Why do I always wait until the last minute to do everything? It's 11:30 and I'm still packing, changing the cats' litter boxes, cleaning, etc. And I have to be up at 5:30 tomorrow morning! I'm glad to be going home though. If I have a chance, I'll post from OK. If not, then maybe when we get home on the 25th. Happy Thanksgiving! :)
I have no idea how the comment moderation got turned on. I sure didn't do it! But anyway, Jen...here's the Pumpkin Soup recipe as requested. :) It's not a sweet recipe, as you might think. It's smooth, savory and soooo good! (Well, J thinks it stinks up the entire house and tastes awful, but to each his own, I guess.) Try it and let me know what you think.
Cream of Pumpkin Soup
1 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup heavy whipping cream
DIRECTIONS:
1. Saute onion in butter in a medium saucepan until tender. Add 1 can chicken broth; stir well. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.
3. Transfer broth mixture into the container of a blender or processor. Process until smooth.
4. Return mixture to saucepan. Add remaining can of broth, pumpkin, salt, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and ground pepper; stir well. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally..
5. Stir in whipping cream and heat through. Do not boil. Ladle into individual soup bowls. Top each serving with croutons.
Note: COOL mixture before placing it into a blender. Or use an emersion blender (? is that what those are called? I will find out and when I do, that baby is going on my Christmas list!) Whatever you do...DO NOT place hot liquid into a blender and turn it on! You'll end up getting burnt and have a HUGE mess! Trust me!
On my list to do after work today:
1. Wash the dishes.
2. Balance the checkbook.
3. Pay bills.
4. Order Christmas gifts to be shipped to OK.
5. Laundry.
6. Clean the cat litter boxes.
7. Type up my lesson plan for next week.
8. Laminate some cut-out paper turkeys for a Thanksgiving activity next week.
What I really did:
1. Checked the mail.
2. Found both the new Cosmo and Rachael Ray magazines had arrived today.
3. Read both magazines front to back while eating dinner.
4. Talked to Jason on the phone.
5. Checked my email.
6. Read some blogs and updated mine. Twice.
7. A big fat nothing on my list. Now it's almost 9pm and I haven't done a thing. Time to quit stalling. I'm pretty good at that. :)
Why I miss my husband
Reasons # 1 through 3,566,583:
All have something to do with how much I love the smell of his aftershave. And also something to do with our bed. ;)
Reason #3,566,584:
He balances the checkbook.
Reason # 3,566,585:
He takes out the trash.
Reason # 3,566,586:
He does the dishes. Yes ladies, I DO know how lucky I am. And I'm convinced I need to compromise and do 1/2 of the dishes. He does one load, I'll do the next. Sound fair or should I keep quiet and thank my lucky stars my hubby is so nice? :)
Reason # 3,566,587:
This new dress I bought for Shawn's wedding? Yes, I will ask him if I look fat in it and yes he will tell me "No, you look nice." Why do I need to ask him if I know what he'll say? I'm a woman, what can I say?
Reason # 3,566,588:
He is the only one in this house who can operate our cantankerous garage door. I hate that thing! Maybe Santa will bring us an automatic garage door and opener for Christmas.
And there are many, many more. Can't wait to see him in OK on Friday.
Books to the ceiling, books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high,
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have (gray hair)
By the time I read them. Arnold Lobel
One of my favorite quotes about books. It really says "I'll have a long beard" but since I'm not a man, that will have to do. I just finished Stephen King's Lisey's Story. It was good. Creepy, weird and twisted. Haunting, crazy, brilliant and spooky. All of those things and much more. But very, very good. After reading that, I need something light and fluffy to clear my head. I've got G, H, and I from Sue Grafton and also 1, 2, and 3 from Janet Evanovich. I also bought Fannie Flagg's Welcome to the World, Baby Girl and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Can't decide which to read first, but goodness knows I have plenty to keep me busy.
P.S. If anyone stumbles across Janet Evanovich books one through five (One for the Money, Two for the Dough, Three to get Deadly, Four to Score, and High Five) in hardback and at a cheap price, let me know. I've got 6-11 but no 1-5. I've bid on a few on ebay but have been outbid every time. :) Thanks!
I know, I know...I promised lots of posts and then didn't post for 6 days. But this weekend has been SO busy! It seems all my friends want to keep me busy so I don't remember that my hubby is in England without me. Little do they know I'm doing just fine. Not that I don't miss him, but it sure has given me a lot of reading and shopping time. (Shopping for Christmas presents.) Can you believe it is that time of year again?! Where did this year go? I'm so glad to be coming home for Thanksgiving. It will be good to see everyone again.
We haven't decided if we'll try to do Christmas presents while we're there (to save $ on shipping to OK) or not. If we do decide to do that, we'll have to spend some precious visiting time out shopping. As much as I love shopping, I love visiting w/everyone more, so I think we'll only do that if I can convince Jason to go with me. That way we can make a list, get that stuff, wrap it and be done. It does make it kind of nice when everyone's rushing around like crazy to finish their Christmas shopping and we're already done. We'll see.
What have I been doing to occupy my time this past week? Some shopping (groceries, Christmas presents, a dresss to wear to Shawn's wedding), visiting with friends and scaring myself silly reading the latest Stephen King. Why in the world did I decide to read that particular book when Jason is gone and I'm home alone?! Not the greatest idea ever. Also, I went to a conference yesterday called "Nurturing Relationships with Parents". It was interesting I guess, but not my favorite way to spend a Saturday. Then, on the way home, I stopped off and had lunch at Cracker Barrel. Table for two...me and Stephen King. I've had friends comment to me that they could never go to a restaraunt and eat by themselves but I think everyone should do it at least once. It's kind of relaxing and peaceful. Not that I'd want to make a habit of it or that I'd ever do it without taking something to read to occupy my time, but there is something to be said for a little solitude once in a while.
It's nice to finally understand every once in a while how to be alone without feeling lonely.
Have a good week! :)
Well, I was all bummed out because I forgot to forward the house phone to my cell phone when I went to Walmart tonight. I really did not want to miss the chance to talk to Jason when he called. Lo and behold, he called my cell phone afterall. YAY! He said he did 2 3-hour setups in stores today and the rest of the day they spent driving. He said he got to see Buckingham Palace and Big Ben and tomorrow there's a possibility he might get to see Stonehenge. How cool is that?! Made my day of playing cowboys and cowgirls with the 3 year olds seem pretty dull. (Actually, it was pretty fun, but not as fun as seeing all that cool stuff!) Am I a big dork because I started singing Roger Miller's "England Swings" to him on the phone? "England swings like a pendulum do. Bobbies on bicycles 2 by 2. Westminster Abbey, the Tower, Big Ben, the rosy red cheeks of the little children."
This has been the L-O-N-G-E-S-T day! I woke up at 8:00, ate breakfast, watched some t.v, checked my email, and watched some more t.v. After all that, it was only 10:00. So then I washed the dishes, gathered up my stuff for Wild West week at school, watched some more t.v and just generally goofed off all day. I read some blogs, talked on the phone, then I decided I'd better get some actual cleaning done. My house gets sorely neglected and pretty cluttered during the week. I think my papers from school must multiply while I'm away at work during the day. They are EVERYWHERE! So I finally cleaned out my Pampered Chef stuff from a file cabinet (just moving the stuff, not giving up P.C.) so that I could have some way to organize my papers by themes. (Luau, pizza, holidays, pumpkins, ice cream, bugs, shapes, colors, ABCs, etc.) It seems like I have been in this office the entire weekend sorting papers. I haven't really...only about 5 hours, but still. That's a LOT of papers to sort through! But I'm really pleased with the progress. Hopefully Jason will be pleasantly suprised when he comes home.
I did get an email from him and he said he got there OK. I talked to him for about 5 minutes on the phone today and he said he's been pretty busy and he's very tired. I think he said he only slept 3 or 4 hours on the flight there and then had to get up and go to work. But he's promised to take lots of pictures and email or call when he can to let me know what cool things he's seen and done.
In other news, it's less than 2 weeks until I go home for Thanksgiving! Yay! Can't wait to see all my friends and family again. We're going to try hard to see those that we didn't get to see last time we were there. (Jenni, this means you!) :) Can't wait to see Shawn and Jessica's wedding. I'm sure it will be beautiful. Jessica's a lucky girl. Now if I could just figure out what I'm wearing to the wedding.
Today I dropped hubby off at the airport for a 2 week work-related trip to England. I'm such a dork. Every time I tell myself I won't cry and every time I do. But in an attempt to make myself feel better, I went shopping. I used my coupon for free bubble bath at Bath and Body Works, looked around at stuff I didn't buy, then came home and made myself vegetable stir-fry and Hornsby's Hard Apple Cider for dinner. Yum. Now it's time to do some early Christmas shopping online and read a book and go to bed early. Expect many many posts in the next few weeks with no hubby here to talk to. But I've got a TON of stuff I could be doing, so don't worry about me. :)
How about a whole bunch of pictures in lieu of a real post.
Trust me, I'll write an actual post soon. :)
Jumbos Pumpkin Patch Middletown, Maryland (about 45-60 mins from our house). Cheap prices, hayride, pick-your-own pumpkins, a cool store...it's fun stuff! 
