Shalee’s Diner

These are the days when a marriage is tested.

Mr. Right has had some new duties handed to him at work and he’s hoping to manage them well.  He came home so completely spent on Wednesday that when I thought he had gone to change out of work clothes to comfy clothes, I found that he had conked out for the entire night.

The kids have had some activities that have ramped up just for this time of year.  Then Girl had to be in a different city by 4 PM on Friday, requiring Mr. Right to work from home since we can’t get back home from downtown in time.

I’m still finding my standing at work, learning the ins and outs of a new job, people and company policies and proceedures.  I’m still working to show that I am the right girl hired to make the company a better business in my small way.

On Friday, I forgot that we had invited good friends over for dinner.  I’m so glad that they are good friends and don’t mind the last minute switch of heading out for Mexican food instead of feasting at playing games at our house. 

Oh, and I’ve been battling sinus issues for the last two days and not sleeping well.  I feel as if I have a running faucet about my mouth, my throat is soar, and the hacking coughs trying to clear them out are not a pretty sound I tell you.

Oh, and The Boy woke up in the middle of the night to throwup a few times.

It’s been good times around here.

I’m so glad that I’m married to Mr. Right.  He’s helping me to take it all in stride; he’s helping in the area of feeding and getting things done.  His handling meals and dishes has helped me to have enough energy to keep up with the laundry and clean a couple of the bathrooms. 

He really understands the meaning of  “for better or worse”.  He follows through his promise of “in sickness and in health”.  He takes seriously the uttering of our vows. 

And I love him all the more for that precious gift in itself.

First off: Stacey, I’m sorry that it’s taken me so long to post this recipe.  I said I’d do it last week, but I completely forgot about it.  The reason?

I’ve slept since then.

That’s all I’ve got.

Either that or I have to admit that I’m not as put together as I’ve got you thinking I am…  I don’t really think I could convince you of that one since it seems so unlike me.  :)

Yeah.  You all know which one to believe.

So, we make homemade pizza around here.  I used to use a wonderful recipe that Jeana gave me, but it required rise time.  That’s a lot of extra time that can be very useful when you have things you want to do, like create a scrapbook page, design a webpage or knit a potholder or two.

Not that I know how to do any of those things.

It led to lots of twiddling of thumbs for me.

And questioning my abilities for all the skills I don’t have.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I don’t always decide two hours ahead what we’re going to eat.  I’m more of a wing it kind of gal, creating something out of nothingMore likely the idea of dinner hits late in the day… and that’s only because I have six eyes staring mournfully at the empty dinner table and some remarkable loud rumbling sounds seem to emanate from their lower regions.

The Girl actually came to my pizza crust rescue. She discovered it when visiting her best friend’s house this summer when her best friend’s mother made it for her.  After The Girl raved over it, the mother wrote it down so that we could have it here and save ourselves tons of time.

So I share with you my good fortune… and pizza crust.  You’ll never buy another pizza crust again.

Quick & Easy Pizza Crust

Ingredients

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 1/2 cups bread flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. Stir in flour, salt and oil. Beat until smooth. Let rest for 5 minutes.
3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to a lightly greased pizza pan or pizza stone dusted with cornmeal.
4. If using a pizza stone, parbake crust for 8 minutes and then proceed as directed.
5. Spread with desired toppings and bake in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Let baked pizza cool for 5 minutes before serving.

The only problem?  Once your family realizes how easy it is to make pizza, it might come up as a requested meal more often than you like.

You’d better take up knitting or something to fool them into thinking that it’s harder than it is.  That way you can have a good excuse not to make it as often as you and they would want, which would be all the time.

It’s good to use some of your other dinners to introduce them to additional meals that will make your family’s taste buds sing, like Beef  Bourguignon, Chicken Kiev, Asian Pork Loin, Fettucini Alfredo or Broiled Salmon Steaks.

And then you can hit the pizza trail again. We favor the half-Supreme/half Cheeseburger and half-Pepperoni/half Hawaiian route normally.  But we’ve been known to blaze a few new trails now and then too!

Happy trails!

Holy crow.  Am I whipped.

I’m too embarrassed to tell you how often I’ve climbed into bed by 9 PM.

One night I actually meant to sleep before everyone else, so I had The Boy tuck me in.  He made me into a great burrito.  And I slept like an enchilada.

Until the stupid  cat began her nightly ritual of meowing at 4 AM.  Sometimes I hate that cat… especially at 4 AM>  Someone recommended shutting her out, but little do they understand that the stupid cat will meow all the more because she wants into the room.  She is such an annoying little baby.  We’re at fault for letting her sleep with us in the first place.

And since I’ve been waking at four regularly, on the nights she does’t talk, I wake up anyway.

Stupid cat.

On the brighter side of life, I feel much more secure about my position.  I’m learning more and more, and then some things are coming easier to me.  I’ve already begged my mentors to not get too annoyed with me for my many repeated questions, and they’ve assured me that now is the time for lots of questions and that I’m already getting there faster than expected.

Whew.  It’s nice to know that I’m not a complete dead weight.

I haven’t gotten the work/cleaning/cooking thing down yet either.   I’ve decided that I want a maid for Valentine’s Day… and Groundhog Day, St. Patty’s day, Good Friday, Easter, my birthday, Mother’s Day,  Memorial Day, Grandparent’s Day, Father’s Day, any day the sun shines, 4th of July, hottest day of summer, Labor Day, and day the moon rises, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day and every Friday.  I think I could keep up with it then.

Until then, I’ll just settle for the kids bringing their clothes down to the laundry room, Mr. Right doing dishes, The Boy putting them away and The Girl vacuuming.  Oh, and I don’t dust until I can engrave my name into the furniture.  My mom dusted when she was here.  That should do me for quite a while.

I had the chance to experience what Mr. Right has endured for a couple of years now: ridding the bus in winter.  Dog!  It gets cold out there waiting for your ride!  In the summer it won’t be so bad, but this time of year is just bitter.  Good thing for me I have awesome boots and a really long wool jacket.  My gloves don’t match a bit and my daughter’s rabbit fur- lined hat completed my ridiculous ensemble.  I don’t care.  I was warm.  That all that mattered to me.

This long weekend, we’re heading to see the in-awes.  They have something that was left at their house, so they’ve graciously offered to meet us halfway… and bring Mr. Right’s uncle, aunt and cousins too.  It will be a little family affair at the Des Moines food court.

I sure hope Chick-fil-A has enough chicken…

I hope you enjoy your weekend and that it’s a lot warmer than ours!

I. Am. Tired.

That about sums it up.

Okay, I guess I can summon up the strength to share a little bit more than that.  :)

My parents, who I have LOVED having here for the past 3 weeks, left today.  I was so sad to see them go and I begged them to stay longer, but they actually have lives that they have to continue in Florida.  I told them that they need to put their lives on hold and stay at least double the time next time.  I’d love to have them around again!

My mom, who rocks, made some chicken noodle soup before she left so that I wouldn’t have to cook a meal when I returned home tonight.  I love her forward thinking!  I’m going to make some meals this weekend and freeze them so that I’ll have some go-to meals for the week ahead.

Anything to increase my evening productivity until I get back into the swing of working again.

Work is going extremely well, though.  I haven’t made a single mistake yet.  Of course, the fact that I still don’t have my computer may have something to do with the lack of errors yet.  But hey!  I’ll take 3 days of excellent work so far.

All my new coworkers I’ve met have been ohfer nice and welcoming to me.  Such a relief!  You never know what the people around you are going to be like.  God has blessed me by surrounding me with some helpful, witty and understanding people.  Oh!  And I really like my new boss!  I’m hoping to show her that having me for an assistant is one of the best decisions that she has made.  I just have to prove it after I can actually, you know, assist her with a computer.

In the mean time, I’ve spent my time going through my predecessor’s files, learning the names of those around me, working on a floor map around me (so that I can find people), getting to know other admins and organizing one of the supply closets.  And as the highlight of each day, I’ve lunched with Mr. Right and held his hand as we walked to the bus.  (If I had books, I’d bet he’d carry them!)

The hardest part is the travel to and from.  I selected the hours of 7:15 AM to 4 PM as my work schedule.  Since I take the bus downtown, I have to catch the 6:36 bus if I’m going to make it to work around 7:05.  That means that I’m really out the door around 6:20, leaving me enough time to make it to the station on time.  Coming home is the reverse, with my making it to the 4:12 bus, arriving back home around 30 minutes later.  This bus stuff is new to me, though I must say that I adore the not dealing with traffic and watching a Bones episode too and from work.  :)

Soon, when the weather turns poorly again, Mr. Right will be taking The Boy to school and coming into work later (which means that he’ll be leaving later too.)  I’ll have to navigate the riding all on my own, but hopefully I’ll feel truly confident over time.

I can tell that I’m going to have to get myself organized to make all this work.  Between household chores, laundry, shopping and taking care of things like bills and such, I’m going to be stretched thin until I get a handle on things.  The thin thing is good.  It’s the stretched part I need to endure.

Until then, God be praised for crockpots and sauces to make dinners fast and taste yummy.

So I was going to pop in just to say that I was ignoring y’all, but I’ve really been enjoying having family around the house.

But then I realized that everyone is asleep, so I might as well take advantage of the “free” time.

It’s been busy, that’s for sure!  I mean between the job acceptance, preparing for Christmas and eating, there hasn’t been much time for blogging.  So I’ll share my last few weeks with you in pictures.  (That way you can close out now if you don’t want to feel like a trapped guest as I pull out my projector.  Otherwise, admire our fun and wish that you were here with us too!)  :)

Tenni has found her happy spot.

FMSC

Mall of America

Watching The Girl’s Concert

Eating out!

The Girl & Grandma bake!

We have WAY too many good things to eat around here…

Christmas morning

They’re up now. I’m off to chat with Mom & Dad and to figure out what other kind of mischief we can do. (By that, I really mean “how many Bones episodes can we watch”… my mother has made an addict out of me! We’re in the middle of Season 2 already. I love it!)