The Heat, Swimming and Vegetable Garden

I can't believe I haven't posted an entry in 5 days. I have been so busy reading everyone else's journals and leaving comments that I forget to post an entry. LOL

We have been keeping busy with swimming and the garden. Yesterday we all went to a place called Splash Station. My hubby, daughter Sara and one of her friends went. It was overcast but still humid. They went on all the slides about a zillion times. At about 3 pm the sun came out and it was hot.  I asked my hubby if he was ready to leave at 4 and he said heck no but all of a sudden thunder was heard and we had to go wait in the shower room. We starting asking if we were going to get a rain check and they said we have to wait awhile. We walked outside and the tornado sirens started going off. My husband told us to get in the car and that he would get the rainchecks. The girls were screaming we don't care about the rain checks. I was hoping he would get them because it cost 12.00 a person to get in and even though we were there for 5 hours I wanted the free pass. He got all 4. The girls were so scared. We headed home and everything was ok or so I thought. When we got home the girls decide to go to her house so hubby gets in the car to take them. As soon as he left our tornado sirens started going off. I went outside and started looking around. We have an underground crawl space but I didn't go in it. I was waiting for my hubby. My neighbor came out and we were talking and I told him if he needs to come over and go into the crawl space he can. He said no that he was going to work in 30 minutes.  When hubby came home he said lets go out front on the porch and watch the storm. I told him I would stay in. My hubby loves storms. Thank goodness there were no tornadoes but there was a lot of flooding in the city where we went swimming. 

I was going to go swimming in my neighbor's pool today but I had so much to do in the garden. My hubby took off about 13 cucumbers. I made some with sour cream, salt and pepper. My hubby loves them like that. I am not sure if I want to make pickles with all of the cucumbers. I have been thinking about it. My mother in law gave me some mason jars so I know I don't have to buy to much to make them. I will have to think about it. I also cut down a bunch of lettuce. I have probably made about 10 to 15 salads with all the lettuce I have been cutting. Here is some of it I am drying on a towel. I need a salad spinner.

 I buy a bag of spinach and add it to our lettuce.

I also decided to pull off one of our cabbages. All 4 of them look like they are done.  I made some creamy cole slaw with only half of this. I also like putting raw cabbage in with my salads. My brother is suppose to come over Tuesday to get some vegetables from the garden. I also told him I would make cole slaw for him. I am thinking of making cabbage rolls. I went to the store and got all the ingredients. I remember when my mom used to make them. I never ate the cabbage, I will now because I love it. I am probably going to make the weight watchers vegetable soup. I like to make soup in the winter when it is cold out but I have all these vegetables and not sure what to do with the cabbage. I might get on line and look up some cabbage recipes or if anyone has any suggestions just let me know.

My daughter just came home from a carnival that her friend's mom took them to. She said she spent all the money.  I don't mind as long as she had a good time.

My girlfriend is dropping off her daughter tomorrow morning sometime so she can spend 5 days with us. My daughter and her friend went to school together when we lived in Chicago. My friend moved to Brookfield and then we moved and every year I take her daughter and she takes mine. I don't think she is going to be taking Sara because she started working a few weeks ago. This is one friend that I have a hard time with. She is a person who is always miserable. Everything is about her. I try not to talk to her too much. I think I stay friends with her because of my daughter. There have been times though that I just wanted to endit. Sometimes you just have to put your kid first.

Well, I am getting pretty tired and they are coming over sometime tomorrow morning. Have a great weekend everyone. Oh before I forget, I took Bambi to the vet and they took an x-ray and everything looks good. She put him on steroids and an anti-biotic (sp) She said I might have to take him into Chicago to have a scope put down his throat to be able to see better. She said I would have to pay for it. When she was about to take the x-ray she said she had to call Petland to see if they would pay and I said you tell them if they don't pay I will call the Better Business Bureau and take them to small claims court. I am still going to contact the BBB and find out what my options are about this matter. My poor puppy is still coughing. Petland Sucks!!!!!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

It is going to be another glorious day here in Illinois. It is 73 right now and going to get up to 80.

We went to the mall yesterday. My daughter brought one of her friends. We had to exchange her birthday gift because she already had those pants from Aeropostle(sp). She got a beautiful top. After we went there we went and got some smoothies and they were great. I just love this place. Everytime we go I try a different one. The kids talked me into going to see Little Man. It was funny but I wouldn't have spent money to go see. I just don't understand why they don't want to see Pirates. I loved the first one and everyone who has seen the second one says its great. I just may have to convince them.

Sara had 2 of her friends sleepover last night. They are still in their pj's. I am not sure what they want to do today. I am just feeling a little lazy from not sleeping well last night. Whenever her friends sleepover I have a hard time going to sleep. It might be because of all the noise they were making.

I think I am going to take 3 of her friends with us on Tuesday to go to my sister in law's summer trailer park. It is called Woodsmoke and I just love it there. I take a big cooler of sandwiches and chips and we spend the day swimming. The summer is ending really fast so I want to get in as much as possible. My daughter goes back to school in about 3 weeks. Wow, where did the time go.

My daughter just came upstairs and asked if we could go see Monster House. It is suppose to be in 3D. I wouldn't mind seeing that movie. It is just so beautiful outside that I thought we would do something outside but they want me to check the times of the show.

Talk to you all later. Have a great Sunday.

I didn't get the job at the Wal-mart distribution center. I received the letter from Schneider Trucking Co. saying they will keep my application on file.

I am not really to upset about it because my husband gave me an job application from his work. I would be a yard checker. I am not to sure if I am going to take the job because it is 4 days on and 3 days off. I would be working 12 hours a day. I still want to be there for my daughter regarding school and her volleyball games. I will just have to wait and see. I wanted to be up front with payroll and clerical but they are not hiring for that right now. The insurance is just wonderful. It will be local 705 insurance. That is the insurance we had before the union pulled out of the job my hubby is in now. I will be working for Burlington Northern/Santa Fe railroad. The insurance my hubby has now does not have dental or vision. I think my daughter is going to need braces soon. I will just wait and see what happens with this interview. My hubby is bringing in my application tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I have been doing rotten with my diet. The last few days have been horrible.  I think I gained about 4 or 5 lbs back. Sometimes I put myself into this funk and I can't seem to pull myself out. 

                    

My husband and daughter went shopping together. He just got home and bought her a new TV/DVD player for her bedroom. He also bought some baby blue paint for her room. She has been asking us to paint her room for about 6 months now. I am happy he finallly went and got it with her. I am not sure when we are going to paint. He goes back to work tomorrow so it will probably be another week before we tackle that job.

Here is another picture of my baby Bambi. He is still coughing. I think I might take him to a vet that is not associated with Petland and then maybe I will see what is wrong with my dog. The cough medicine doesn't seem to be helping. I hate to have to dish out more money but I want him to get better. It is so frustrating.

My hubby and I did the mattresses and box springs yesterday. I vacuum them twice a year because of the dust mites. He took them off and flipped them for me. What a hard time we had. We shut off the air conditioning because it was cooler in the morning but by the afternoon the humidity was up and we had the windows open. We started sweating so bad that we both get really crabby and said lets turn the air back on. It helped a lot. I hate being hot. I love being hot when I am in a pool but that is all.

It was another early morning for me. I went downstairs and fed the dog and took him out. I made some strawberry and some blueberry muffins this morning. My daughter had her girlfriend spend the night. They are still sleeping. I need to get them up soon because her mom is coming for her at about 9:30. I really wanted to sleep in today because we had a really, really busy day yesterday. It was all fun stuff. It is suppose to be a little cooler today. Yesterday it reached 100 degrees.\

We first went swimming at about 10:30. My face got really burnt. We swam for a few hours and then I got out and made roasted potatoes and mac and cheese for the girls. My hubby came home at 2:30 and we went swimming together. The girls had enough sun. I asked my hubby if he wanted to eat before he went to bed and he said yes. I got out of the pool at about 4 and went in the house and started cooking. I made one rump roast on the grill and one in the oven. They both turned out great. I also made mashed potatoes, corn and mixed vegetables with teriakyi sauce. I made a plate for my neighbor for letting us swim in his pool. The girls wanted to go see the movie Click so after cooking we headed out to the movies. I don't know where I got the energy yesterday. We got home around 10 pm. I did not like the movie. Adam Sandler is ok and some of the parts were funny. I wanted to see Pirates or Cars but they wanted Click.

Time to jump in the shower.

I have been up since 5 am and now I can't go back to sleep. I am happy I got up though because hubby forgot to put the garbage and recycled out on the curb. He started work at 2 am today because he said it was just way to hot at work yesterday. The first 8 hours he gets to work in the crane with air conditioning but the last 4 hours are in a hot truck with no air conditioning.

 It was 100 degrees yesterday and it is suppose to be the same today. I think we will swim in my neighbors pool today. We went in it on Saturday but I didn't want to take advantage of his pool and go in yesterday. I seen him swimming by himself and just thought I would go in today when he is at work. He gave me a key to his house and to the gate. I will probably bring his dog in the pool since it is going to be so hot today. I will see if my daughter wants to swim with me. I might tell her to call one of her friends to see if they want to come over.

I was going to go back to sleep but I figured I might as well start my day. I haven't been up this early in awhile. I typed a whole entry yesterday and I have call alert on my computer and someone called and I forgot to save my entry and answered the call. I was so mad because it was a long entry.

My hubby and I went to the job fair on Saturday. We were so happy we got there early. I was number 43 and hubby was 42. There must have been about 500 people there. My hubby was disappointed because they weren't paying what he thought they would. When I talked to one of the ladies for my interview she said they only had 6 openings for shipping clerk/clerical. I told her I am only 5 blocks away. She said I should be getting a phone call. I sure hope so. I really don't want to have to drive to work if I don't have to.  

Well, it is time for me to get some coffee. I think my hubby left me about 2 cups. I set the coffee to go off at 1:30 am so he would have it for work. I noticed when I went downstairs that he left me some so I turned it back on to get hot while I fed the dog and took him outside.

Happy Thursday

My husband's new days off are Thursday and Friday. I have to take my daughter to get a sports physical today at 1:30. When we are through at the doctor's office we have to run to my brother in law's house to pick up money for my sister in law. She is coming here this afternoon with her new boyfriend to pick up the money. Her car died on her so she needs to get a used car. I am happy it is working out this way because I would have been on the road for about 3 hours going back and forth. I think maybe we will barbecue when she gets here. I still have more chicken to cook. The last of it, thank goodness.

I don't have to much else going on today except I really, really need to clean this house. I have been home from vacation now for 5 days and I still haven't clean it. I have been busy cooking all the food that was defrosted. I can't seem to get motivated on the cleaning part.  I already had about 4 cups of coffee but it doesn't seem to be working. I know I will get it together soon.

I am not sure if I mentioned it but I became a great, great aunt for the first time on May 27th. His name is Tyler Richard weighing in at 7lbs. 7ozs. I wish I can see him but they live in California. One day I hope to.

 

Just another one of those busy days

I talked to my sister yesterday and her mother in law passed away. She had a bad heart. She lived with my sister for awhile but then she kept falling down and getting hurt. My sister works so they had to make the decision to put her in a nursing home. Her hubby had a hard time with that but he is an over the road truck driver and they had no one to take care of her. First she went into a hospice but they only keep them for so long. My sister told me today that her last wish was to have her ashes scattered in Hawaii. They are thinking about going in October. She was in her 80's so she lived a pretty long life. I am happy I got to meet and get to know her a little when I visited a few years back.

The scale has been wonderful for me so far. I lost another 2 lbs. Total of 22 lbs. lost. It must be because I have been on my feet all day cooking all the food from the deep freezer that defrosted. LOL I really haven't been walking or doing any kind of exercising. I know it will catch up with me sooner or later. I am hoping for later.

 Here is a picture of Bambi with the new toy I bought him today. I had to go pick up his papers so I can register him on line at American Canine Association. I am thinking of studding him out so I can get some of my money back that I put into him. My vet doesn't like the idea and wants me to neuter him. I told him it was my choice.  I wanted to answer a comment about his cough. He is not coughing up worms. It is a dry hacking cough. They call it kennel cough. I sure hope it goes away soon.

 Here is one of the flowers my mother in law gave us. She calls them Canyons. I am not sure of that name or if there is another official name. I am pretty sure she gave us red and oranges ones but only the red one came up so far.

  These are on the side of the garage. They haven't flowered yet.

I have a few pictures of my garden. Bear with me because I am a proud gardener.

 These are the tomato plants. My roma tomatoes behind them don't seem to be making it. They look very droopy. I hope we can save them.

 This is one of 3 lettuce plants. When I came home from vacation I hacked away at the big plant and have had 5 great salads with it. My hubby said I was just suppose to pull the leaves off but I cut the whole thing down. Oops.

 I have 4 cabbage plants and they are all doing wonderful. I wanted to pull some but hubby said wait until it gets bigger. I love cabbage in my salads. I also love making cole slaw for hubby.

 These are the cucumber plants. I pulled one off already. The rabbit in our yard was chewing on one of the small cucumbers. I had to chase him out.

 My bell peppers are doing wonderful. I just gave my neighbor 5 big plants of bell peppers that I had in a planter because we ran out of room in our garden. We even used the side of the house for our garden, that is how crazy we went this year. Next year it will be smaller. Yeah right. Green peppers don't freeze very well. I just took some out of the freezer and roasted them in the oven and they turned out pretty good.

 These is the first year for the banana peppers. They taste pretty good. They are so mild. A little hot butnot to hot for me.

 The baby rabbit has gotten to all 4 of our broccoli plants. That is the one vegetable that we love eating raw the most.  We need to put some kind of wire or mesh around it. I went on line and they have these deer/rabbit pellets you put in your garden and they are suppose to stay away.

 Here our the green onions. I love any kind of onion. I also have 3 chive plants but I have them in planters. My hubby bunched a few of the green onion plants together. I hope they turn out.

My hubby killed all of my chocolate mint, peppermint, basil and one of my cilantro plants. He didn't water them enough. Men.

Well, enough about my garden. Sorry I bored you all. It is one of our passions.

I need to get off computer and feed the dog. Have a great evening everyone.

Downs of Everyday Life

Yesterday was one miserable day. It started off with the phone ringing at 6:30 in the morning. I wanted to go back to sleep but was worried it was important so I got up to listen to the answering machine. It was my hubby telling me he was leaving his check in his van at work and for me to come get it and put it in the bank. I got dressed and headed to his work.

I had to take the dog to the vet at 9:30 for his final shots. I was so mad because it cost us 146.00 dollars. The vet also gave me stronger cough medicine for Bambi. He has had the cough for 1 month already. The vet explained to me that a cough can last longer. Yeah right! I am sick of seeing my puppy hacking away.

When I get home from the vet I have to go to the bank and to 2 stores. I go to the Hostess store to get our bread. I got 17 loafs of bread and some sweets. My daughter and I then went to Cub Foods. I always spend way to much money. After we got home from the stores I pulled into my garage and went to put away the bread in the deep freezer and noticed everything was defrosted. I couldn't believe it. I was having a rough day. I go in the house and my husband must have come home for lunch and left a note saying the deep freezer door was left open. I know it was me who did it the night before because I went to get some fish sticks to make for my hubby and it is the kind of door you have to close and not just swing shut like I do my refrigerator door. I can't tell you how mad I was. I started cooking some of the food yesterday and today I have tons more to cook. I don't know why this upset me so but I guess it was just one of those days to cry.

Today the weather is really crappy. It is suppose to rain all day. It looks like it is night time. This might be a good thing because I have to stay in all day and cook and clean. I really don't feel like it. I do need to go mail 1 bill. They closed the road to the post office that I take so I have to drive a few miles out of my way to get to the post office.

Ok I guess I did enough whining for today. I need to get off this computer and get my butt in gear.

I hope everyone has a great day.

I'm Home

My daughter and I got home yesterday at about 2 pm. My husband picked us up from the airport. He is such a sweetheart. After we put our luggage in the car and hugged we started driving and my hubby started crying. I don't think he will mind me putting this in. LOL I said what's wrong and he said he was so happy to see us and that he missed us so much. He made me promise to never leave again.    

My daughter and I had a great time. I can't believe have tan we both got. There were some days that I stayed in the pool for 7 hours. I just love the water.

 This is my niece Renay and her boyfriend Trevor swimming in the pool. We had some great volleyball matches in that pool. We even bet the youngsters 2 games out of 3.

I got on the scale this morning and I can't believe I lost 2 more lbs. My total is now 20 lbs gone. I think something is wrong with the scale because I cheated a lot at my sister's house. My sister is a wonderful cook and baker. She made 2 different peach cobblers. They were both wonderful. We were trying to use up all the peaches we bought when we went to the farmers market in Nashville. We had so much fun there. I am happy we went early because by the time we left it was getting so hot and crowded.

Well, hubby will be home from work in about 15 minutes. I wanted to type more but will save it for another day.

I have missed all of you and your journals. I turned on all my alerts so I will be reading them all later.

Have a great evening.

Happy 4th of July

I just wanted to come on and wish everyone a Happy 4th of July. I am still in Tennessee on vacation at my sister's house. I won't be home until Saturday. Take care everyone and have a safe 4th. 

I want to thank everyone who left prayers and comments on the death of my brother. They were really appreciated. I love you all.