What's for Dinner Wednesday

In an effort to blog more and cook dinner more, I'm going offer a new feature to my blog: What's for Dinner Wednesday! Which means I'll be telling you what I'm cooking for dinner on Wednesday nights. What's for dinner? What's for dinner? What's for dinner? My kids ask me this over and over (multiple times a night). Maybe they're hoping for a different answer each time. Sometimes I just say, "Yuck, I hate it." Since that used to be their response to the age old question of what's for dinner. Now that they're older, it's easier. They eat what's put in front of them, for the most part anyway.

Wednesdays are usually kinda crazy because I'm trying to get out the door earlier than usual...it's knit night! We eat around 5:30pm so I can get out the door at 6:30 without rushing through my meal. Dinner time is so fun in our house. We all catch up on how our days went, it's when Veronica does most of her talking....and Joey and Justine do most of their fighting (lol). We laugh and laugh...I just love it.

Ok, so tonight's fabulous meal (ignore my sarcasm): Crock Pot Chicken ROAR OF APPLAUSE...oh stop!

If you want to try it here's what you do:

Ingredients pictured below: Chicken Breasts (I only use a three-pack, it's enough for us.), onion soup mix, sherry and cream of chicken soup. Whisk together ONE envelope of onion soup mix, cream of chicken soup and sherry (I just pour some in, maybe 1/2 cup...just eyeball it.) in your crock pot. Then I cut up the breasts in thirds and add them in the crock pot. Give it a stir around. Cook on low for 8 hours or so. I'm gonna serve it over rice and have some steamed broccoli on the side. There will be some complaining about the broccoli from Joey but on the whole, it will be a success.


This is a super easy dinner and very yummy. Try it, you'll like it!


You didn't get your invite to dinner? Your line must have been busy.

Go-Kart Part Two

Check out this video of Joey on YouTube.

I'm melting....

We hit a couple of rough spots this weekend....

Our air-conditioner broke. We have someone coming out in the morning to talk about a new unit but until then we're making due with fans and a small window AC unit from our neighbors (who we suspect might be angels).

And poor Justine, who went beach camping with Mike and her buddy, Katie, got eaten alive by bugs. Between the no-see-ums, ants and mosquitos...she has 185 bites. Yup, she counted them. Between that and the heat in our house, she's ultra-miserable. They had a great time camping...except for the bugs...and the heat.

Go Shopping

Thought for the day:

The best way to forget all your troubles is to wear tight shoes.

Works for me...thanks Beck.

Zombies

If you're a knitter and you're not on Ravelry.com, you're doing yourself a disservice. It is full of patterns, techniques, groups you can join on just about any subject you're interested in...not just knitting stuff, etc. AND it has the most creative people on earth with the most interesting patterns you'll ever see!

Here's a pattern you might want to try. When you've knit all your sweaters, socks, scarves, gloves, mitts, shawlettes you can manage...try something totally different:

ZOMBIE ARMADILLOS!

This is an original pattern on Ravelry by Carol Amich, so you can't purchase it. I think it's so funny (and extremely creative!). You can't drive down the road without seeing a poor, dead from being hit by a car armadillo around these parts. We'd be in BIG TROUBLE if they were zombies.

Did you look closely? Most of them have their brains oozing out...now that's funny (AND creative, in a funny living dead kinda way).

The whole Zombie thing is so "in" these days. There's even a college, Columbia College in Chicago, which offers a course about zombies in popular media. Don't worry though, you can always purchase The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead. You can't make this stuff up!

Running

Last Saturday, Sept. 11, Jen and I ran in the Wounded Warrior 5K! It was a great course, completely shady...only problem is the humidity was super high. I did better than I thought and got a 37:12. I ran intervals, happy for the 2 minute walks to wipe sweat off my face. After the race we were all standing around for a while because they were having computer issues while trying to get the results. Finally, they posted some of the runner's results and while Jen was checking hers this old guy approaches me. He wants to know what the delay is, so I tell him "computer problems". He says he's been racing since the early 70's and things ran much smoother without computers. I guess they'd get a pop cycle stick with a start time and turn it in after to determine their finish time. Funny! He introduces himself (Joe) and then wonders off into the crowd.

In a few minutes, they've got all the results and the awards ceremony begins. Let me make it clear that we knew we weren't in for any awards, but there was a raffle afterwards and some cool prizes (we didn't win any though). So the first award goes to the over all winner...a woman! She actually ran the course twice, I guess you can do that when you run a 5K in 18 minutes. This old guy I talked to, Joe...he's 85, he got an award for the number of races ran in his lifetime...can't remember the exact number, but it was in the hundreds. I told Jen, "I hope I'm still running at 85." She quips, "I hope I'm still alive at 85!"

Then on Monday Jen, Mike and I ran the Poker Run 5K. (Yes, you read that right, Mike is running now.) Why? Because we haven't tortured ourselves enough, of course! This was one of those free, fun runs through 1st Place Sports and it was in Orange Park...nice and close to home. Here's how it worked: You got a playing card at the start, 1 mile, 2 mile, 3 mile and at the end...then you played your "hand" for prizes. Now, I'm not saying we traded cards...maybe we did, maybe we didn't...but somehow Jen ended up with a full house! It was the third best hand and she got a gift card to 1st Place Sports! The "winner" got 5 of a kind...I've never heard of that in poker before...haha! Afterwards, we went for beer and pizza. Mike did a great job in his first race...well, sort of race anyway. He's working on his running so he can do the Dulathon in November with me.

Yesterday Jen got her hair cut (we go to the same gal) and our hairdresser called me "buff". Me? Buff? I laughed till I cried!

Daphne Ann & Angee

I finished my Daphne Ann Mystery Shawl KAL! I knit it with Ultra Alpaca Fine...so soft, a wool, nylon, alpaca blend. I bought this stuff at a yarn shop in Temecula, CA on our first trip back home to San Diego. We stopped at the shop on our way to Idyllwild for a weekend in the mountians.

Recently finished these socks, too. It's another fablous Cookie A. pattern called Angee from her Sensational Socks book. I got this yarn in San Diego, too at the Two Sisters and Ewe. It's Cherry Tree Hill semi-solids. What I really love about this pattern is that it's a rib so it fits fantastic.

Did anyone notice Gracie's feet at the top of the photo with the socks?

Mall Rat Scuttle

I'm thinking about a Duathlon in November. It's called the Mall Rat Scuttle & Bike Duathlon...2 miles run, 10 miles bike, 2 miles run. It's held at a mall in Jacksonville, so no long drives or overnight stays...thank God! You can watch the video on this link from the USAT website to learn more...um, learn more about why I am insane. I watch it and my little heart pitter-patters with excitement! Yeah, insane.

Labor Day

Mike, Justine and I spent the holiday in St. Augustine. We found this young lady in the garden of Trinity Episcopal Church, the first Episcopal church in Florida. The cornerstone was laid in 1825.
These two photos were taken inside the Lightner Antique Mall which used to be the Alcazar Hotel Swimming Pool (I've blogged about this before...remember?) Anyway...the top photo was taken with a flash and the bottom without. Interesting, the difference.

St. Augustine was kinda crowded, but we had fun walking around anyway. The two grumpy teens stayed home. Ok, they were grumpy for a reason...homework. Homework or not, they didn't want to go anyway.

We walked all around town, looked at Memorial Presbyterian again, Justine wanted to see where Flagler was buried. She had some b-day money to spend, so we did some shopping. We noticed quite a few buildings had been painted in town, I wonder if they're starting to spruce up around town with their big anniversary coming up in a few years. St. Augustine will be 450 years old in 2015!

Hope you had a fun weekend, too!

Malabrigo Mousie & A Visitor

I felted a mousie for Lyra. When it dries I'll stuff it with cat-nip. I promise a photo of her playing with it...
Here's mousie before felting. I used leftover Malabrigo, hence the name...Malabrigo Mousie!

We had a visitor in the pool today.

Mike getting his "Steve Irwin" on...

The snake was in the pool most of the day, till Mike came home from work. It looks bigger in the pool, huh? He was so small, I don't think he could have bit anyone even if he tried. Mike released him into the garden.