Valentine's Surprise

Cheese!

Jeff was supposed to work late last night for testing. But they called off the testing so he decided to run and get Alaina and I Valentine's presents so he didn't have to battle the snow today or tomorrow.

I got a dozen roses . . .which the cat keeps trying to eat.

And the one thing I asked for:

A cookie from Eileen's!

There is absolutely no better cookie in the world than an Eileen's chocolate chip cookie with frosting.

Since school was already called off today, Jeff is now spending the day at hoem with Alaina, no doubt shoving her full of bits of her cookie and watching lots of good movies.

I'm just happy that the CIO called to say she would be working from home. Snow days are my favorite days to be at work because I get A LOT done when no one is in the office.

Yay snow!

Stress - CTU style

I'm stuck at my desk . . .

I am literally terrified to leave it.

the secretary for the CIO is out for the next four days and I'm in charge of her schedule.

This sucks worse than death and taxes combined.

Don't get me wrong, its not the people involved, its the pressure.

When she pokes her head out of her office, I have to be here. If I'm not, Senior level managers don't get papers they need, deadlines aren't met, and critical information isn't passed along. I was so antsy I took 7 minutes for lunch to drive thru and grab food to eat at my desk.

Yikes!

They DO NOT pay me enough for this. I hope Chloe was paid more at CTU than Jack Bauer and Bill Buchanen

COMBINED!

Memories Box

Sis called last night with an off the wall question. . . .

"Did you save all of your report cards from grade school?"

I couldn't remember but two or three years ago, I took it upon myself to go through anything I could drag out of Mom and Dad's house from childhood that didn't need to stay in their house collecting dust. Frankly, we had just moved Grams out of the farm house, and it was pretty rough watching my aunts, uncles and parents try to divy up things. Some of the crew were just down right uncooperative.

So I took everything that I though belonged to me and me alone, brought it to my house, and started to go through things. It took about two days to sort through all of the stuff, but I ended up with a tote full of beloved stuffed animals and toys, a jewelry box of trinkets, and what has always been refered to as my "Treasure box."

Here's what's still residing in my treasure box.

On the left of picture one shows all of the items I have to scrapbook from elementary through High school. It will fill two scrapbooks one of which is mostly done, the second is waiting for me to have surgery sometime in my life and have a meaningful task to do while on bed rest.


Items include:
- medals/certificates of achievement for varying tasks.
- newspaper clippings and pictures.
- report cards from k-college (yep, I kept them all sis)

In the middle is my salutatorial trophy from Trumbull and the very few letters I kept from pen pals I wrote to from 4th grade through high school.

On the right are all my diplomas and mortarboards (sp?). There are a few momentos from college, but very few.

For some reason I have two 2003 tassels, but none from high school . . .What's up with that?

There is a small layer that goes on top, too.
This consists of
-books that my grandmother read to me when we stayed at her house
- Playbills from Broadway shows and college shows that I worked on.
- a keychain with a picture from our girl scout trip to Worlds of Fun in it.
- My ancient diary
- senior pics
- my first easter gloves which will probably make it to Alaina's play box one of these days
- a bag of state pins collected from state reps at National History day
- photo badges of me from Jr High (funny!)

And my treasured Silver round made from the silver used to develop the negatives of the Clay County paper. (My favorite high school graduation present)


Want to see what's in my jewelry box?

Me, too. Because I honestly can't remember!

So Cousins . . .do you have all of your stuff still at your parents house? Or have you tackled the task of sorting out your childhood and storing it in your own home?

Busy Weekend

The Brenneman clan had a busy Saturday.

We started by heading to Morrill Hall to the Disasters and Dinosaurs exhibit they had.

They had booths for activities for kids to do, but Alaina wasn't interested in stopping to see any of them.

As a matter of fact not very many things grabbed her attention at all. Runza Rex was there in all of his plasticky blow up persona glory and we ended up stalking him around the museum because Alaina was fascinated with watching him.

Just watching him.

No talking, no touching, no pictures.

There were a few interesting things that she got to touch and see. There is a badger hole that you can look down, complete with badger inside.

and she enjoyed seeing the elephants . . .

plus the giant mammoth outside. We prompty declared him to be "Manny" the mammoth from Pixar's Ice age.

I think Jeff and I both enjoyed seeing what they had to offer as well. In a few years, maybe we'll look into an annual membership, but for now, Alaina isn't quite there.

Then last night, mommy got all ambitious and decided Alaina and I would make cookies together. We used a recipe that came on the funfetti cake mix box which worked great. I scooped the cookie mounds onto the sheet, and Alaina "stamped" them with a glass.

Fun was had by all . . .even Daddy, who helped us eat the spoils.

Lunch clean out

For Org Junkie's round up this month is recipes. She has already challenged us to getting rid of all of those cookbooks that we don't use in favor of just keeping a few recipes.

But what do you do with "heirloom cookbooks?"

These are all the cookbooks that contain recipes of family, friends, teachers, and congregations? I have six!! (Seven if you count the Joy of cooking given the me by Jeff's Grandma with all of her handwritten notes.)

Do I move these somewhere else?
I usually only consult the front three for holidays, but they are all tried and true classics from my family and childhood.
But the three in back were wedding gift so do I keep them for sentimentality?

Anyway . . .

Here are the basics of my kitchen that I couldn't part with. . . .

Three for reference: Betty Crocker, Good Housekeeping, Joy of Cooking.

Three Rachel Ray - Which I flip through monthly for new ideas.

Slow Cookers Recipes - Which I consult monthly (at least!) for new ideas.

Paula Deen Kid's cookbook - This is a great new addition with many ideas to get Alaina involved in making meals.

And here are the trouble makers . . .

The Marlboro cookbook.
Jeff received this free many years ago when we still both occasionally smoked (Naughty us!) But it is the best grilling cookbook I have ever seen. We try new things from it every summer and there are several burger recipes that I could never part with and they have great pictures for every page!

Morgan Freeman and Friends
This is a new addition and is all carribbean recipes. I bought it late last year for a dollar and haven't had the time to flip through it and jot the recipes that I want to try.

Party Cakes for Kids
I can't part with the party cakes book because it is decorating pictures and instructions and since I don't have any other books like it, it had become a cookbook shelf book.

Great german recipes book
This is new from my sister straight from DisneyWorld/Germantown. I will treasure it always for the german phrases inside, the traditional recipes, and the cultural tidbits inside! The good news is I think it will fit in my new recipe box I received for x-mas!

I have one book that I plan to donate as soon as I go through it one more time to get any recipes that I want to try. It is a 15 minute cookbook from Light Cooking magazine. It has some good ideas in it, but the whole thing isn't worth keeping. So it is outa here by the end of this challenge!

So the results are in and (Drumroll please)

I kept 19 cookbooks.

I don't think I did a very good job . . .

Favorite Supebowl Moments

(Dialogue between Aliana and I while watching the longest Superbowl return in history.)

Mommy: "Wow, he's a machine!"

Alaina: "No, Mommy, he's not a machine"

Mommy: "My mistake."

Alaina: "No. You're not a mistake. You're my mommy."

Seriously funny.

OrgJunkie Challenge pics