Home again!

Hey, I have been out of town and now I'm back, just got back about 8:30 pm, it was a long trip in a short time. We have been to OKC for a visit to grandparents, we attended a retirement lunch for my aunt @ cheesecake factory yumo! And we drove from OKC to enid and back on Sat. for a baby shower for my cousin. We then spent the night with my Grandma Ginny and went out to eat with Steve ( my brother, my sis, Julie) we with my girls and G.G. went to Chili's today for lunch. So we have stuff ourselves and got to visit just about everyone in our family just Jennifer was missing. My sister Julie is coming up here to visit us tomorrow night but she had some plans tonight and tomorrow with some old friends that still live in OKC.
Well when we got back here Jana was getting ready for bed and knocked over her reed diffuser in her bedroom -- PEE U.. that was strong. I helped her clean it up and we even put the reeds in a baggie and capped the oil, put the rags in the washing machine with tons of soap but I can still smell it it was strong! I washed my hands with laundry soap to get rid of the smell but now I am coughing so I better go do a breathing treatment and check on Jana, she has to sleep in the room it spilled in. I used Windex to cut the oil on her wardrobe top so hopefully I am just smelling the laundry room still. I also have to down load the Ester lesson from Lifeway because I am behind now that I left without having a book for the weekend. I will have to go get one tomorrow if I can. Talk soon.

Just checking in

It has been a hard week for me, Wednesday was my Mamaw's birthday and I was missing her. I am so happy that she is no longer hurting, I just miss hearing her voice and the uplifting things she use to say to me. She was someone that always, always made me feel good about me. Anyway enough of that, It was a calm week at pre-school, one of my students that is harder was absent 2 of the days that I worked, he has been increasingly more difficult, so I am glad that there are just a few more weeks of school for me to teach in the 2 yr old room. Next year I am suppose to be the art teacher for the whole pre-school but I think I really need a different job. Pray for me, I will be praying for something that is right for me, that is encouraging, that I can help my family more with the money I make. They don't want to give me more than 2 days next year at the pre-school and I really need to have more hours than that. Also they tell me one thing and then the next thing I know they back out or they act like I am asking off for everything. Case in point... When I hired on I wanted to be able to do the school parties with my younger childs class they said no problem they didn't have a big budget so they needed some days off anyway and that would help. When I reminded them what days they were they acted like I was letting them down because I wouldn't be there for the pre-schools parties and continued to ask me each time if I could be at pre-school that day. Also they told me they followed my city's school schedule but when it came right down to it they did not follow all holidays and days the school was out. When I told them I couldn't work those days because I need to be at home with my children they acted like I should have a babysitter or let my 13 year old be in charge of the house and my 7 year old all day. I'm sorry did she have a kid I didn't know about? It is NOT her job to take care of her sister, she is not the Mom. I don't mean I don't trust her either, but that is a long time to leave her in charge and I don't believe it is fair to her. I do let her take care of her sister for shorter periods of time once in a while but I don't think her day off from school should be used that way especially if they told me they followed my schools schedule. If I knew in advance I could make arrangements but they would wait until the day or two before and then act like I was imposing on them for not being able to work that day. If you want me to have a babysitter give me the whole schedule for the year and I'll work on the days that we don't match. Whew! I had to get that out it has been bothering me for some time. I feel no one really bothers to be considerate at the pre-school. Don't you think you should be told if the other teacher you are working with is not coming in for the day. Don't you think that might be information I would need as fast as possible?? Yes, I get that people get sick, that is not the issue, it is a issue that when someone calls in sick and I then have to do the lesson for that day that I am not told the other person is coming at all! I find out sometimes about 5 min.s before they are suppose to show up ( which is about 1 hour and a half after I have started for the day) Just so we are all clear what this means. It means I can't leave the room because I am the only adult in a room full of 7-10 2 year olds, I have to ask someone to cover my room to go to the bathroom, get cots, put sheets in dryer or anything else that is needed for my kids. The office staff knows I can't leave the room with kids in it, and know that I need all these things but do not ask if I need them. I have to call at the door until someone hears me (sometimes they are not even in the office) Anyway the whole things frustrates me to no end. Next year if I am still there I will not be stuck in a room I can't leave ever. I won't have to watch children take a nap. What a complete waste of time. I try to bring something to do, or read but sometimes don't get out of my house with it. I go around cleaning the room, so I won't fall asleep but I am also afraid I will wake someone up. Oh and if the other teacher who is the head teacher comes in she won't let me clean because she says (D) is a light sleeper. Whatever I clean when she is not in there and he has never woken up! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Ok I am better now. Thanks for letting me dump, I am almost thinking being a substitute teacher would be better than this. I did that before when I lived in Barnsdall and I wasn't thrilled with that either. But it would pay better and I might even get more hours, but it is pretty abusive, at least it was the last time I did it. Well I'm off to bed so I hope your day is stress free tomorrow and as least I have some flowers to look at before I go to bed and when I get up in the morning, my husband thought I was mad because he ate some chocolate that a student gave me for teacher appreciation day, I told him I would share, I just thought there was some left!? I asked him about it and grumped at him and then forgot about it. He brought me flowers, coke and chocolate. HA! He is the best. Gotta love him! Well I will check in later in the week with everyone. Heather glad to hear you got so much done. Lisa, I haven't seen a new post lately,(but enjoy your blog) Becca, glad you had so much fun at the ball game, I will have to come see one for the boys soon. Christi, you really need to call me and get on facebook so I can play(oops I mean talk) with you soon. Kim, can't wait to see what you cook up next. I made texas chili in the crock with deer meat last week. Love you all..

Finally back online.

It's been a wild week around here with all the rain and then we topped it off with that crazy wind storm on Friday. We flashed power about 10 times but never lost it. We lost Internet but considering many are still with out power around here. I am so thankful that we have power, no one is sick, and we didn't have any damage to our house. The worse thing that happened is a dead branch fell out of the tree that 's it! Now many other's were not so fortunate and I will be praying they get their power back soon. We actually had a great time last night just being outside cleaning up debris and having a hot dog roast. Well It is already late so I need to go fold laundry so I don't have to do it on Mother's day... I know technically it IS Mother's day but not until I sleep for me. So all of you out there HAVE a GREAT MOTHERS DAY! Love ya.

4 thumbs up baby back ribs.

Sorry to be so silent lately, I've just been busy trying to get Awana wrapped up for the end of the year awards and planning all my crafts for VBS. Jeana is home sick today to I thought I would post something since I was gone taking her to the doctor this morning... No strep throat at least, just a cold. So my day was a little crazy yesterday, I was the only teacher in my room yesterday, not that they told me that I was going to be the only one. No that would have been considerate of my feelings, that is not to be. So anyway I had 6, 2 year olds yesterday, although some of them have turned 3 by now and A (a little boy in my class is almost 4 he acts more like a 2 year old.. kind of sad but we got the parents as Teachers to evaluate him and talk to his parents so he can go to a school that has a teacher that can maybe help him next year. I personally think he has some form of autism but I don't really have any training to back that up. Anyhow after pre-school I had to rush home to get the ribs out of the oven, I had been baking them all morning in a low heat oven so they would be done so we could have early dinner. Dinner had to be early because Jana had a orchestra concert for school. It was the solo concert so each child got to play the solo that they played at the music festival that they went to last weekend. Jana's orchestra got first place! I was very proud of them. Back to dinner, Jeana said while we were eating that she gave the ribs 4 thumbs up! Pretty cute. So I thought that I would post the recipe. so here goes.

4 thumbs up baby back ribs.

I usually just do one rack and that gives us about 4 ribs a piece, otherwise it is a little pricey. This is a excellent special occasion dinner and super easy to do ahead of time and just put in oven and forget about.
Dry Rub
1 cup white sugar
1 cup table salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
5 T + 1 t chili powder
2 T + 2 t ground cumin
1 t Accent (msg) the original recipe calls for 4 t but I reduce to 1 t since this give my husband a head ache.
4 t cayenne pepper
4 t black pepper, freshly ground
4 t garlic powder
4 t onion powder
mix all together and keep in airtight container, will make at least 5 to 6 batches of ribs.

So after I have this done or I get out my batch that is in my container I rinse the ribs and pull the membrane of the inner part of the ribs and toss. I then take about 2 tablespoons or so of cider vinegar and brush the meat, I then dust the meat with the dry rub both sides. I then place the meat in a 13 x 9 Pyrex dish and cover with foil and place in fridge over night. I have just marinated for 4 hours or so and then cooked but I like the overnight version better.
Then when done marinating I remove from fridge and remove foil and brush with sauce below.
Carolina Vinegar BBQ sauce:
1/2 pound margarine
1/2 cup Vinegar
juice of 1 lemon
1 1/2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
dash cumin, dash Cayenne pepper, dash chili powder ( I added these they are not in the origanal recipe)
4 T Brown Sugar
melt margin in sauce pan add lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, honey, salt, pepper and spices and bring to boil. remove from heat stir in vinegar and 3 to 4 T of brown sugar.
This also make enough for tons of ribs so I keep in container in fridge and warm up a little before I brush it on.
After basting the ribs I add about a 1/2 cup coke to the bottom of my pan to keep everything moist while cooking, recover with foil and bake at 225 degree oven for about 4 to 5 hours or a little longer if you want them to fall completely from the bone. I usually just check to see if you can wiggle the bone easily to see if they are done. I then remove them from the oven let cool slightly and then we put them on the grill from a few minutes and sauce them with some regular tomato based BBQ sauce (optional) we like Head Country. Or you could use some more Carolina BBQ sauce and enjoy! For those of you who like to use the Crock pot I am sure you could adapt these to be cooked on low for the crock pot just not sure about the times.

I know, your saying, where have you been?? Well, to tell the truth, I have just felt quite and reflective. 2 weeks ago my husbands grandmother passed away. This is the 2nd grandmother in our family this year. So my girls had 3 greatgrandma's at the start of 2009 and now we are down to one. The one that is still with us is not doing so hot. So please pray for her. She actually told me when I went down for my Mamaw's funeral that her teeth were hurting her so bad she hadn't been sleeping, but she didn't get them fixed last year because she didn't want to WASTE the money. She thought she would die before the temporary crown started bothering her. I told her in no uncertain terms to get it fixed I wasn't letting go that easy. She has several medical problems and I know they are hard on her. Anyway she has not been doing so good since my Mamaw died, she was actually too sick to attend the funeral and I think that has been bothering her. She keeps talking to my Dad about changing arrangements for her funeral and things also. Anyway she is 86 years old and lives alone and now her hip is bothering her. But it was be very hard to handle right now if something happened to her. My relationship is very different with her, than my other grandmother but I love her and we have had enough this year.
I will miss Brian's grandma (they called her grandmumsey) she was a funny lady, that did many things for others. I remember the first time I met her she was talking to us and she said to Brian, he my hair is growing back (she had some heart medication that made her hair fall out) So then as soon as she blurted that out she lifted up her wig and showed us. I just about fell over laughing. She also gave me a rolling pin for a wedding present. She had a cute little poem with it that said something to the effect that the rolling pin was for baking but it could also be used to keep husbands in line! I wish I had saved the poem. Well it is late and I have lots of work for tomorrow. Gotta gear up for VBS planning. God is comforting us and we really are doing pretty good.

enough said

My day started off with lost eye glasses for Jeana, which sent us scrambling to get to school on time. This progresses after I dropped her off to a spilled drink ( coke everywhere in the newly done interior of my car) oh and of course on my new coat and on my bible. I will omit the screaming and the almost swearing I did. Brian said he was glad he wasn't with me. Then on to an Asthma attack for Jana, had to leave school early and go get her. She is still having trouble. Then after picking up Jeana, found out she did not have a stellar day for concentrating on her work. Oh and then when making supper, I DROPPED the 4 pork chops I was going to grill. The Styrofoam broke in half! After washing them off and grilling them we had dinner, I loaded the dishwasher and hid out in my bedroom... I put Jeana to bed and I'm done! I going to sleep and hope for better tomorrow! It's not that today was just so bad. It's just that it was not good. Good night I'm off to read my slightly soggy bible.
P.S. Nothing is ever all bad, Jeana drew a beautiful rainbow picture for me, because I did not have a good day! It was so sweet.

Ok, so I did almost nothing!

So, today I was going to work in my garden, Brian was off from work and we had planned to get a bunch of stuff done.... but he woke up with some sort of back strain (yea right!) and didn't want to get out there after church. I went out there and messed around some but didn't get much done. I went back inside and proceeded to do nothing but watch HGTV or Food network. Well I did stay with Jana for the very last cookie booth. On Saturday Jana came home very upset, apparently the father of her friend tried to make her wear this cookie costume that their younger daughter has been wearing for the cookie booths. I personally think the costume is horrible looking and would not want either child wearing it. But to ask a 13 year old girl to put on that, is outside of enough. But he did not just ask her, he kept insisting, after she refused and when she wouldn't put it on he talked to her like she was 6. ( these are Jana's words, I was not there.) I told her I was proud of her for standing up for herself and not doing something that made her feel uncomfortable. I went to the cookie booth so there would not be a repeat performance and talked to the mother. She told me she had already gotten on to the father and I made it clear she was NOT to to be asked and said I wouldn't ask her daughter to do something she wasn't comfortable doing either and I trust that it wouldn't happen again. If it does I will have to keep Jana from going over to her friends house and only have the friend over here. I prefer that anyway.