Life has been rather busy lately.
Two weeks ago, Jeff and I went to my Christmas party for work. I was dreading it, but we put on our happy faces and went. I made the most delicious brownies ever. No joke. In fact, they were so good that they were all devoured and Rosa scraped all the extra off the pan. So, when I took the pan home, there was no denying that she'd drug her finger all over it to pick up the bits of brownie that stuck to the pan.
On the bright side, we each put in $3 to play the game "Left, Right, Center" and Jeff and I ended up winning the jackpot - $48. Not bad!
I got a necklace and earrings from Rosa, a jewelry box from Jen, two movie passes from Dominic, coasters, and an adorable tea cup, matching saucer, and pack of flavored tea from Kamisha. Not to mention a big box of chocolates from one of the participants. I thought those were all very sweet gifts.
That night, we were invited to go to Jen's house for her Christmas party, but we already had plans. Jeff's friend was getting out of the AF, so we went to his little party. It was kind of fun. I finally met his troop, Angeles and another girl named Melody. I really liked Melody, so I invited her to our Christmas Eve dinner - since she was new in town and a single mom of two kids.
The work week was short - thank God! I got done an hour early on Wednesday and only had to work for two hours on Thursday because we had a low census and Eva had to send people home. Then, I had Christmas day off.
Wednesday night, I cleaned the house and got what I could ready for Christmas Eve.
When I got done on Thursday, I raced home, baked a pumpkin and a cherry pie. Then, I started to set up and cook dinner.
People started showing up at around 5:30. We had Angeles and her boyfriend, Denise and her two kids, and Melody and her two kids. It was nice. I made white chicken enchiladas and Spanish rice. Jeff made shredded beef tacos. It turned out really well.
My mom wanted me to open my present from her and Dad on Christmas Eve, so I did. I about wet my pants when I saw that they sent me a KITCHENAID STAND MIXER!! I don't think that anyone can really understand my obsession with them. I am so happy! I can't wait to use it. :)
Thankfully, everyone left before 9. We were absolutely worn-out!
Jeff actually woke up before me on Christmas. We brushed our teeth, started some coffee, turned on the TV to the channel with the fireplace and Christmas music, then we opened our gifts.
It was a great Christmas. Jeff got me a bamboo pepper mill, which I have really wanted to buy.
Also, I got a Rachael Ray garbage bowl. That was an awesome gift because I've been wanting one. Sure, I could just use the garbage can, but I never think to grab it until I've already opened the chicken package and there is poultry juice dripping all over. So, the garbage bowl was absolutely perfect for me.
He bought me the movie "Julie and Julia." It is adorable. I have been walking around the house saying, "bon appetit" and "boeuf bourguinon" for the past three days now.
My favorite gift from him was a magnetic spice rack. It is the coolest thing ever and I'd been planning to just make one myself since they are kind of pricey. He saved me the effort. :)
Lastly, he got me an AeroGarden with the seeds to start an Italian herb garden. I love it!
I got him rudder pedals for his game, Aces High 2, the movie "Step Brothers," because he loves it, some Jack Daniels, a hat, and Whiskey Stones (little stones that you put in your drink in place of ice - so they don't melt and water down your drink), and some underwear - because they are practical and he needed them. :)
His brother got him some shirts, some stickers for his Jeep, and a gift card. Then, of course, my parents sent him a ton of cheese and sausage, which we have been enjoying. :) He still has more gifts coming from his family.
We were both very happy.
I made biscuits and gravy with sausage and eggs for Christmas morning breakfast. Then, for dinner, we went to his friend Amanda's house. We had a really nice time there. We watched the movie "Four Christmases," which turned out to be pretty funny. Except for the fact that my dear lover, Tim McGraw, looked like white trash in the movie. Oh well.
Saturday and Sunday we just lounged around and watched movies and Dexter. It was perfect.
He took me to Macaroni Grill for dinner last night since he had a gift card. Ugh, I have some working out to do. I am happy to report, though, that I survived Thanksgiving AND Christmas with a less than two pound weight gain. That is astonishing for me. Say what you want, but I am very proud of myself because sweets and I go together like bread and butter. I couldn't resist them. However, I worked out as often as possible.
This week, I have Friday off. Yay! We are going over to the King's house on New Year's Eve to play games and snack. It should be fun. They are nice people.
Tomorrow after work, I am supposed to go to Le Cordon Bleu to meet with the admissions office to see about attending school there. It is just an option. I decided that yes, I could be a nurse and make pretty good money, but would I be happy? Doubtful. I've had my fair share of health care. It is time for me to move on and find something that I'm passionate about. I just want to be happy.
So, we will see what happens with this. Hopefully not another disappointment when it comes to financial aid.
I'll keep you posted though.
Adios!
12.28.2009
12.11.2009
Oh, and I almost forgot...
If you happen to know how to change the template of a blog, could you please do it for me? I've been trying, but to no avail. It's way past the season of bees.
'Tis The Season To Be Jolly...
Last weekend Jeff and I really didn't do very much.
I have absolutely no recollection of Friday night. What the hell? Am I losing it? Perhaps. This is going to bother me. Oh well, carrying on....
On Saturday morning, I woke up at the crack of dawn. Why? Because my body doesn't believe in sleeping in anymore. It is unfortunate. I'd love to snooze until 11:00 just once.
I woke Jeff up because he had a ton of homework to do, and he asked me to make sure he was up by 7:30. Then, I brewed some coffee for us to sip on. I have never been a coffee drinker, but lately I've been enjoying an occasional cup. I think it is just because of the cold weather, though.
I know what you are thinking, but let me tell you! It does get pretty nippy here! There was a high of 50 today, and I had frost on my windshield this morning! Plus, it rains during the winter. Cold rains suck. The only thing that I like about winter is the snow on the mountain tops. I'm still waiting for that, though.
Anyway, I had no ambition to go to the gym, so instead I went to Walmart for a few baking supplies. I had most of the stuff, so that was nice.
When I got home, I decided that maybe it would be wise to make the cut-out cookies in advance - so that we didn't have to make the dough, wait for it to chill, roll it out, bake the cookies, wait for them cool, and then decorate them - on top of the other cookies that I had planned.
Some day I will have a kitchen with two ovens. Yes, yes, I will. Ooh, and maybe a second refrigerator and freezer. Of course, I'll also have ample counterspace. Then, I will just stay home all the time and cook and bake to my heart's content. Ahhhh, I can dream.
Focus, Ashley!
I got all the sugar cookies baked. It took awhile and a lot of patience with the dough, but they turned out well. :) I'm so proud.
Saturday night was the Christmas party for Jeff's squadron. I guess that it is typically a very fancy affair, but this year is was not. In fact, it was in one of the AMU's hangars AKA a big garage for the jets. Classy, eh? A lot of people were disappointed, but I was quite content with the casual style. I don't really own many clothes to begin with, let alone dressy stuff! So, that saved me a bundle. Hallelujah! Other than being cold, I had a great time.
We sat with the Thayer's and the King's. They are both younger couples, each with a toddler, and I like them a lot. They had snacks (including Hershey's Kisses - both cherry flavored and with almonds! Yum.), they served us Mexican food (while it may not have been the best and a lot of people compared it to previous years, I was quite happy with it!), and they had an ENDLESS supply of FREE Diet Pepsi!! Well, amongst other drinks. I enjoyed myself and was glad that I went.
Afterward, Jeff was invited to an Irish Pub to drink. He had to get up early to do more homework, so he said we would go for one drink and stressed the fact that he had stuff to do in the morning. Surprisingly, the guys were understanding. However, we never made it to the Irish Pub. Instead, the guys changed the plans and we went to The Coyote Cabaret AKA The Shitty Titty AKA a strip club. Excuse me while I go say three Hail Marys.
I was lucky enough to join these guys on one other trip to "The Tit." This is the only one that I have been to, and let me tell you this: it is a doozy! Basically, they hire anyone. By anyone, I mean just that. ANYONE. They have girls of all shapes and sizes. Mostly in the shape of round, though. The guys do not go there because it is a good show. They go there because it is a bar, it is right across from base, and because it is like a wreck that you can't take your eyes off of. We left early.
When we got home, I made the peanut butter balls, so that they would be chilling in the fridge until I could dip them the next day. Then, I mixed up the dough for the peanut butter blossoms, stuck it in the fridge, and called it a night.
I woke up nice and early on Sunday, went to the gym, showered, enjoyed some coffee, and started working on my cookies. I whipped up some frosting for the sugar cookies. Then, I rolled out all the balls from the peanut butter cookie dough, so that I could bake them.
Nicole arrived around 12:00. She helped me make the Buttery Almond cookies. Then, we decorated, and decorated, and decorated! The first five-dozen were a blast, but by the end I decided that I would be cutting next year's recipe in half! The outcome was so delicious, though, that by next year I will probably decide that it was well-worth the effort, and I will fall back into the trap of decorating E I G H T dozen sugar cookies. Next year I won't have Nicole, though. They are leaving for Colorado in March.
Once we finished that project, she had to leave. So, Jeff and I dipped the peanut butter balls together. It was fun.
I sent some cookies home with Nicole, sent Jeff over to the neighbor's house with some, enjoyed some for myself, and sent the rest to work with Jeff for his entire AMU to enjoy. They did just that. So, I must say that it was time well-spent. :)
Work, work, work...what can I say about work?
I can't stand our activity therapist. She is driving us all up a tree. She sits in her office all day. That is her job. She used to help us on the floor and interact with the participants. She used to even do the most important part of her job. You know, come up with new activities and schedule them. For the past few months, though, all she has done is locked herself in her office and done nothing. In fact, recently WE have been coming up with all of the ideas and she just plays it off like she is the brilliant mind behind the crafty ideas.
She complains that she has so much work to do, but everytime we turn around she is texting, smoking, or in the kitchen eating. She also loves to hand her work off on us because we have so much time to file her papers for her. When she isn't doing those things, though, she enjoys harrassing the staff-especially the kitchen worker because she spends so much time in there. Most of what she says goes in one ear and out the other. We all know that she is just being a witch and that most of what she says contradicts what our REAL supervisor says. So, we choose to ignore her.
She is always hounding my dear Rosa. Finally, she became so fed up with it that Rosa said something this week at our staff meeting. It was a failed attempt to make our work environment more pleasant. Now, the activity therapist has it out for Rosa and has been chasing her around yelling at her all week. It breaks my heart because Rosa is the kindest, sweetest, hardest-working woman ever.
I wasted way too much energy typing all those words about her. I just get so fed up that I could scream or cry. Normally, I just cry because I don't have the balls to stand up for myself.
This weekend will be pretty boring. Tomorrow there is a Festival of Cheer that I might go to - if my friend Nicole decides to take her kids. Then, I think that I will whip up some pasta and homemade bread sticks for dinner - since I have everything on hand. On Sunday, my supervisor invited me to visit her church. I don't really want to go because I'm a scared little chicken, but I will go anyway.
Next weekend is my work Christmas party with just the HPP staff. I am making a chocolate cake from scratch. I'm so excited. :) If it is tasty delicious, I will post the goodness.
We don't have any official plans for the holidays, but I am pretty sure that we will have a small meal here and invite some of the people that don't have plans. I sure wish that we could be home, though. Maybe another year.
I have absolutely no recollection of Friday night. What the hell? Am I losing it? Perhaps. This is going to bother me. Oh well, carrying on....
On Saturday morning, I woke up at the crack of dawn. Why? Because my body doesn't believe in sleeping in anymore. It is unfortunate. I'd love to snooze until 11:00 just once.
I woke Jeff up because he had a ton of homework to do, and he asked me to make sure he was up by 7:30. Then, I brewed some coffee for us to sip on. I have never been a coffee drinker, but lately I've been enjoying an occasional cup. I think it is just because of the cold weather, though.
I know what you are thinking, but let me tell you! It does get pretty nippy here! There was a high of 50 today, and I had frost on my windshield this morning! Plus, it rains during the winter. Cold rains suck. The only thing that I like about winter is the snow on the mountain tops. I'm still waiting for that, though.
Anyway, I had no ambition to go to the gym, so instead I went to Walmart for a few baking supplies. I had most of the stuff, so that was nice.
When I got home, I decided that maybe it would be wise to make the cut-out cookies in advance - so that we didn't have to make the dough, wait for it to chill, roll it out, bake the cookies, wait for them cool, and then decorate them - on top of the other cookies that I had planned.
Some day I will have a kitchen with two ovens. Yes, yes, I will. Ooh, and maybe a second refrigerator and freezer. Of course, I'll also have ample counterspace. Then, I will just stay home all the time and cook and bake to my heart's content. Ahhhh, I can dream.
Focus, Ashley!
I got all the sugar cookies baked. It took awhile and a lot of patience with the dough, but they turned out well. :) I'm so proud.
Saturday night was the Christmas party for Jeff's squadron. I guess that it is typically a very fancy affair, but this year is was not. In fact, it was in one of the AMU's hangars AKA a big garage for the jets. Classy, eh? A lot of people were disappointed, but I was quite content with the casual style. I don't really own many clothes to begin with, let alone dressy stuff! So, that saved me a bundle. Hallelujah! Other than being cold, I had a great time.
We sat with the Thayer's and the King's. They are both younger couples, each with a toddler, and I like them a lot. They had snacks (including Hershey's Kisses - both cherry flavored and with almonds! Yum.), they served us Mexican food (while it may not have been the best and a lot of people compared it to previous years, I was quite happy with it!), and they had an ENDLESS supply of FREE Diet Pepsi!! Well, amongst other drinks. I enjoyed myself and was glad that I went.
Afterward, Jeff was invited to an Irish Pub to drink. He had to get up early to do more homework, so he said we would go for one drink and stressed the fact that he had stuff to do in the morning. Surprisingly, the guys were understanding. However, we never made it to the Irish Pub. Instead, the guys changed the plans and we went to The Coyote Cabaret AKA The Shitty Titty AKA a strip club. Excuse me while I go say three Hail Marys.
I was lucky enough to join these guys on one other trip to "The Tit." This is the only one that I have been to, and let me tell you this: it is a doozy! Basically, they hire anyone. By anyone, I mean just that. ANYONE. They have girls of all shapes and sizes. Mostly in the shape of round, though. The guys do not go there because it is a good show. They go there because it is a bar, it is right across from base, and because it is like a wreck that you can't take your eyes off of. We left early.
When we got home, I made the peanut butter balls, so that they would be chilling in the fridge until I could dip them the next day. Then, I mixed up the dough for the peanut butter blossoms, stuck it in the fridge, and called it a night.
I woke up nice and early on Sunday, went to the gym, showered, enjoyed some coffee, and started working on my cookies. I whipped up some frosting for the sugar cookies. Then, I rolled out all the balls from the peanut butter cookie dough, so that I could bake them.
Nicole arrived around 12:00. She helped me make the Buttery Almond cookies. Then, we decorated, and decorated, and decorated! The first five-dozen were a blast, but by the end I decided that I would be cutting next year's recipe in half! The outcome was so delicious, though, that by next year I will probably decide that it was well-worth the effort, and I will fall back into the trap of decorating E I G H T dozen sugar cookies. Next year I won't have Nicole, though. They are leaving for Colorado in March.
Once we finished that project, she had to leave. So, Jeff and I dipped the peanut butter balls together. It was fun.
I sent some cookies home with Nicole, sent Jeff over to the neighbor's house with some, enjoyed some for myself, and sent the rest to work with Jeff for his entire AMU to enjoy. They did just that. So, I must say that it was time well-spent. :)
Work, work, work...what can I say about work?
I can't stand our activity therapist. She is driving us all up a tree. She sits in her office all day. That is her job. She used to help us on the floor and interact with the participants. She used to even do the most important part of her job. You know, come up with new activities and schedule them. For the past few months, though, all she has done is locked herself in her office and done nothing. In fact, recently WE have been coming up with all of the ideas and she just plays it off like she is the brilliant mind behind the crafty ideas.
She complains that she has so much work to do, but everytime we turn around she is texting, smoking, or in the kitchen eating. She also loves to hand her work off on us because we have so much time to file her papers for her. When she isn't doing those things, though, she enjoys harrassing the staff-especially the kitchen worker because she spends so much time in there. Most of what she says goes in one ear and out the other. We all know that she is just being a witch and that most of what she says contradicts what our REAL supervisor says. So, we choose to ignore her.
She is always hounding my dear Rosa. Finally, she became so fed up with it that Rosa said something this week at our staff meeting. It was a failed attempt to make our work environment more pleasant. Now, the activity therapist has it out for Rosa and has been chasing her around yelling at her all week. It breaks my heart because Rosa is the kindest, sweetest, hardest-working woman ever.
I wasted way too much energy typing all those words about her. I just get so fed up that I could scream or cry. Normally, I just cry because I don't have the balls to stand up for myself.
This weekend will be pretty boring. Tomorrow there is a Festival of Cheer that I might go to - if my friend Nicole decides to take her kids. Then, I think that I will whip up some pasta and homemade bread sticks for dinner - since I have everything on hand. On Sunday, my supervisor invited me to visit her church. I don't really want to go because I'm a scared little chicken, but I will go anyway.
Next weekend is my work Christmas party with just the HPP staff. I am making a chocolate cake from scratch. I'm so excited. :) If it is tasty delicious, I will post the goodness.
We don't have any official plans for the holidays, but I am pretty sure that we will have a small meal here and invite some of the people that don't have plans. I sure wish that we could be home, though. Maybe another year.
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