Friday's Favorite Fave

It's time to get back on the FFF bandwagon!  Link up with Susanne by clicking on the picture.

1.  A good band booster meeting.  It was actually quite fun.  A lot of laughing, and no stress involved in this one.  I guess we're like a family:  we'll have our spats, but then it's done and we move on.

2.  Getting new Pampered Chef stuff!  I just got a few little odds & ends, but oh how I love Pampered Chef!

3.  Getting some soap products in the mail.  Some goodies for the boys for Valentine's Day, and some foot lotion for me.  This stuff is great!  I'm so glad my SIL took me by the store over Christmas Break.  I like Bath & Body Works, but would much rather support local businesses. 

4,  Some relief.  A couple of weeks ago when I had the chest congestion/cough, I did something to my ribs...possibly.  Then, I did something really stupid:  I went to the chiropractor for an adjustment and didn't tell him about it.  Not one of my smartest moments.  I went back last Friday and told him what happened.  He worked his magic, and it feels much better.  It still hurts, but at least I can breath!

5.  Jeans Day and  barbecue.  The superintendent is visiting my mountain school today, so we got to wear jeans yesterday.  And, since I'm at a different school today, I get to wear jeans again!  I love to wear my jeans and sweatshirt/fleece/tshirts on Fridays!

What were some of the highlights of your week?

First Fall FFF

Here are the FFF of the week:

1.  Finding this in a grocery store that I don't frequent very often:

 

We toured the brewery when we were in Copenhagen last year.  It didn't taste as good as the ones we had in Denmark, but it still was pretty good!

2.  A quiet weekend....just CH & me.  The high school had an away game that was 1 1/2 hours away.  We opted to stay home.  On Saturday YS went to Oktoberfest with the German Class.  The funny thing is that he doesn't take German.  He asked the teacher if he could tag along, and there was room for him to go.  My boys are definitely not shy!

3. 

MS' Rugby Team won the SEC 7 on 7 Championship on Saturday.  He was so excited!  Even though I know nothing about Rugby, I can't wait to watch a match!

4.  YS' 16th birthday.  I can't believe it's been 16 years since we were blessed with such a wonderful surprise!  All 10 pounds, 22 inches of him.  And, I had him naturally (although not by choice!).

Then:

And now:

5.  The beginning of our "Sisters' Weekend".  Every year my mom, sisters, and sisters-in-law get away for a weekend of togetherness.  We eat too much, drink too much, laugh, shop, and sometimes there may be an argument or two!   A movie may be watched, and usually there's a football game on the tv on Saturday.  I love, love, LOVE my sisters!  This year there will be 8 of us.  Don't worry, there will be an update next week!

Don't forget Follow Friday 40 and Over!

FFF is Back!

I haven't participated in FFF lately, so I thought I'd get with it this week!  Here are this week's FFF:

1.  High school football games.  It's like a school reunion on Friday nights.  Seriously.  As I was walking to the restroom, I heard my name.  I looked around, and saw 2 ladies that were in one of my brother's class.  I hadn't seem them in a long, long time.  I also saw a few of my classmates.

2.  The 1st half of the UT game.  Only the first half.  The score at halftime:  13-13.  The score at the end of the game:  48-13.  I think they have a lot of work to do.  Florida is coming to town on Saturday.  Let's hope they can string 4 good quarters together.

3.  MS going to school close by.  He and a few of his new friends came by on Tuesday night for about an hour.  If he lived farther away, I wouldn't have a chance to meet his friends or have him come by expectantly.  (Sorry, AuburnChick... I'm not rubbing it in!) It's nice to know that he has chosen friends who appear to be good people and have their heads on straight.

4.  An intern who knows what she's doing.  Yep, I have another intern this semester.  I'm convinced that having grad students as interns is completely different than having undergrad students.  

5.  A new blog to read:  Jeannie's Happy World.  Jeannie is an army wife who just moved to Italy.  She has just started some new Thursday posts:  Queen Lessons.  Intrigued?  You should be!  I can't wait to become the queen I know I can be!  It's not too late to get started:  she just posted  an introduction today. My friend Karen blogged about the Queen Lessons, and I hopped on the train!

And, a "bonus" favorite of the week.  This is a commercial that I saw on Saturday.  Love it!

Don't forget Follow Friday 40 and Over!

Friday's Fave Five, Friday Follow, AND Flashback Friday

1.  This has to be #1 on my list for this week!  Spending the day with this handsome young man:

2. A quote from one of the school psychologists from her Facebook Status:   
"I'm going to alter my thinking so that instead of looking at this as the last day of summer vacation, I'm going to think of tomorrow as the first day toward next summer break."

3.  An unexpected dinner out.  I bought some chicken that already had marinade on it.  Add that to husband grilling at 500 degrees and what do you get?  WHOOSH!  I looked outside and noticed there was an awful lot of smoke out there!  Good thing the hose was close by!  And, to top that off, when we got  to the restaurant and I opened up the menu, the first thing I saw was:  Crispy Chicken Salad.  I think the waitress thought I was out of my mind when I started laughing!

4.   A quote from another friend on Facebook:   
"Some say the glass is half full some say half empty; I say who keeps drinking my drink?"

5.  The last lunch of summer with YS.  I go back to work today, and he picks up his schedule, then he starts classes on Monday.  Where did the summer go?   But more importantly:  when am I going to get in my afternoon naps?


 What are your FFF for the week?  Go visit Susanne and link up!   Don't forget to link up at Java's for Follow Friday 40 and Over!

Okay, okay!  This week's Flashback is pretty good, so I've gotta participate in it, too!

What were meals like when you were growing up? Did your mom (or dad) cook (and was it from scratch or from a box?) or did your family eat out much of the time? Did you eat together as a family or was everyone on a different schedule? What did you call meals? (Dinner vs. supper, lunch, etc.) 
As a rule, we ate supper together.  In fact, it was  rare when all 12 of us (10 kids  + mom & dad) didn't all sit down together.  We had a really long table with chairs on one side, and a long bench on the other.  At either end there were chairs for mama & daddy.  The older kids got to sit in the chairs, so it was a big deal  as they started moving out and someone else took their place.   Mom did all of the cooking since she was a stay at home mom.  Although, she says that she didn't know how to cook when she & daddy got married and credits daddy with teaching her how to cook.  For breakfast and lunch we were pretty much on our own.  I do remember when I was little, sitting down as a family for Sunday brunch. 
What were some of your favorite things that your parent fixed? What did you dislike and vow never to fix once you grew up? 
It seems like  we had roast a bunch on Sundays.  I absolutely hated lima beans.  One time, I came to supper with my batman boots, slid them off, and snuck the beans into the slippers.  (One of the advantages to being in a big family...my parents were preoccupied with someone else!)
Did your family have any food traditions, things that were a must on certain occasions (such as Sunday dinners or holiday meals)? 
I've already mentioned Sunday brunch.  Holidays were major meals!  Easter:  ham & potato salad, Christmas & Thanksgiving:  Turkey & mashed potatoes.  Of course we had other things; those were just the "main" parts!  OH, and how can I forget Friday nights?  Being Catholic, we either had fish sticks, mac & cheese, and peas OR "Catholic Casserole", aka Tuna Casserole.  It wasn't until we had all grown up that mama found out daddy didn't like fish sticks & peas!  The poor man stuck it out all those years!
Did your parent teach you to cook or did you wing it once you were grown? How similar or different are your family's eating habits today than when you grew up?
I pretty much winged it after I got married.  Mama was never farther than a phone call away, and she got plenty of calls!
We eat together as a family as much as we can.  That may mean that we eat later or earlier than usual, but we think it's  very important to come together at least once a day.  We eat out some...when I was growing up we never ate out.  I think I was in jr. high before I had ever even been to a fast food restaurant.  When I was in jr.high or high school (I don't remember exactly when this happened), daddy's job changed in the company and he switched shifts every week or so.  When he was on night shift, that was "hamburger week"!  It gave mama a little big of a break from cooking, and gave us a rare treat!
When people I've known for most of my life reminisce about coming over to our house, they always talk about the long table with the bench against the wall.  And the noise.  We were happy eaters!

Share your answers by linking up at Linda's!

Friday's Fave Five: July

 

Once again, Susanne at Living to tell the Story is hosting Friday's Fave Five:  A time to look back over the week and pick 5 of your faves for the week! 

1.  Kolaches

 

 Oh, y'all!  These are to die for!  One of my coworkers is from Pa. and brought me back some of these.  They're from a restaurant in her hometown.  My great-aunt used to make these:  they are a Czech bread, usually a breakfast bread, with fruit or cream cheese.  These were so good; they tasted just like my great-aunt's.  My cousin sent me the recipe that her mom used, but I haven't tried them yet.  It may be time to roll  up my sleeves and try them out.

The funny thing is that the coworker & I were talking at lunch one day, and I have no idea how the topic of kolaches came up.  Anyway, I must have mentioned it or maybe she was talking about the restaurant.  I'm so very glad these lived up to the hype!

 2.    Can you see the little blue thingy in the circle?

 This little guy was a little camera shy and dug down into the soil, but not before I got a picture of his tail!  This is what the little guy's body looks  like:

 

My Jack Russell mutt loves to chase them when she sees them on the back porch.  She is the great skink hunter!

3.  My favorite side to cook with grilled chicken:

 Fresh Broccoli and Noodles

(from The Complete Step-by-Step Diabetic Cookbook)

I modify the recipe, mostly by not really measuring out anything!  Here's how I fix  it:

Cook egg noodles (amount will depend on how many servings you need to get out of this recipe)

Slice mushrooms (of course I use my Pampered Chef Egg Slicer!)

You can use fresh or frozen broccoli (thawed), and since I'm lazy I already had some frozen broccoli, I used that.  Mix the broccoli and mushrooms in a preheated (medium-high heat) skillet that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  You can add chopped onions, too, but I just put in some onion powder because I forgot to get an onion!  

Check out how nice the mushrooms look when you use the slicer:

Stir-fry until broccoli is tender (about 4 minutes).

Add garlic powder, pepper, and salt.  

Stir in noodles and 2-3 T margarine.

Cook over medium-high heat, stirring gently, until margarine is melted.

The finished product:

Quick, easy, and oh so good!

4.  I've gotta show y'all how much my New Guinea Impatients have grown.  Looks like  I've finally found something that will grow in the planter on my front porch!  

This is before:

And now:

No wonder the skink likes it in there so much!

5.  Sam Elliott in Did you Hear About the Morgans.  Oh, my.  Now that's a man!  And he looks just as good now as he did the first time I saw him in a movie many years ago (which I think was Tombstone).  They don't make men like that any more.  He may even trump Jethro.  It's  awfully close!

I finally got around to watching that movie yesterday.  I don't really care for Sarah Jessica Parker, but,  let me tell you, she has somebody giving her some excellent advice as far as what movies she is in.   

Okay, I've gotta get this one in, too, even though I've already got my "Five" in!  It cooled off enough Thursday morning that I was able to sit outside  with a coffee and spend some time reading a book.  It doesn't get much better than this:

Oh, I've found another "reality show" that I'm really enjoying:  Police Women of Memphis on TLC.  My favorite is Aubrey.  She looks like a little girl, but she's one tough woman.  And what a great sense of humor.  Husband & I were watching a marathon of the show the other day, and we both talked about how sad it is that some people live like that, and think it's normal.  I shouldn't be surprised...I have a lot of students who live  in a world very similar to that.

Thanks for checking out my FFF!  Feel free to link up at Susanne's and see what kind of week everybody else had!

Also, go by Java's and participate in Follow Friday 40 and Over...all you have to do is link up and go visiting!

FFF

It's been a couple of weeks since I participated in FFF, so I thought I'd join in at Susanne's this week.
This is actually from the past 2 or 3 weeks, so bear with me!

1.  Check out this bowl that we got from Husband's uncle and lady friend (LF)  from Denmark:

       The designer is Georg Jensen, who is a very popular Danish designer.  He has the coolest stuff, but most of  it's  a little out of my price range!


2.  Sharing my mountains with Husband's uncle and LF:

3.  Discovering a series of books:  Andrew Greeley is a priest (I had no  idea until I finished the 1st book and read the bio on the back!), sociologist, and author.  He is the author of a series of books that begin with the word "Irish".  I read the 2nd book and am currently reading the 1st.   (The library didn't have the 1st one when I found the books.)   The main characters are an Irish young lady and an Irish-American young man.  She is from a poor  family out in the country, he is from an upper class from Chicago.  In the first book, she is an accountant student, singer, and actress working her way through school.   He does nothing.  He went to Notre Dame to play football, but quit the team halfway through the year.  He then went to Marquette, but didn't finish.  So, he worked with stocks.  Apparently he wasn't very good at it, until one day (quite by accident), he accidentally bought a lot more stock than he should have.  The next work day, he went in, and the stocks ended up making him millions of dollars, which he invested.  I should have such luck!
Anyway, (and this is the kind of strange part) she has visions that she has to have explained.  In the second book (which I read first), she sees what turns out to be people from a civil war prisoner of war camp.  They research (or rather, he  does because he doesn't have a job and she does!) and find out what really happened.  In the first book (which I'm currently reading), his grandparents were involved in the IRA, but they had to leave Ireland and were told if they came back they would be shot.  So, he is trying to figure out why.  Of course the books are fiction, but they do have some history and even a little bit of romance mixed in.

4.  Nice Metro workers in DC.  Anytime I had a question, YS' farecard didn't work, and LF's farecard not having enough exit fare, the workers were courteous and most helpful.

5.  A  short, spur of the moment  vacation.

To participate, link up at Susanne's Living to Tell the Story.