.  I just prepared my shrimp in my new favorite way, tossed it over the bed of lettuce and veggies, and poured over the dressing.

            Dressing – grind coriander and black pepper; splash in soy sauce, oil, and lime; then mix; pour over. 

            I’m sure it’d be better made in advance or measured, but I was in a hurry. 

I made another cup of my new tea.  I LIKE it!!!!  It’s the red tea flavored cream au caramel.  Hubs said it smells like frosting.  I just think it’s nice and creamy tasting w out the cream. 

I think it’s cooled down enough to drink!  Exciting part about my day – that it’s over!

Hoping this makes sense, thanks for letting me tell you bout it all…

can it be? healthy 'fried' rice!

Well I didn’t sleep that well last night either.  I couldn’t breathe all that great and woke up multiple times w that wonderful snotty drool we all get.  I wanted to call out and stay home, but knew that wouldn’t necessarily make me feel better. 

I enjoyed another bowl of banana bread oatmeal.  While the oatmeal was ‘cooking’, I prepped my lunch since I didn’t do it yesterday.  I made fruits and veggies we the broccoli garden V8 soup.  This morning I had the genius idea to add raisins or craisins, but I didn’t (since I made poor eating choices this weekend).  This was a good bowl.  While consuming the yumminess I read some more of my book and then paid the mortgage bill.

I actually got to work about ten minutes earlier than usual.  This gave me time to record all my debits/credits so I can balance my books.  I also checked emails and blogs.  The guy I ran into from college at Play requested to be ‘friends’ on FB.  Thought it was funny.  I accepted, but didn’t read anything on his page.  Some of the gals posted pictures of me w tags from Friday night.  Next time I wear that dress I’ll wear a solid black bra.  You can kind of see the prints on it in the picture.  I couldn’t see em in the mirror! 

The day went smoothly.  We had six kids out of eight.  Four of them were mine.  Which basically means I had more DN’s to write than my CT.  We also started our kids art projects to make hand print hearts.  It went smoothly too.  One of the most aggravating parts of the day was the OT kept asking if we had done things we our kids: work on eating w a spoon, try drinking from a straw, practice taking bites of bread, things like that.  It irked me b/c I don’t think those things are important w the kids in particular.  The kid she was referring to about using the spoon needs to be comfortable in class first.  The one w about the straw needs to eat food for us first.  And the guy w the bread I just left out there on his own b/c he is able to self feed while I work on the other three children on my case load.  It’s much easier for her b/c she only has to work with one kid at a time, as to where I’m spreading my focus all around, as well as usually eating a snack myself. 

Oh yeah I started my summaries this morning.  Literally just started them.  All I got done was entering the data.  This afternoon the AT in the baby room son went home sick w a fever, which means she’s going to be out tomorrow.  I only mention this b/c I’m sure the DR is going to ask me to stay late tomorrow and close.  I’m not going to be able to.  I did today.  I stayed and closed the toddler room.  Tomorrow however I need to finish reading my book and then attend the meeting!  I’m super excited (esp. if I finish the book), it’ll be the first time I’ve attended this meetup group gathering. 

Guess I should mention that I didn’t really like the broccoli garden soup.  It needs a little something; cheese? bacon? spice?  I’m not sure but hopefully I figure it out b/c I’ll probably finish it on Wednesday.  For dinner I made an amazing bowl of chicken fried rice.  And yes I’m going to include the recipe only b/c I want to re-make it at a later date.

            red onion, cabbage, bell pepper (or any other mix of veggies)

1 serving (118 g) of left over rice (I used sushi rice flavored w pickled ginger (reserve) from Ru Sans)

            1 serving (56 g) canned chicken

            Sirachi and soy sauce to taste

            Spritzing oil

-          sautee veggies in hot skillet w spray oil

-          add rice to skillet, use more spray oil if needed

-          in separate bowl mix pickled ginger, chicken, sirachi, and soy sauce

-          add chicken (or other meat) mixture to skillet to warm

-          then re add veggie mix to blend and reheat

-          if desired serve w extra soy sauce and green onion

I’m counting this dish as eight points – 4 for the rice, 1 for chicken, and 3 for oil/sauces.  I’m also hoping I can find pickled ginger at the store so I can make this again and not have to wait for Ru San’s leftovers.

My throat is really bothering me so I had an ice cream/frozen treat – WW endorsed dark chocolate covered raspberry in hopes the coolness would soothe my throat.  It didn’t so I broke down and am enjoying a cup of red tea w honey.  I used a dark honey, a whole serving (which is another point) for a change, and it as actually sweet enough. 

Well that’s the end of my day, up till this point.  We are going to finish watching Medium and then go to bed.

The best part today – a successful impromptu recipe.

Thanks for checking me out and hope you’ll try the recipe if you ever crave healthy ‘fried’ rice…