Too Much To Do

• Bake cookies for Thanksgiving
• Go to Wal-Mart for soup ingredients
• Make soup to bring for Thanksgiving
• Meet two little kids at daycare for annual Thanksgiving Lunch.
• Clean up kitchen
• Vacuum family room
• Clean 3 bathrooms
• Finish 3 loads of laundry
• Fold and put away 4 baskets of clean laundry plus above 3 loads when finished
• Pack for myself plus 4 kids for 4 days at grandma & grandpa’s
• Write paper on acid rain (MBA class)
• Research Wal-Mart’s sustainability strategy (MBA class)
• Provide intelligent comments on music piracy, a topic which I care nothing about (MBA class)
• Gather remaining odds and ends that need to go with us this weekend
• Review and finalize Christmas lists for Black Friday shopping
• Oh yeah, and do some work for my j.o.b.

…all by 5:30 this evening.

And what am I doing?  Updating my blog.  Priorities!!

Happy Halloween!

Better late than never, I guess.  Here is a picture of the kids all ready for trick-or-treating on halloween.

William, you will notice, is not in costume.  He has been unbelievably badly behaved at daycare lately and was warned that if he didn’t have a good day on Halloween, he would not be going trick-or-treating.  He was beyond awful that day (gee, think it could have been all the sugar from the *morning* party? ugh…) so we had to follow through and not let him trick-or-treat.  He walked along with us but had to pass up the candy offered to him.

For the kids that did get to dress up, I was a huge slacker…normally I make the kids’ costumes.  I found Katey’s costume at Old Navy for $5.  It was cheap and warm so I couldn’t pass it up.  Aiden had his heart set on being an army guy, which was quick and easy and meant no work for me.

Alex, too, led me to believe he was going to be an army guy until about 6 pm the night before Halloween when he announced that actually wanted to be a robot as we had discussed earlier in the month.  So I found myself making an emergency trip to Wal-Mart and working until the wee hours of the morning on a robot costume.  I even got up early the next morning to finish it as Alex needed it for a Halloween parade at school.  For those of you that know me, you know what a chore it is for me to get up early in the morning!  In all, it’s not my best work.  I feel like I need to make another robot costume next year for one of the kids to redeem myself.

I think my favorite two costumes over the years have been the ducks and duck hunter in 2005 or the cupcake in 2006 .  This was when my kids were still young enough to go along with my suggestions, although I have a hard time believing I actually put Aiden in a cupcake costume!  Sometime, somewhere this will come back to bite me.

Catch Up

After I posted the Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe yesterday, I went back and looked at the meager postings in my blog and realized I need to close up a few loose ends.  So here you go…

Crappy ISP

They finally came and did what they needed to do.  There was an installation fee that no one told me about (although I was kind of expecting it) until the bill showed up in the mail a few days later.  A few days after that I got another bill from them for monthly service, which did not go up in price.  The stupid part of this equation is that they’re supposed to be auto-billing my credit card for any charges. 

I called them on a Monday and told the answering machine that I would like someone to return my call as soon as possible regarding a billing matter.  A full week after not receiving a call back from them I wrote a little note on the bill reminding them to bill my credit card.  A few days later they finally called back and said that they went ahead and billed my credit card…you know, like they’ve been doing for the past 3 years.

So back to the installation for a minute – when they came they didn’t have a face plate for the jack in the wall and promised to come back “in the next day or two” to take care of it.  It’s been more than a month.  I don’t think I’ll be getting a face plate.

My internet is much faster these days though! 

Baby Blake

My nephew Blake is at home and doing well.  My SIL updates his CaringBridge page once a week.  Prayers are always appreciated.

Grad School

I’m 6 weeks into my first 8 week course – Business Ethics.  It requires a lot of writing, which I don’t actually mind.  It also includes a lot of group work, which I’m having a harder time with.  It seems to be difficult to form a cohesive and committed group in this class.

I’m looking forward to my second course on Organizational Behavior in January.

Medical Update

We have been fairly healthy this fall but the kids keep coming down with weird rashes.  They range from 5-10 non-itchy spots to a body full of itchy spots.  I think William might have chicken pox right now…but I also think he had them in September.  Of course the doc doesn’t want to see them, I’m just told to “watch them”.  Ugh…  So William has been home for the past two days, healthy as a horse, no fevers, but covered with itchy pox-like bumps.

Katey’s eczema is getting worse.  I think she likely has a dairy allergy and if we took her off of all dairy she would clear up.  However, (there’s always a however), we can’t switch to a non-dairy diet at daycare without a written note from the doctor, who doesn’t seem to see things the way I do.  I wish we could find someone who is as interested in finding out what is causing Katey’s problems as they are to treat the symptoms.  It seems like they’re more than happy to prescribe medicine after medicine to stabilize her but won’t necessarily go any deeper to find the cause.  We were told that we shouldn’t do any more allergy testing until she was 4 or 5 years old.  I think I’m going to request more testing to be done after she turns 3.  There has got to be *something* triggering her eczema and allergies!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I have a lot to blog about but both a lack of time and motivation, it seems.  One of these days I’ll go back and post Halloween pictures, pumpkin patch pictures, etc.  For today, I feel compelled to share a new recipe. 

It is rare that I cook dinner and when I do, it’s rare that I get very adventurous.  However, I recently ran across a recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup made in the crock pot.  Since Monday nights are normally crazy here, I decided to give it a try today.  It’s been simmering for about 5 hours and the aroma is so very tempting…I just had to sneak a taste…and it’s good!  Really good!  And its so quick and easy to throw together, too.  A perfect meal, in my opinion!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 lb shredded, cooked chicken (I used a deli rotisserie chicken because I’m lazy like that)
1 (15 oz) can Red Gold Mexican Fiesta diced tomatoes
1 (10 oz) can red enchilada sauce
1 can black beans
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (4 oz) can chopped green chiles
2 cloves minced garlic (I used a spoon full of the minced garlic in a jar. Again…laziness…)
2 cups water
1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 bay leaf
1 pkg frozen corn
1 tbsp chopped cilantro

Mix all ingredients together in the crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.

The original recipe explains an elaborate ritual whereby you cut tortillas into strips and coat them with oil and then bake them in the oven to make crispy tortilla strips. Here in the land of cheap and easy, we’ll be using a bag of tortilla chips.

I made a double batch of the recipe posted above and it filled my largest crock pot to the very top. I don’t have high hopes for 2 of the 4 kids liking this so I imagine we’ll have plenty of leftovers which I plan to freeze it for another meal.

When I re-heat it, I might add something to make the broth a little thicker…maybe a can of cheddar chese soup and a little milk…or I might just use corn starch. I really think this would make a good creamy soup. I hesitate to make such grand modifications on my first attempt at making a recipe. There is a very real possiblity that my “adjustments” will end in disaster.

Cheese Puffs: $11 per Pound

I was reading the November issue of Smart Money magazine while eating lunch today.  The back page commentary by Anne Kadet titled “Who Shrunk the Cereal” nearly caused me to topple out of my chair.  For the most part, it discussed a phenomena we’ve all seen in the grocery store – reduced package sizes while maintaining the same price.  However, the article also made mention of the wildly popular ‘100-calorie packs’ that you can find for nearly all bad-for-you-but-oh-so-good snack items.  And here comes the chair toppling…

Quoting the article “[Gary Stibel] claims credit for inventing the 100-calorie snack pack, an ingenious invention that lets Frito-Lay charge $11 a pound for cheese puffs.”

As disturbing as it is to think of paying THAT much money for a pound of cheese puffs, I have to credit Mr. Stibel and Frito-Lay for pulling it off.  The 100-calorie pack is indeed ingenious marketing, especially at this type of profit margin.

I, for one, will be going back to the tried-and-true “handful of chips in a generic ziploc baggie” for my portion control.  It may not be exactly 100 calories, but my checking account will appreciate the sacrifice my body is making.

Why I’m Ticked at my ISP (part 2)

One of my pet peeves is bad customer service, and I think being stood up twice up with no call/email is just about the worst customer service ever.  Yup, you guessed it, Aaron from Crappy ISP never showed up on Friday.

On Saturday morning, I sent Aaron an email asking him to let me know when he might be able to come this week and I’d arrange my schedule to accommodate him.  Previously, I had been emailing him days/times early in the week that I was available for the maintenance.  Apparently my very restrictive “any time Tuesday, Thursday or Friday between 10 am and 3pm” type time frames didn’t work for him so I’ll leave it up to him to decide when he’s available.

In the meantime, I’ve found two other ISPs who claim to have VPN friendly wireless “high-speed” access available in this area.  Unfortunately, the prices per month is roughly twice what I’m paying now.  But, if they provide higher speed access and better customer service, I really wouldn’t have a problem with the additional charge.

Although neither Aaron or anyone else at Crappy ISP realize this, but an entire paradigm shift in our house is dependent on the work they want to do to improve my reception, which is making me more uptight about this than I normally would be. 

• As soon as the antenna is installed and we’re able to get internet access in the office downstairs, we can move the desk and other office type paraphernalia out of the upstairs office.
• Once the upstairs office is no longer an office, we can paint and decorate it to become Katey’s new big girl bedroom.
• Once the big girl bedroom is done, Katey can move out of her toddler bed in the master bedroom and into her brand new room.
• Once Katey is in her own room, it will mark the first time in 7.5 years that we haven’t had a kid in the master bedroom with us.
• Need I say more?

So to say I’m anxious for this upgrade is a bit of an understatement.  True, I will embrace the promised increase in speed and I will love being able to have internet access without having to precariously position the wireless modem on the window ledge of an open window in the heat of summer/dead of winter.  But mostly, having all of the kids in their respective rooms and no longer in our bedroom will be a dream come true!

Maybe if I give Aaron and Crappy ISP the entire sob story they may be more apt to actually show up the next time they say they’ll be here.  Or maybe I should just call one of the other ISPs…

Happy Home Challenge

Several years ago, I became a consultant with a direct sales company called Once Upon a Family.  I truly love the products and the mission of the company but found that I don’t absolutely love doing the home parties.  I’m still a consultant but mostly for personal use and to keep friends and family stocked with the cool products.

I got an email this week announcing the Happy Home Challenge.  Families commit to taking on a family challenge each month October through March and posting their results to the Happy Home site.  Any family who completes all the challenges will receive a Happy Home Hero Kit that contains six great Once Upon a Family products!

Check out this page for all the details. You can join a conference call on October 15, 10 AM PST with Lorle Campos, author of happyhome to kick off the challenge.  Call information: dial 231 644 8000, ext 581866#.

And if you need someone to order the happyhome book from, I just might know someone who can hook you up.

Why I’m Ticked at my ISP

I have been waiting all day for Aaron from my ISP to show up and install some new equipment to hopefully solve all of my internet access woes.  I wish it were just a new router or modem because I could do that myself and forgo this whole waiting thing, but it’s not.  It’s an antenna or something that is going to be mounted to my roof and then (hopefully) neatly wired to our new (2 years ago) office that we currently can’t use as such because we can’t get any &$%# reception there.  It appears to involve drilling on the roof and likely through an external wall so I am very certain no one in this house is going to take part in it.  Thus, we wait for Aaron…and wait…and wait…

I wouldn’t be so ticked except that when he was supposed to come last week, he completely stood me up.  No call.  No email.  Now that really ticks me off.  In this technological age, there is absolutely no reason for my freaking ISP, of all things, not to send me a friendly “oops, not gonna make it today” email.  None.

But, you see, I’m between a rock and a hard place on this one.  I really don’t have any other choices given our location.  I need a high speed connection that supports VPN, which rules out satellite.  I’m stuck with this crappy wireless ISP connection that is just as slow as dial-up yet costs just as much as broadband.  

I can’t get grumpy with my ISP because I have no choice and I realize they can make my internet presence hell if given the motivation.  I suspect they’re doing a little of that already.  I think my buddy Aaron is mad at me for asking that he actually let me know in advance when he plans to come for this little maintenance project rather than just showing up one day and announcing he’s going to do it, which is exactly what happened last month.  I had to politely turn him away.  Ever since then, he’s been crabby with me about making an appointment to get this done…or keeping an appointment once made.

Oh, Comcast, though others hate thee I would welcome thee into my life with open arms.  I would even pay full price for thee…

And by the way, there was no bovine chorus last night so they either found their way back home or one of the neighbors got himself a freezer full of fresh beef.

Mooooo….

We slept with a window open in our bedroom last night … love this cool fall weather!!  When I went to bed around midnight, I settled in with my crossword puzzle book expecting to enjoy the quiet of the evening when I became instantly aware of a distant mooing…like from cows.  And these weren’t happy cows.  They were going on and on with their moos like it was some sort of orchestrated effect to get attention.

The odd thing is, I can’t figure out who around here has cows.  Our four nearest neighbors are each 1/2 mile away and none of them have cows so it had to be coming from further away.  But what kind of cow can you hear from over a mile away?!?!  And seriously, they went on and on.  And they’re still mooing.  I can still hear them.  It’s just bizarre that we’ve lived here for 5 years and I’ve never heard the bovine chorus before.

Although, last fall some cows escaped from somewhere and were found ambling around in the fields outside our house.  I wonder if it happened again?  It would explain their constant mooing.  If I could decipher cow talk, I would think that they were saying “OMG, we’re lost. Where the F*** are we?  And where is that guy who brings us food?!?!”

I shall be on the lookout for stray cows today.  Ahh…the perils of country life.

Baby Blake

My nephew Blake, who is almost 8 weeks old, is currently in the PICU at St. Louis Children’s Hospital with unexplained respiratory issues.  He has been in the hospital (first Springfield and now St. Louis) for just over 3 weeks having various tests done to try to figure out what is happening.  His mom, my sis-in-law Amy, has been with him the entire time.  If you have a minute, please say a prayer for Blake, his mom and dad, his big brother Riley and the medical team working on his case. 

To read more about Blake’s story, go to the Caring Bridge site that Amy is maintaining.

The kids and I are making a care package to send to the hospital.  They have all made a get well card and we made cookies last night that we’re putting in the box along with kleenex (because hospital tissues is always so rough), lotion, microwave popcorn, a sudoku book and whatever else I can manage to find to lift Amy’s spirits.  Because they are so far away, we can’t do much besides pray.  I hope the care package brightens their day.

Katey the Cookie Helper

Oatmeal Spice Cookie Dough

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie Dough

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies