I changed the picture at the top

Isnt that monarch beautiful?  It reminds me of spring...cant wait til it gets here!

Same stuff different day

Well sorta.  We got up early.  DH had off and wanted Mickey D's.  Yuck.  I didnt eat any.  I got donuts at Publix.  Am I bad or what?  Ohhhh they are sooooo goood.  But DH got sick afterwards and said this was the absolutely last time he was going to Mickey D's to eat.  We try not to eat a lot of bad stuff here at the house and his system is just not set up to take all that grease.  I dont fry things too often.  It makes such a mess in the kitchen.  I have decided to give up all baked goods unless I make them here at the house...hope this works :)  I got some groceries at Publix while I was there.  He sat in the truck and ate his breakfast.  He likes to watch the people and doesnt want to go into the store as he works in a grocery store.

We then went and got milk from our local milk woman.  She would like that I said that I'm sure.  She is getting a new cow to milk as she had one die over Christmas.  Poor thing had a twisted gut.  We got our milk and some honey.  We've decided to give up processed sugar and try living with honey as our only sweetner.

Then we came home and he went on a bike ride and I sat down and started to type.  I didnt work yesterday as we had bad storms come through and a tornado even touched down in Huntsville.  I'm afraid I'll lose my computer if it gets zapped so usually dont work during bad storms.  No sense in tempting fate.

We need to get a new toaster oven.  The one we have now (Oster) is smoking when it gets up to a high temp and setting the fire alarm off.  Scares the bejebers out of me and the cats when it goes off.  It's worse than the weather radio honestly ;)  I have cleaned it and it still smokes so I think it has had it.  We still are using it for toast.  It doesnt seem to smoke when you do toast.  It's a good size cause we can do pizza and not heat up the big oven.  Which isnt bad in the winter but in the summer it really sucks!  And of course if one thing goes bad then something else goes as well.  I think the rice cooker is going too.  No shame in either of them cause we used the heck out of them.  DH set the timer on the rice cooker and it went off about a couple of minutes later not the 45 minutes he had programmed.  It did that to me before but I just thought I hadnt set it right.

I got DH an early birthday gift.  He wanted a waffle maker.  Not an ordinary one either.  He wanted a cast iron one.  I had to look around.  I even looked on Ebay.  I found a brand new one on Lehman's.  They have a lot of old fashioned stuff on there.  If you have a chance check them out.  http://www.lehmans.com/ Hope the link works!

I ordered some things from Nancy Zieman's site too.  They were running a special.  If you bought something you got a surprise embroidery sewing thread collection.  Wow.  They are beautiful colors.  Cant wait to try them on my new (old) embroidery machine I got off of Ebay.  I bought a skirt kit.  The cloth colors are lovely.  Now to find the time to sew.  I am getting near to finishing the two sweaters I have been working on.  Then on to finishing a pair of socks I started for DH and then there are about a dozen other things I started and havent finished including sewing, counted cross stitch, knitting, crocheting and rug making.  I really want to finish up some of my projects before I start anything new.  It's my goal for this year. 

Hope you have a goal that's reachable!

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Soup that has MSG

Cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken, clam chowder, etc, etc.  All the canned soup in my pantry had MSG in it.  At this rate I will need to go to the grocery store for something to eat!  But seriously, I make most of my soup but darn it what will I make casseroles with?

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Updating my food intake

I have been reading a book that I would like to recommend to EVERYONE to read.  It is so interesting and scared the crap out of me.  The name of the book is Sweet Deception by Dr. Joseph Mercola and Dr. Kendra Degen Pearsall.  It's all about the artificial sweeteners and FDA.  You must read this book.  I havent even gotten through the whole thing and it scared me so much I pulled out all of my stuff in my pantry and started checking labels.  I had been cutting out high frutose corn syrup but most of what I pulled from my pantry was stuff with MSG in it.  I had just been eating some chips and cheese and when I checked the label of the cheese yep it had MSG in it.  I just ate the cheese for two days and my ankles were swelling up.  This has happened before but I just blamed it on the fact that I'm so fat.  In the trash it went and I have sworn off my Tostito cheese. 

I also dont eat anything with Splenda.  If you read the book, you will see why. 

If you are interested in finding out more about MSG, please check out the website truth about MSG.  It has so much info on there. 

It amazes me that the population believes everything that these companies say when they are just trying to MAKE MONEY and dont really care about you or your family.  It's all about the bottom line, folks.

My hubby and I are going to start using less and less processed foods and more and more of our own veggies and homemade things. 

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Rainy Sunday

Kind of blah out.  I didnt sleep very much last night so took a nap and feel better now.  I am trying to get rid of most of the cookbooks I have by going through them and writing down the recipes I like on index cards cause I really have too many books.  Did I mention that I took over 10 bags of books to the library over the summer.  10 bags.  Really.  And not the small plastic bags either.  They were the fabric reusable grocery bags from Kroger and Publix and they were stuffed to the top.  I also went through my Christmas decorations  and got rid of half of that stuff too.  Now to go through my craft items and see what to keep and what to give away.  After we lost everything in a flood, I kind of went wacky buying stuff and now just have too much stuff! 

Anyway today I am typing or at least trying to get some of the dictation done.  I really just want to curl up with my knitting and a hot cup of tea but the cats need food...and so do we too lol. 

On the knitting front, I have just the fronts to finish on my kimono cardigan, it's going slow because I dont think I will have enough yarn to finish it.  Keep your fingers crossed that I do cause I really like the yarn.  And I am on the back of the little lace vest (that might become a sweater if it doesnt watch out cause you know sleeves just attach themselves to anything and everything ;)

That's it for today.

Talk to ya later!

Denise

You need to check this blog out!

If you have never read sheepish annie's blog you are in for a treat!  It is great.  She is so funny.  The most recent post talked about having babies, menopause and knitting.

Her blog is http://www.sheepishannie.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Talk to ya later!

Denise

More Ava Marie Grotto pics

This is a cavern that is all manmade.

This is Callie.  She was our tour guide...lol.

Jesus' tomb

This is to honor the lives lost in the world wars, korean war, vietnam, etc.

There are crosses for each man that lost their lives.

Chipmunk crossing!

Thus ends your tour of the Ava Maria Grotto.   There were a lot more buildings that I didnt take pics of.  If you get down this way go see this amazing place!

Canning

Yep I'm canning sauerkraut again.  This time with caraway seeds in it.  It turned out pretty good.

Am posting pics.

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Work was closed today

because of icy conditions and the severe wind chill didnt help either.  Probably I wont make my line count but oh well.  We got a total of about an inch on the ground.  DH did make it home yesterday but it did take him a while.  Since the cats needed food and DH was off today, we went to the grocery store which was open and then went to pick up milk but she was not open so no milk.  Will have to call her tomorrow and see if she actually got milk to sell.  Since the roads were so bad on Thursday I figured that she might not have made it to the farm where her cows were to milk them.  We so hope that she does not go out of business.  Dont think we can drink store bought.  It was 11 degrees when I got up this morning and actually got up to a high of 19 woo hoo!  This is the first time that they actually closed down work.  They dont close down unless the arsenal is closed and the arsenal actually closed down.  So we just kind of loafed around today and DH goes to work tomorrow.  I have a few patient's dictations to do but not many so decided to take the day off and do them tomorrow when he is not here.  Nice to spend some uninterupted time together.  Will download those snow pics I took later, now off to get supper!

Talk to ya later!

Denise

snowing

It is snowing right now and actually we are getting accumulation.  DH went to work.  I'm working here at home.  Life is good.

Results from a recent Blogthings inkblot test I took this morning:

You are Energetic and Bright


You view people with optimism. You have many meaningful relationships in your life.



You had more conflict with your father than your mother. Your relationship with him was difficult and possibly unhealthy.



You deal with stress in a fairly normal way. Stress presents a struggle for you, but you're usually able to neutralize your emotions.



You are a natural multitasker. You enjoy being busy, even if the amount of things you need to do is overwhelming.



Good to know huh?  I will be taking some pics of the snow today and working.  Maybe I will actually get some sewing or knitting done too.
 
Talk to ya later!
 
Denise

Waiting for the snow here!

Some more pics:  These are of the Ava Maria Grotto in Cullman, Al.  A monk did all of these buildings by hand.  They are made out of found materials.  Most of them are of buildings in other countries.  This monk used pictures and information in books to recreate them.

The above is the Temple of the Fairies.  Very cool.

I have more and will post later.

Talk to ya later,

Denise

And the cold continues!

It was actually down to 11 degrees this morning.  We are supposed to get snow accumulation on Thursday.  Will keep you posted. 

Here are some pics from November.  We went to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens Christmas Light Walking Tour on the 12th.  If you have the chance to go, I would highly recommend it. 

Here are the socks I completed for DH.  I call them the Tiger socks for obvious reasons.  It is an Opal yarn I got off of Ebay.  I tried to get them done for Halloween but didnt make it.  They have a different heel on them that you do without picking up stitches.  You just keep increasing on the side and then decrease.  Very easy and fast too!

They are actually black and orange.  Color didnt turn out right on this pic though. You can see the heel.

Just had to include a pic of Penny.  She always wants to play or get some kind of attention!  Here she is on "her" chair.  She was trying to help me put the Christmas tablecloth on the table.

Ok now the lines arent centered.  Dont know why that seems to be happening.  Will post more pics soon.

Talk to ya later!

Denise

12 flipping degrees!

That was our low this morning...it really sucks too.  But we have no snow which is good for driving although they are calling for snow.  We will have to see.  It gets crazy down here when it snows.

Here are some more pics for your enjoyment.  I will get them all posted...ahem...

Here is the first package I received from MaryJane's farm secret sister.  It is a yoyo kit with pattern and cloth.  Havent made it up yet.

This is the necklace I bought from MaryJane's farm.  It has my farmgirl number on it.  Isnt it fabulous.  You can purchase one on her site but only if you are a farmgirl and pay a yearly fee.  I'm going to try to get my farmgirl patches too.

This is the other side of the necklace.

This is the last monarch butterfly I saw this year.  It really loved my cosmos alot.  Speaking of cosmos, they really grew large at least three feet.  Is this normal?  They had a lot of blooms on them and I saved some seeds to plant this year.

Next up Christmas pics!

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Dont know why all the lines are centered, they just are...

picture time!

Here are some pics that I have been saving on my camera until now.  Yes since September if you can believe that.  New Year = New resolutions such as getting the pics off of the camera in a timely fashion!

Here is a pic of my chandelier in the dining room that hubby and I put up.  All crystals and everything, isnt it wonderful?

Here is the ginger jam and lime jam that I tried to do.   It didnt gel...grrr.  But it makes a wonderful topping for ice cream!  The lime jam is really good not really sour at all probably because I reprocessed it after this pic was taken and added some more sugar and it still didnt gel.  See me rolling my eyes?

This is the yarn owl I won online at Sweater Babe.com.  You open up the little snaps and put the yarn in there, snap it back up and can hang it off of your wrist or belt.  Really cool product.  You can find them on Etsy.

Here's the artist's info.

Here is our homemade sauerkraut.  DH shredded all the cabbage for me and then we sprinkled it with salt, stuffed it in a large glass jar (all we had) and topped it off with a kitchen bag filled with water.  It turned out great.  If you have never had homemade sauerkraut give it a try.  It is sooooo much better than store bought.

Finally the dilly beans that I canned.

They turned out all right!  Although I found out after I had made them that DH does not like them.  Oh well more for me! lol.

This is Molly "helping" DH with the oat bucket.  DH rolls his own oats for his morning oatmeal.

I will be posting more pics as I find the time so stay tuned!

Talk to ya later!

Denise