10

I've been tagged...

1. What's on your nightstand? lamp, scriptures, journal, chapstick, fingernail clippers

2. If you could eat only one thing for lunch for the rest of your life, what would it be? homemade nachos :)

3. What is your middle name? Is there a story behind it? Lin. I think my parents liked it...they used the Asian spelling because they lived in Hawaii and that's how they thought everyone spelled Lin.

4.If you could win a shopping spree in any store, which store would you choose? That depends. I do shop at Target a lot (I like it - it's right down the street from my house...) but I love Kohl's for their clothes as well as household stuff - so let's say Kohl's today.

5. What word or phrase do you use most frequently? "Seriously." Steve and I have also recently used "I mean, who does that?" and "Good game" a lot.

6. What's the last thing you purchased? sweatbands, cream cheese, gingersnap cookies, and a graduation card - everything but the card was for the last day of school

7. If you could have a different career, what would it be? What's keeping you from making the switch? I want to be a mom...at least now it's more plausible than it was six months ago!

8. When you get too stressed out, what do you do to relax and calm down? I bake muffins :) Or Steve gives me a good massage. Calling my family to vent helps too.

9. What's the most recent thing you bookmarked on the internet? a friend's blog

10. What are you most looking forward to during the next two months? SUMMER VACATION!

Joni and Rach, I'd love to see your 10 things as well :)

Evening Treat

When I was growing up, there was one dessert my dad was the master of: Cookie Brittle. If I remember correctly, it came from my Grandma Dea and dad was the one in the family who made it.

Easy, delicious...what's not to love?

I get the urge to bake on Sunday nights. It's not the healthiest of habits, but I don't give in all the time...

This weekend I did. I had all of the ingredients on hand for Cookie Brittle, and Steve had never had it, so I made some :)

Cookie Brittle

(Don't mind the fuzzy pictures - they were taken on my phone...)

Mix (by hand) and press into ungreased cake pan:

1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. butter
1 t. vanilla
1 c. chocolate chips
1 c. sugar
2 c. flour
1 c. coconut

Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. Watch until it is barely brown.

* I also sprinkle a few more chocolate chips on top, just for good measure :) Yum!

Since it's just the two of us, I often half the recipe - tonight I'm wishing I'd made the whole thing so there was more to enjoy...

Sunday Chicken

I was joking to Steve over dinner tonight that our readers probably miss my postings of recipes and pictures :) Ha ha.

Tonight it was a crock-pot recipe called Sunday Chicken. My mom bought me a little cookbook called 101 Things To Do With A Slow Cooker. I've made many of the chicken recipes and a few of the others - I love crock-pot cooking!

This was supposed to be dinner last night. But I forgot to put it together and get it into the crock-pot  - so today I left myself a sticky-note on the front door reminding me to get dinner in the crock-pot. The reminder worked! So did the fact that Steve put the crock-pot out on the counter to help remind me :) What can I say...we're a team.

Sunday Chicken

4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cans (10 3/4 oz each) cream of chicken soup, condensed
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 cup sour cream*

Place chicken in greased 3 1/2 - 5-quart slow cooker. mix remaining ingredients except sour cream and pour over chicken. Cover and cook on high heat 4 hours or on low heat 6-8 hours. One hour before serving, stir in sour cream. Makes 4-6 servings.

*For richer taste, substitute 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese.

* * * * *

We've also been trying out some different sweet potato recipes lately (see picture above). My favorite so far is super simple.

Wash two small to medium-sized sweet potatoes. Cut up into cubes or chunks. Spread in a 9x13 pan. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Bake at 375 for about 25-28 minutes. Stir up the sweet potatoes a few times during baking time.

Yum!

PS. We got a webcam this week! It's fun. We're having a good time trying out Skype and video chatting with family. Wanna chat??

WeEkEnD FuN

I adore the weekend.

There are a multitude of reasons why. No work. Sleeping in past 6 AM. Spending two full days with my sweetie. Popcorn. Fun and excitement. Doing whatever we want on our own schedule.

This weekend was no exception.

Friday night we had a Wild West date night. Nachos, root beer, and poker. Watch out Vegas!

Saturday we visited the Gila Valley Temple for the open house. We went with some friends and ended up running into several other good friends as well. The temple is gorgeous - it includes the most pieces of original artwork of any of the temples. Pretty cool...

Saturday night we went to a Glee concert. I also adore the music and the wit of Glee, so the concert was awesome! If it hadn't come to my city, I would have been sad. As it was, I only heard about the concert the day prior - after googling the concert, I wouldn't rest until I had obtained tickets :) It was so-o-o worth it!

Maybe I'll start using the camera more to document the happenings around here...

Something Old...Something New...

Something Old

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Steve. Steve had a cell phone - it was a used cell phone, one passed down from his mother-in-law when his old one broke. This phone was a good ol' phone...until about a month ago. Steve was turning off the ringer when he dropped it on the hard ground. Oops, the speaker-corner of the phone broke. No worries! Steve is resourceful and was able to piece it back together enough to keep it working. For another month. Then last Friday happened...

I guess that phone had been dropped one too many times cuz the screen just plain quit working. It was white all the time. Steve wasn't able to access his contact list, see texts, or see who was calling him. But the phone still worked...

Steve was still able to receive and make calls - he even figured out how to get into his text message folder and forward a received text to my phone!

By Saturday, that poor phone had broken completely in half! Exhibit A:

But the phone still worked...

Steve is resourceful. He discovered that he didn't need the earpiece to use his phone - all he needed to do was set the phone to speakerphone and he could receive calls and still talk on the phone! Amazing. Simply amazing. 

Exhibit B:

I call it his walkie-talkie phone - he doesn't like that so much :)  

Fast forward to today: Steve now has a fully functional phone. Another hand-me-down - we like those best! Happily it is a phone in one piece. I think I'll test it out by texting him all day long tomorrow...

Something New

Once upon a time there was a girl named CinderSara - oops, I mean Sara. She had a cute little Saturn. She and the Saturn had been together since 2003.

But one day, Sara got married to a boy that loved the great outdoors: hiking, camping, fishing, etc. Sara was fond of those things as well. This boy, though, he also drove a small sedan and it was clear the couple needed a vehicle with a bit higher clearance in order to go off-roading and make it to the fun places for camping and hiking.

Thus began the search for a new vehicle. 

After months of planning, researching, and test-driving, the two found a car suitable for their needs. Meet Ebony:

Steve had fun snapping pictures :)

 Do we look good together?

Now you're all caught up on the latest happenings at our house...

It's All Good

This week was teacher appreciation week.

As I teach in a low-income neighborhood at a school with an extremely high mobility rate, it's not unusual to go the entire week without a student or parent acknowledging that it's teacher appreciation week. I'm over it.

However, my principal did go to the trouble of making it a little bit special for us:

• Day 1: A nice little note and two reams of paper in our boxes
• Day 2: A little gift - a two pen set
• Day 3: A treat
• Day 4: A chair massage
• Day 5: A lunch of Subway sandwiches, carrot cake, and mini candy bars

And get this: one of my co-worker's fiance brought us Krispy Kremes and coffee for breakfast...just because he wanted to! It was super sweet.

But something happened to me today that was worth more than all the yummies and small tokens of appreciation from my principal.

I got a graduation announcement from a former student. It had the usual graduation announcement along with a small note inviting me to an open house to celebrate her graduation. But she also included a personal note. 

"Mrs. Thompson, Looking back I can recall sitting in your fifth grade class, loving every minute of it. I wish I could return to your classroom now as a senior...Your dedication to teaching has inspired me, and I would like to thank you for making such a difference in my education. I sincerely hope to see you on the BIG night :)"

I'm flattered. Happy. It made me cry. So many days I come home and beat my head against the wall. It seems I'm more of a dictator and a disciplinarian than teacher most days - and I know that was true with the class I had when she was a student - I remember some of her classmates! So, it's nice to hear that ONE person got something out of it. 

I can do this.

PS. This particular student once invited me to help her family brand cattle on their ranch. I totally did it. In fact, they gave me the job of tagging the cattle. I was given a gun with tags, told to be very careful not to hit a vein, and that was it! I admit I was nervous tagging the first few...but I figured out the safest place to tag them and I was on a roll :) That experience is one I won't forget...