I’m Back!

I had a good trip with productive meetings. 🙂

Now, I must get back to Mt. Washmore. 😦  I think there might be multiple Mt. Washmore monuments going right now. (Actually, I’m very sure of it!) So, my goal today is to at least get down to just one. 😛

And maybe pack a few more things. We may have found a local storage unit, but are waiting for the owner to get back to us with more information.

I found out that the lodge will be open for two weeks. We are now trying to decide if it would be wise to move back and forth or just stay put.

I also need to go grocery shopping and have an appointment in town.  Hmmm, maybe Mt. Washmore won’t be decreased as much as it needs to be today. 😦

Simple pleasures…

Yay! I can post.

I have to say that I slept sooooo good last night. The bed was wonderful!

And this morning I realized how nice simple pleasures in life really are. 🙂

1. A real bed.

2. A shower close by. It was nice to be able to go directly into a bathroom to take a shower without having to go outside in my jammies, in the cold, and into another building to get clean.

3. Relaxing. After our meeting, we were given 1 1/2 hours to rest before we went to supper. So, I rested on the bed and watched TV. I realized I hadn’t sat down and relaxed in about a month. Amazing how rested that can make one feel. 🙂

I almost feel guilty that the family isn’t here to share in the experience. 😀

We have meetings most of the day, so I must get off and get ready.

PS – Dear Sister, you may wish to sign out of my WordPress account so when you post comments it doesn’t look like I’m talking to myself. 😀  Not that I don’t talk to myself…  😉

Leavin’ town

I am leaving very early in the morning to head off to Omaha for three days.

I have meetings to attend, so I probably won’t be on here, unless the hotel has a computer that isn’t restricted and will let me post.

I have to admit that I’m looking forward to sleeping in a real bed. 🙂  My back is killing me.  I had forgotten how horrible the hide-a-bed sleeps. 😦

It takes about 5 1/2 hours to get to Omaha. Which is kind of nice… it will give me time to listen to the CD of the alto part of the Messiah.

By the way, Mama, do you know who wrote Handel’s “Messiah”?  hehehehehehehe   😀

Gluten Free Mac & Cheese

Last night I made some gluten free mac & cheese for my family.  They loved it!  So did I. 😉 So did Max… 😀

So, I thought I would share the recipe.

Warning: This is NOT a low-fat recipe.

 

Gluten Free Mac & Cheese:

1 Package gluten free brown rice elbow noodles (I use Tinkyada brand because they never get mushy)

2 ½ C. whole milk or coconut milk

1 stick butter (omit if you can’t do cow’s milk)

1 ½ pounds cheddar cheese, shredded (use goat’s milk cheese if needed)

1 ½ tsp. ground dry mustard

¼ C. brown rice flour

1 tsp. salt

1-2 tsp. black pepper

1 pkg. bacon

1 very large yellow onion

 

Cook noodles just until very al dente (you want it barely done), drain and set aside.

Cook bacon until crisp, reserving the grease. Drain, crumble, and set aside.

In a large saucepan, heat milk and butter on low heat. Add ground mustard, flour, salt, pepper, and 1 ¼ pounds of cheese. Stir over low heat until thoroughly combined.

Pour into a 9X13 baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes.

While that is baking, caramelize onions in the bacon grease – because it would be a crime not to use the bacon grease. 😉

Serve with crumbled bacon and caramelized onion.

I will say that it doesn’t take much to fill you since the fat content is so high.

In other cooking news…

I found a way to cook pumpkin without the danger of cutting your fingers (or other body parts) off.

Bake them whole for 1 1/2 hours at 275 degrees.

I’m sure some of you already knew this, but for me it was a great and time-saving discovery.

Public School: Foolish Choice

Public School: Foolish Choice.

Please read this.

My friend has laid out quite directly the exact reason we homeschool. And the reasons that ‘over my dead body’ would I ever put my kids back in public school. 🙂

Tired.

I had several options of topics on which to write today.

I could write about making pumpkin squash butter.

Or about the fact that I’m singing in Handel’s “Messiah”.

But I’m tired. Just plain tired. Too tired to go into detail. Too tired to do much of anything.

But at least now you know I did, and I am.  So, there you go. 🙂

 

Nightmare

I awoke early this morning after a horrible nightmare.

I dreamed that part of the roof of the house collapsed while hubby and I were standing there inside watching. Hubby had to go on a hospital visitation, so he told me to assess and report the damage and he left.

While I was going through the damage, I happened to look up and see that the rafters were on fire. I tried to convince my kids the house was on fire and they needed to get a few things and get out, but Shan wouldn’t believe me. She finally saw the fire and got out while I was trying to think clearly of what items I needed to save, but I couldn’t put my thoughts together about what I needed. Finally the fire was too bad and I had to get out.  All I can remember thinking is, “I forgot to call and get renter’s insurance.”  Which was when I woke up and realized we have never called our insurance company and added renters insurance.  Guess what I’m going to be doing today…

 

On a more humorous note…

On Tuesdays AA meets in the Family Life Center, so we need to leave the building. I decided this would be an excellent opportunity for the kids and I to play/improve upon our instruments. I also decided that I needed to learn the drums.  I have worked on them a bit, but not in a concentrated fashion.  I have to say that my son is an excellent teacher and has a great deal of patience. I think I may have prematurely grayed him a bit by accidentally hitting the drums sticks together on multiple occasions. I also heard him repeatedly telling himself, “I have to remember this is a percussion instrument.” every time I would play them a bit too hard for his liking –  which was most of the time I was playing. I did learn several drum rolls and some rhythms, so the lesson was at least productive. Besides, if he takes after his daddy, he will lose his prematurely acquired gray hair before he’s old enough to have it. 😀

Sint Maarten

I loved St. Maarten.

I would definitely just go there for a vacation. It was beautiful and so sparkling clean.

St. Maarten is an island that is equally divided and owned by two countries: France and the Netherlands (Dutch).  We were on the Dutch side.

To get to the beach and main shopping area,

we needed to take a water taxi over.

The beach was so beautiful and clean! I loved it.

First, we went shopping.  I wanted to find a souvenir for the kids.  It took me a while to find what I wanted to get them because most of the shops were jewelry.

After a bit of shopping, we went back to the ship to eat a very late lunch.

After lunch, I told my aunt how much I really wanted to go swimming at the beach.  She agreed that she did as well, but wasn’t sure if we had time since the ship was leaving port at 4:30 p.m.

I decided we should risk it. 😉 (I do like living a bit on the wild side 😛  )

So, at 3:15, Aunt Sandy and I left the ship in our bathing suites as everyone else was coming back on the ship.

She asked me, “Annie, are we crazy?”

“Yep, but it is going to be soooo worth it!”

And it was.  That was the best beach I had ever been to.  The water was so clear and sparkling, the perfect temperature, and very relaxing.  We only had time to stay in for about 10 minutes before we decided we had better head back toward the water taxi.  We needn’t have worried. We sat on the taxi while the remaining fellow cruisers were on their way back; most of them drunk. We decided that we had an advantage to getting back to the ship before everyone else… we were sober.

A few nights later, we had our other ‘formal’ evening.

So, of course we had to take more pictures on the big red couch.

 

 

 

St. Thomas

Our Second port-of-call was St. Thomas.

For part of our time there, we went on a planned excursion, which was a tour to the highest point on St. Thomas.  We stopped at several locations to shop sightsee,

and ended up – after extremely tight, hairpin turns – at the top of the island where they sell the ‘world famous’ banana daiquiri. No, we didn’t have any. 🙂

Even though it looks like I did…

We just took in the view.

And posed with pirates. 😉

While we were riding on the tour – which was supposed to be an open air bus, but we lucked out with air conditioning – our driver,

Willie, gave us the history of St. Thomas, which was fascinating. He also discussed the cost of living on St. Thomas… don’t think I want to live there.

After our tour, we went shopping. The main place we wished to go was a shop called Mr. Tablecloth.

I could have spent years days in there!  They have beautiful linens. My mother bought herself a beautiful Christmas tablecloth, and then blessed me with one as well.

Unfortunately, shortly after I was blessed, someone else decided to bless themselves with my tablecloth. 😦

While that was a disappointment, I still had a wonderful time!

 

 

Yesterday

Yesterday I was going to post pictures of the cruise, but didn’t.

I think I will today. 😉

Actually, I might post a few days of the pictures.

The first full day of the cruise, we stopped at Coco Cay, Bahamas, which is a private island owned by Royal Caribbean. It was so hot and humid that we only spent the morning there, and was back on ship shortly after noon.

We did, however, take the time to cool off in the ocean. 🙂

That evening was our first ‘formal’ night for dinner.

I do have to say that I enjoyed dressing up for dinner.

Our waitress was a real sweetheart. She was from Columbia, so it was hard to understand everything she said, but we really enjoyed having her.

I did get something while we were in Coco Cay… a large scarf, which I wore the next evening for dinner. (And no, Tim, this isn’t a toga 😛 )

Sorry, for some reason WordPress will not always post the pictures right side up, even though they are saved correctly. 😦

Our next port-of-call was St. Thomas, which I will share with you in my next post.  Until then, I will leave you with a painting that I drooled over the whole cruise. 🙂

Rats! It won’t post correctly either. Oh, well, you get the idea… 🙂