An Update....

Well, we've been busy as usual. Let's see if I can give a run-down and an overview for the coming week (though, this coming week doesn't look QUITE so crazy-busy).

Last week we did only review and testing. The fact that we spent the WHOLE week on review and testing..... Well, I wish we'd only had to do that for half the week, not the whole week. But we're also not quite as far behind as I thought we were.

UNFORTUNATELY, the test book that we were using for the testing these past few days turns out to be the WRONG test book, so now Tay is redoing her tests in the correct book. Although both books have some answers different, I'm giving her the go-ahead to use the FIRST test book as help for the SECOND test book, since she should only have had to do ONE test, NOT two. If Scott and I had figured that out in time, that is. *sigh*

We've had our share of head-aches this past week. A couple of fights. But not QUITE as many as the previous couple of weeks. Primarily due to the fact that she was doing MAINLY review of her lessons and testing.

I DID finally get the application for Family Centered Services of Alaska dropped off on Friday. The woman who needs to review the app. was out that day, though. She'll be back in today and I'm expecting a phone call from her, hopefully this morning. So that puts us at a couple of days behind for getting her an appointment for assessement.

So, besides schooling, we had a normally-busy work-week, but then a lot of extra stuff on the weekend.

We had hockey pictures last Tuesday.

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I had to chuckle during a conversation with Mom the other day. We were talking about Dad and his plans for the next few weeks. (Keep him in your prayers, would ya? It appears he may have a hernia that might lay him up for a few weeks in Spokane.) Evidently Dad is finally talking to my middle sister again, after their "spat" over whether or not Dad was going to stay at Shelli's place in AZ. (The problem was not Dad staying at Shelli's place, but that he never LEFT. For anything except grocery shopping, from what Shelli said. And when she finally spoke up and expressed her need for some alone-time and that maybe he could go visit friends in a different part of the state for a few days, Dad got all upset over being "kicked out" and took off in a huff the next day. Well, finally they're "talking" again, according to Mom.

Then Mom made some comment about how everybody in the family is Passive-Aggressive EXCEPT me. *snort & chuckle* I told Mom that I am VERY passive-agressive, but I've made it a point to try NOT to be, just like I've made it a point to TRY to be more outgoing than I am naturally. (I'm naturally very shy and something of a hermit. I have to force myself out of it. But when I do force those boundaries I feel much better.) It's all in the attempt to change some of the negatives about myself that I see. (Not the physical negatives so much as the emotional negatives.) It's no different than somebody working on their anger issues (which, I should also be addressing, apparently) or their self-steem issues. For me, it's addressing my shyness and passive-aggressiveness. I'm still intensely shy, and passive-aggressive, but I force myself to be outgoing, and I force myself to speak my mind, at least some of the time.

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Friday I had off work, of course, for my weekend. BUT, I had to go to town to take that Application in. I also did my grocery shopping while I was in town. Spent a good bit more money than the hubby was hoping. *sigh* Oh well, along with the usual FOOD groceries, I also bought more expensive stuff such as dish-washer detergent, and toilet paper, and extra strength tylenol. AND I got some storage orginizer type stuff: a couple of wire racks for the master bath cabinets, and one for Tay's bathroom; and 2 plastic food storage cannisters to make storing food in the cabinet so much easier. To this point, most of our pastas, beans, and goodies such as chocolate chips and marshmallows have simply been thrown in a cabinet with NO attention paid to how well this stuff stacks. Getting two more allowed me to put all the christmas-cooking type goodies in them and freed up some room in my cabinets under my microwave. I need to get more for pastas and beans, though. I've got one canister holding our split-peas (taken out of the bags) and one holding bags of 15-bean-soup-mix, but I need to get more for pastas. I've reused spaghetti-sauce jars and pickle jars for some of this stuff, but those jars just don't stack neatly. Rubber-maid may be made of plastic, but at least it stacks nicely leaving room for other things to be stacked on top of it.

Anyway, after I got home Friday and got groceries put away, and Scott got off work, we cleaned house. Well, not the computer room or our bedroom & bathroom, but the rest of the house. Vacuumed the living room, computer room, and Tay's bedroom, as well as around the edges of the kitchen to get the dust bunnies. Then I scrubbed the kitchen floor; cleaned up my stove-top; we decluttered the living room and kitchen; made Tay give her room a tidying and clean up her bathroom.

I also made beef Borscht for dinner. Scott and Tay were both rather nervous about trying soup made with beets, but having had it once before myself, I was pretty sure they'd like it. And, they did. Though Scott really didn't want to admit it right off. *grin* It was a little more brothy than I would have prefered, but flavor wise, tasted very good.

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Saturday, did more cleaning in the morning, then had hockey till almost 4 pm (the practice started at 2:15, but we had a parent meeting afterward).

One of the other dad's kinda ticked me off at the parent meeting, as well. This guy, John, tends to be a busy body. He started running the meeting, even though he's not team manager (not even one of the coaches) before the team manager even arrived in the room. Then he started telling everybody how they'd better show up to the Frisbee-sales thing at the Nanooks (University hockey team) that night. When I told him (and the team manager, who'd finally arrived) that we wouldn't be making it that night because we had dinner plans that'd been made for a week and a half (and had only found out about the frisbee-sales thing on Friday), John had the audacity to lay into me about our responsibilities to the hockey team. Supposedly we're supposed to drop any other plans if we get last minute notice of hockey stuff. He made some dumb-ass comments about how our hockey team is our family and our responsibility to the hockey team comes first, anything else can wait. That whatever team-building activities are planned come before anything else, and if that's not possible then maybe we shouldn't be playing hockey. *snort* What an ass! I told him that hockey is PART of my life, but not ALL our life, and we've got OTHER family that came BEFORE we got on this hockey team. He didn't care for that much. *wry smile*

Finally got home and got started on making dinner.

The inlaws came over for supper, bringing the YOUNGER nephew (Grant) with them. (The one that broke the brand-new Wii set-up his mom got, on the day she got it.) He was, as predicted, a little PITA. I wish the inlaw's had had the older nephew (Aaron) this past weekend. That kiddo's old enough to have learned some manners at school (because his Mom sure doesn't "DO" manners) and he gets on well with Tay. AND he's starting to show some maturity in the handling of possessions, so letting him loose in the house wouldn't have been so nerve-racking for me as it was with Grant.

Anyway, Mom sent us a box of cheese from Wisconsin when she was there a couple of weeks back and told us to be sure and share with the inlaws, as the FIL was born & raised in Wisconsin. Scott was born in Wisconsin himself, but was only 3 when they left, so he remembers WI about as I well as I remember Germany. (Which is to say, not at all.)

I also made a container of Yogurt-cheese called Labahne (sp?). I drained most of a carton of plain, organic yogurt (cheesecloth or coffee filters inside a strainer, over a bowl, to get most of the moisture out of the yogurt), and added crushed garlic, italian seasoning, and some black pepper. It was a very yummy soft cheese.

Then we grilled bratwursts and put them into a beer-pot upon taking them off the grill: Lambeau Field style. *grin*

The cheeses were all very good, though the inlaws refused to try my yogurt-cheese. Wish we had more of a chance to visit with the inlaws, though. They had to leave very shortly after dinner because Grant was getting too far out of hand and starting to be very disrespectful of my home.

As soon as the inlaws left, Scott took Tay to spend the night at a friend's house. One of her former soccer-mates had invited her over. Tay's been trying to get ahold of this girl for a while for a sleep-over (though, we origionally invited Kelsey to sleep over here), but they've been as busy as we have, it seems. Anyway, so Scott and I got some couple time Saturday night. That was nice.

*****

Then, back to work yesterday. I came home and proceeded to get on with the business of cooking dinner. Tay asked for shrimp, so I bought some at the store on Friday. I made "Dirty Shrimp in Butter Beer Sauce" over minute rice, and a beet-green salad (done just like I do our Swiss Chard in the summer) using the greens left from the beets that I put in our borscht. It was very yummy. In fact, it was hard to say last night which tasted better: the shrimp, or the salad. *grin*

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Beet-Green or Swiss Chard Salad

a large bunch or two (depends on how much you want to make) of greens, stems cut off (some of them chopped up and set aside) and greens cut or torn into bite size pieces

1/2 pound bacon, fried to crisp, keep 3 to 4 Tbsp of the bacon grease in the pan you cooked the bacon in, save the rest of the grease for something else, or discard

1 small (or 1/2 large) white onion, diced

1/2 c vinegar (I use 1/4 c each apple cider vinegar and white vinegar)

1/4 c sugar

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

3 or 4 hard boiled eggs, shelled and chopped to bits

Sautee the onion and pieces of beet/chard stems in the bacon grease till soft & tender, add vinegar, sugar, salt & pepper and simmer for a couple of minutes till reduced just a bit. Turn sauce to HIGH just for a moment before pouring sauce over greens in seperate bowl. Toss greens well and quickly with sauce, and cover with foil. The greens need to wilt just a bit before serving. Just before serving, crumble in bacon and chopped egg, and toss to mix.

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Dirty Shrimp in Butter-Beer Sauce

2 pounds shrimp, peeled & uncooked
4 Tbsp butter (or mix of butter and olive oil)
3 tsp italian seasoning
1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 to 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (we used the 1/4 tsp for each of these two)
2 tsp minced garlic (or 2 or 3 cloves pressed garlic)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 c beer

Add all herbs & spices to oil in pot and sautee quickly for a minute. Add shrimp to pot and sautee till the shrimp is almost completely cooked. Add in beer and simmer for just one more minute. Serve over rice, or angel-hair pasta, and with plenty of crusty french bread to sop up the sauce.

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So, this coming week is more of the same. More schooling, more work. Friday night I'll be going to a ritual with a couple of work buddies up outside of town in the hills. It's the first ritual I've ever been to. I'm looking forward to it. Spiritually I've been stagnating lately, and I miss feeling that connection between the divine and my spiritual self.

Saturday, Tay's got practice at 8 am in town, then a game at 2 pm up at the U. Because the practice is so early, she's going to have to be in early from Trick or Treating. She's not terribly happy about that little fact. Most of her friends will get to stay out till 10 or 11 pm, she's got to be in by 9 and getting ready for bed because of that early morning practice.

So, that's the run-down. That's what we've been up to, what we're looking forward to. I'm sorry I've been so horrible about getting to everybody's blogs. I've actually been to visit a couple of times a week, but I rarely have the time to post anything. Esp. as I'm blog-hopping in between fights with Tay. *sigh* (And, quite honestly, my mood has been so sour due to those fights that I'm reluctant to comment on blogs afraid that my sourness is going to carry over into whatever I would have to say in my comments.)

Have a Blessed Day!