Ho Hum, Ta dum, La Rum...

I am sitting on the couch reminiscing of the past week. What a wonderful past few days!

We drove into Kansas on Christmas Eve. It was Brrrrrr-REEZING! Boscoe was happy to be home. We had delicious smells swirl under our noses as we trudged up the driveway. Chinese 5 Spice Turkey will make your taste buds crazy! Dad had been cooking all day and yielded Turkey, Sautéed Cabbage, Jasmine Rice, Chili, Salsa, Eggs with Soy Sauce, Tortilla chips, Stir Fried Turkey...and the list goes on!

Christmas morning I was up to prepare a Christmas breakfast for everyone but my dad beat me to it! He was awake a 5:30 a.m. making Kow Peik Sen. (We have different traditions at our house but we roll with Dad's punches at his house.) We ate and recapped our lives since the last time we were together. We watched a lot of funny videos of William and waited for Kim to come over to open gifts. Wonderful thought felt gifts that had been carefully selected. It was such a fun evening. We finished it off by driving through the Isle of Lights in Winfield. There have been a lot of additions since 2006 (The last time I drove through there.) The best part was seeing a dedication sign for Misha Davis. She was my best friend in High School. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about her. I miss you so much my friend. I can't wait to see you again!

December 26th was a fun time spent with my mom. We went to her house where she greeted us with her own Pho divinity. Being at mom's house always means mouth-watering foods. We exchanged gifts and went to do some shopping. We visited one of her favorite Vietnamese Jewelry Stores where she tried to convince Carl I needed a 3-carat diamond. Not needed, sinfully coveted... we simply walked away and thought about what we would do if we had the 5 thousand dollars the ring was being sold for! We ventured to 2 Asian Markets where Ranee stocked up on, otherwise known as, "exotic" foods in the middle of Wyoming. I told her to move to Texas already cause the wild sheep are tired of looking at her. Ha! Hopefully my sister will be able to come visit soon.

On Saturday we stopped by Sue and Den's to see Lisa and Vay. Vay likes me much better on the telephone. She's so big and cuddly and cute! Sorry the visit was so short sis! It sure was good to give you a hug at least!

Sunday was a great day at Church as usual. Sacrament was full of great speakers, Sunday school is always a blast and the lessons in Relief Society were terrific!

Monday I went in to take an aptitude test for the job I interviewed the last week and it was so difficult! It had all of these fractions and math silliness that I prefer not to indulge in on any other normal day. The gal told me that Matt (CEO) preferred to call me and speak to me personally. That made me nervous because of the test but I spoke to him at 8:00 p.m. after he flew into town and he offered me the job! You are now visiting the blog of the Admin. Assist. for Residential Leasing and Management. Guess what? I LOVE IT.

Tuesday was my first day and I loved it from the get go. The girls are super nice and Matt's awesome. His wife also pops into the office once a week and she is pretty great too. It's going to be a lot of fun! Busy but not extremely high pressure.

Wednesday night we had a New Year's Eve party. It was so much fun! It never fails to amaze me; we know a fabulous group of people here that we call friends! Here are some photos. You can see the kids loved the toy room and how happy we all are to be together! (Mary Jane, You'll have to email me the pictures you took too :)

P.S. You'll never guess how much the party cost! Granted, everyone brought a little some'in some'in, so that helped me a lot! 15 adults, 6 kids and 3 babies total 24 people. Grand total for party: $26.08!

Menu:
20 pounds Chicken with Rose's Secret Barbecue Sauce
10 pounds Baked Poatoes 6 pounds real Bacon bits (Thank you for Guajardo's Sour Cream & Zmolick's plethora of Cheddar Cheese)
4 pounds Pasta Salad
1 jar El Pinto's Hot Salsa (On sale at Brookeshire Brother's for ONE DOLLAR! Chips compliments of Guajardo Family)
1 Baked Bean Layer Dip
1 Three layered Vanilla Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting and Caramel Drizzle
2 Dozen Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 1/2 Dozen Fudge Brownies (Yummy Yum! Thanks MJ and Bryan!)

It was a huge success and lots of fun. The award for being "Addicted to Parties" goes to Josh! If it weren't for him and Xan's food storage, we might not have been able to afford the party! LOL.

The kids had a rousing game of hide'n'seek, we all lit fireworks and twirled sparklers. The more daring and/or talented sang the night away with karaoke. What a fun night!

I hope everyone's New Year was as wonderful as ours was. We're only sad to have missed our families and our friends who couldn't be here. We missed you and love you lots!



Thursday we had the day off. I have been extremely happy for Sundays since I get to sleep in until 7:00 a.m. yesterday I slept until 8:00 a.m.! It was so nice! Church is switching to 10:30 a.m. for Sacrament so maybe we can stay up a little latr on Saturdays now. I'll let you know how that goes.

The cleaning was calling my name so I put on my fuzzy slippers and out came the Rosie.

Josh and Xan came over and thy helped with the cleaning festivities. Josh vacuumed and Xan helped me to do some dishes.

While the boys went off to find an adventure, we started to bead a gift for our friend Allison’s Birthday. It turned out Carl and Josh jetted of to Frisbee Golf. Carl doesn't have any discs so he borrowed Matt Hong's. (Thanks Matt!)

I forgot to take picture of the goodies we made for Alison but here is necklace I came up with:



So sorry my neck is wrinkly and old looking, they say to always moisturize before modeling jewelry. Ah, well.

Well, we won't be eating "out" again until 2010...

We are on our happy way to Kansas. It rained for about 15 minutes and it's 73 degrees on I45 North.

Boscoe is snuggly in his Ohio State Blanket.


Gas was a great deal this morning!

Carl's monster truck only took $40.00 to fill to the brim! We even had to squeeze the last few cents into the tank.

Now, back to the post on hand. We decided since we have been doing so great with our hunger challenges and we have cut our grocery bill from $400.00/month to $120.00/month, we deserved a little special holiday treat. We decided to indulge in a McDonald's breakfast!

OH MY GOARSCH!!!

Guess how much it was for the two of us. Did you guess NINE DOLLARS AND SIXTY CENTS?! $9.60 or NINE SIXTY? Anyway you say it, it would still shock me!

We will resume our hunger challenge. In fact, we like it. The thrill of a good deal always makes people happy. The enjoyment of great tasting food is ten-fold when you know you're hitting a terrific budget to boot!

That's it for now. Merry Christmas Eve!!!

I don't think they make a box big enough...

If there was a box big enough, could you wrap that for me?

Most of you know how I think without end. It's most like the Lamb Chops song, incessant...Ya know, "This is the song that never ends....Yes it goes on and on my friends..." My brain waves resemble a pattern Superman, hopped up on a boat load of caffeine, would leave in the sky. It definitely keeps everyday life interesting!

Today, I have a job interview. It is for a Real Estate Administrative position. I'm a little bit nervous and a little bit excited! (A feeling that I wish could be packaged as part of "gift".)I have so much energy and no children to run after! That's a lot of biscuits!

Example:

I have been experimenting with my extreme frugal side. Yesterday, I got a smokin' hot deal on Pork Butt Roast at H-E-B. $0.67/pound! Yeah. AMAZING (love that store!)

Once the little porker was in my happy little hands, paid for and totally mine, we went home to visit the little house on the prairie side of Rose. (I would have felt extra special if we were on the ranch in Wyoming. No central heat, wood burning stove and enough power to use 2 juice savvy modern things. Two outlets or 1 light bulb, one outlet. 1 light bulb and the microwave could be on at a time... More on that later.)

I cut away the meat from the bone. It yielded, beautifully:
1 - 0.9/lb of Pork Fat
1 - 3.0/lb Roast with Bone
1 - 1.0/lb Boneless Roast Sliced
2 - 1.0/lb Boneless Roast(s)
2 - 2.0/lb Boneless Roast(s)

With this I will boil the Bone-In Roast for Stock and use the meat for Pork Roast and Sauerkraut (This is what I did last week and it was scrum-di-li-umptious!) I bagged and froze the 4 Boneless Roasts. Sliced Pork is marinating in Chinese Barbeque Spice. I cooked the Pork Fat in cubes for Chicharonnes (Pork Rinds)in an oil-free Fry Daddy which rendered the purest Lard after straining! I then baked homemade dinner rolls with the lard...OH MAN! The only part I will throw out is the Bone. THAT is pioneering to the fullest and you know what? It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again! (That would have to be part 2 of the Christmas gift, if I could box that up.)

We have been limbo-ing the idea of going to Kansas to spend my dad's last Christmas in the State's with him. After much thought, we have indeed decided to go. (Chaulk that up to number 3 please.)

Jordan is coming down from Dallas to stay with Boscoe while we are away. That means I get to feed him and his friend from Ohio tonight. I love a giant food spread! That means I get to cook it up extra special! (Say it with me: FOUR.)

Life is so great. I have so much to be thankful for. The blessings can really add up!

5. Health
6. Love
7. Roof over my head
8. Clothes on my back
9. Means to support my family
10. LIFE

Ok. That's not all but it's enough for today.

OH we also recieved a beautiful gift in the mail. Carl was so happy, he put it together and hung it up outside (under his Christmas lights) before he had a chance to do anything else.



Thank you!!!

One day I might look back at this and laugh but Saturday was NOT that day.

A record for the books:

Since our living room ceiling is about as high as the stars, Carl and I decided that the tree would be best if we lifted it up on a crown of bricks to give it a little boost. 24 bricks and a small hollow foundation later, we hoisted our 8 foot tree onto the bricks and CRACK! The loud sound still resonates in my head and sends shivers down my spine. I could have DIED. Well more like CRY but you know what I mean. Emphasis on DIED! Lol… Any who. SO. We jimmy rigged it up with a few college books where the broken leg would have been after building a solid 5’X5’ foundation. Beautimus!

That was only the beginning. I never like to do things 50% and this was a reminder of why we should always give 100%. To recieve 100% YOU MUST ALWAYS GIVE 100%.

Zooming back to present/past, Saturday morning. (Walgreens was having a super fantastic sale on Icicle lights so I bought some for the outside of our house.) We hadn’t bought any lights this year because we didn’t have a ladder. Carl was explaining how it would mean the world to him to string Christmas lights for the very first time on his house so I bought him some. We borrowed the neighbor’s ladder and up he went. In his excitement…. The lights were strung that we needed a 20’ extension cord to get to the power source. Eye, yi yi!

Being the frugal (TIGHTWAD) that I am, I wanted to use the 2 - 8’ extension cords that we already had. I had one under the Christmas Tree but we didn’t really need it so I climbed under there to yank it out….



TIMBER!

YES. The entire tree came tumbling down. Ornaments were flying like World War III shrapnel. The super-fluffed gold gilded bow took flight and all 5 foot of me was trapped under the 8 foot evergreen monster.

I cried. More like sobbed. I was a gigantic snotty mess.

Carl had that twitching vein thing over his eyebrow since he told me not to do it.

He he. I guess it is kind of funny now that I’m reliving it. Do your husbands get the twitching eye brow vein when they’re kind of sort of right? LOL.

He said: “Well, I guess it’s kind of my fault because I strung the lights backwards. Let’s go to Lowe’s and we’ll get a “real tree” stand. I’ll need some blocks of wood but it will be secure for all the years to come this way and we’ll get the lights lit.”

Him’s a good one.

I hope your weekend was as good as mine (because I only want the best for you) but I also hope it wasn’t as good as mine (as awful of that sounds) because having a Christmas tree topple over your little body is not the way I would want you to have spend your Saturday!

We should be a cartoon.

Busy Friday!

Another day in the life of ME.

5:00 a.m. Pack Carl’s Lunch, Do dishes, Make Pork’n’Sauerkraut Stew.
6:00 a.m. Check email. Cook Chicken Wings. Read through Grocery Store Circulars. Count up Monthly Grocery costs thus far for December. Update Grocery Price List.
8:00 a.m. Get Ready for the day and find my most reputable “Teacher Outfit”.
9:00 a.m. Go to Wal-Mart
10:30 a.m. Make Bonnie’s Ornament. Add Scripture to Lori’s Ornament
11:30 a.m. Go to Josh’s School
2:15 p.m. Fight traffic
3:15 p.m. Go Visit Teach with Bonnie
4:40 p.m. Do dishes, Call MJ, Call Carrie back
5:15 p.m. Talk to Carl on the phone and do laundry. Re-learned auto fill for grocery price book.
6:45 p.m. Go to Josh and Xan’s for dinner.

Today has been eventful already! As we were preparing for Carl’s first Saturday off work in MONTHS… He went to take Boscoe out for a walk. Carl came back inside to tell me about the stuff the neighbors had on their curb. (He’s an Olympic Gold Medalist for Dumpster Diving!) We actually know of someone in need of some Christmas presents so we scooped this up in hopes that it will help! (If not, I guess * sadly* I will just have to keep it. JUST KIDDING! This is seriously a great addition to our playroom/game room.) Carl found a little Castle with a “rock climb”, a perch with a wheel and look out thingy slide and swing! How handy that will come when we’re babysitting!



Mary Jane and the boys are coming over tonight for pizza and cookie decorating so we’ll see how baby Penn and Isaac likes it. I’ll let you know how it goes!

New Year Tradition Hunger Challenge

The other night we had company for dinner and they had never had Pork Roast and Sauerkraut. Carl said this is an Ohio Family Tradition t have this meal for the New Year. Since we often have “special meals” through out the years, we decided to be thankful for all the years by having this dinner. I’m proud to report that the hunger challenge was a success totaling: $2.89!

Pork and Sauerkraut entrée
($1.70)
Ingredients:
1.5 pounds Pork Shoulder Roast (Hand carved away from bone) $1.16
1 TBSP Salt ($0.02)
.5 pound Cabbage ($0.25)
1 cup Distilled Vinegar ($0.17)
2 cups water
2 sliced carrots ($0.09)
1 TBSP Cornstarch ($0.01)

Directions:
Chop/slice cabbage into shreds (like Sauerkraut consistency.) Add Water, Vinegar and salt to large pot with cabbage. Boil until cabbage is translucent. (EASY FAST CHEAP SAUERKRAUT!) At this point you can either cook the roast in the cabbage with the carrots on the stove or put the roast in a pan, pour cabbage over roast sprinkle carrots slices over the cabbage and bake in oven at 400 degrees until pork is done. I put it in the oven for presentation’s sake. Once Meat is finished I spoon out drippings to make gravy on stove. Whisk in cornstarch and let thicken.

Mashed Potatoes:
($0.35)
Ingredients:
4 Large Russet Potatoes ($0.15)
½ cup Milk ($0.10)
1 TBSP Margarine/Butter ($0.10)
5 cups water

Directions: Boil Water and Potatoes until tender. Strain. Mix/Mash with milk and margarine/butter.

Frozen Broccoli:
Ingredients:
1/4 a Package of frozen Broccoli ($0.25)
1 TBSP Water

Directions:
Put in Microwave safe dish. Add 1 TBSP water and nuke for 4 minutes.

8 Dinner Rolls ($0.24)
See http://imabucket.blogspot.com/2008/11/i-got-that-lovin-feelingohhhhh-that.html for recipe.

Thank you Martha!

Martha Brockenbrough that is! I saw this on MSN and I just had to shout out loud… ”Amen, sister!” It’s not that I have great grammar. In fact: It’s rather lousy and I can publicly admit that I perceive to know more than I let on. I also goof more than not-goof, obvious proof that I should proof-read more often. Humpffff. If you what like to see the epitome of “Ruffle Rose’s Feathers.” Clink here and grammar-On with your bad self!

Sooooo…. Paraphernalia. It’s one of my most favoritest (see what I mean? I make crap up all the time..LOL) words. The story of Visit Teaching Paraphernalia…

I have never had a Visit Teaching Companion and I have also never Visit Taught before. I’m a little scared. I talked to Bonnie yesterday and told her that she would need to share her wisdom with me. She promised to share her knowledge if I would share my cookies. Ha ha. It’s a give and take relationship. We’re going to have so much fun! One thing that I remember about my Visiting Teachers from NM is that they always brought a little something. Nothing big and nothing expensive but something small and meaningful that brought much happiness to my day. I would like to mirror my wonderful mentors and take a little happiness when we go visit our sister. Her name starts with an L…

After much doodling, I was happy with the “L” ornament.



Excuse my paper bag. It’s wrinkled. The crease lines are prominent. It’s also stuffed full of homamade cereal bars, s'more's snack bars, Pumpkin Drop Cookies and a Dino Cookie for her little one, therefore bulging at the seams. I’m OK with that. Nothing says sisterhood like red sheer ribbon with pink fuzzy-sparkly fur detailing. I hope she likes it!




We had company over for dinner last night. THE VERY FIRST!!! Xan and Josh invited us to their house for a pot luck last week and we wanted to return the favor! It is the beginning of a wonderful friendship and a weekly ritual (we hope) to have all the families from Church come over. (At different times until we have more seating. Hehe!) I should have taken some pictures but I forgot. Carl and I were talking after they went home and he said, " I just want everyone to know we have an open door policy for our friends. People should always feel like they have a place to go."

I thought that was sooo sweet. I just had to share that sensitive side to Carl. With that being said, let me know when ya wanna come over for dinner! We're ready to have ya!

I hope y'all are having as good of a day as I am. If you're not, "Smile, I love you!"

It couldn't be more accurate!

Found this on a friend's blog... What a fun test! It got me to a perfect T!

Howdy Holidays from Us

Boscoe was soooo sad that he wasn't included in our digital Christmas montage...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Here you go little spoiled rotten furry child 'o' mine.

Have a great day!

Mexican Meal for 3 Amigos = $2.33

We had such a wonderful Monday!

We had a friend from New Mexico come into town. She is actually one of Sue’s friends from Church. She is currently staying in a small town about 1 ½ hours away from us and taking care of her Mother-in-law. To make a long story short, the last time she flew out of Houston, it cost her almost $90.00 to park her car! If you’re thinking, “ACK!” Yeah, me too!

So, I was talking about the hunger challenge in yesterday’s post. The extra person helped and we beat the challenge with 67 cents to spare! (Falls short of recouping the 68 cents form the pizza!) I think we’re going to have Mary Jane’s Family over so we can: a.) share a meal with a fabulous family, b.) beat the challenge fair and square or c.) All of the above with a tasty spread to boot! What’dya say MJ? You up for the challenge? LOL.

Boscoe was a very good boy while Miriam was visiting. We chatted and got to know each other. I am so sad to have taken her to the airport today! The great thing is that she does a lot of Temple work and we live about 15 minutes away so we have decided that she will come here to stay when she comes to the Houston Temple. It will be so much fun to have her here! She is also a massage therapist; a dang good one at that! She offered her services while she was here and good gracious! I can barely keep my eyes open now! That was over 12 hours ago. (I told you she was good!) Carl made fun of me because I told her I was so happy that she was here because I had so much fun. Carl interrupted with, “You don’t have to suck up, she already agreed to give you a massage!” That hubby… He loves to embarrass me! LOL.

Any who… We had Carne Adovada Tacos with Sautéed Onions. Homemade Corn Tortillas, Beans and Spanish Rice for dinner. It was mighty filling and very scrumptious! We are having a few friends over tomorrow night and I am seriously contemplating re-living the experience because…well. Making tortillas is fun! I’ll let you know what I decide. Recipes as follows if you care to try them out!

Carne Adovada Meat Filling
2 Chile Pods ($0.08)
½ pound shredded pork ($0.50)
½ tsp garlic powder ($0.03)
1/ tsp salt ($0.0020 We’ll round up to a penny)
2 Cups water

Boil Chile Pods in water. Let cool to room temperature. Put liquid and Chiles into blender and blend until smooth. Keep 1 Tbsp for Onions if you like. Add Chile Sauce and all other ingredients together and cover. Cook on Medium heat while preparing rest of food. I usually check this often to see if more water needs to be added to prevent burning. You want the meat to be tender but not swimming in broth.

Sautéed Onions
1 Medium Onion Sliced ($0.25)
1 Tbsp Butter or Margarine ($0.09)

Sautee Butter and Onions in pan with Chile sauce if you reserved some. Cool on Medium-Low to simmer down until the onions are translucent.

Kidney Beans
1 Can Kidney Beans ($0.50)
¼ tsp Mexican Chili Powder ($0.01)

Warm beans and powder on stove or in microwave.

Rice and Tomatoes
1 Cup Rice ($0.27)
½ can tomatoes with diced Chiles ($0.25)
¼ tsp Salt ($0.01)

Make rice according to package directions. Stir in Tomatoes and salt.

I make the tortillas last because they are best when served warm.

Corn Tortillas
½ cup Corn Meal $0.04
1 Cup Flour $0.09
1 egg $0.14
¼ tsp Salt ($0.01)
1 ½ cups water
1 Tbsp cooking Oil ($0.05)

Mix all ingredients together. Spread Oil on griddle just to coat. Pour ½ ladle of mixture onto a hot griddle like a pancake. When Tortilla is ready to be flipped, the edges will pull away from griddle on their own. Flip to other side and put on plate. Cover with a dish towel to keep them warm until all 12 tortillas are done.

Bless the food and enjoy your fiesta!

If Bocoe ate pizza...

We would have met the Hunger Challenge. ($1 per person per meal) I missed it by 68 cents! This was still too good to pass up sharing!



Carl’s Favorite Pizza Pie
$0.24 Sauce
$0.51 Crust
$1.93 Toppings
---------------
$2.68 per 14” 3-Topping Pizza (Corporate Chain’s Large Size)

Price vary depending on what toppings you use. I often find Shredded Cheese on sale. If you buy big chunks from the Deli and shred it yourself, you can really get good savings that way too. I was just lazy the last time I went to the grocery store. I hope you try this out. Don’t be afraid of pizza. It’s sooo easy!

Tomato Sauce (Enough Sauce for two 14” pizzas)
Ingredients
1- 8 oz can of Tomato Sauce ($0.24)
1/5 Green Bell Pepper Chopped ($0.10)
1/4 Small Onion Chopped ($0.06)
1 tsp Garlic Powder ($0.03)
1 tsp Italian Seasoning ($0.03)
1 Tbsp Corn Starch ($0.01)
1 cup Water

Directions:
Put all but Corn Starch and Water into Blender. (Carl loves veggies but dislikes chunks of onion on his pizza, also a great way to get picky children/husbands to get the veggies by blending them. If they can’t see it, are they REALLY eating it? LOL) Pour sauce into sauce pan. Pour water into blender to get remaining goodness out of there! Swish water around and add liquid to sauce in pan. Whisk in corn starch and warm to thicken.

Pizza Crust (Yields one 14” thin crust)
Ingredients:
1 package Jiffy Pizza Crust Mix ($0.49)
1/4 cup Corn Meal – OPTIONAL ($0.02)

Directions:
Make Pizza Crust according to package instructions. I use corn meal on my pizza stone. Makes it taste like take out! (With a dine in price!)

Toppings
1 Beef Bratwurst Chopped ($0.50)
15 Pepperoni Slices ($0.33)
½ Jalapeno Pepper finely diced ($0.10)
4 oz of shredded Cheese ($1.00)

Directions:
Spread sauce on crust. Add toppings (Meat first Cheese Last). Bake at 450F for 15 minutes or until crust is brown and cheese is melted.