Cooking and catching up

Lastnight I decided to get my rear in gear and start stocking my freezer again. I ended up making some homemade apple sauce (so easy and good) in the crock pot and chicken with homemade stock for chicken and noodles. I was so mad after I made the first batch of stock because after the work of cooking the chicken and taking the skin off and removing the bones (and I always burn myself when I do that), I knocked the container over all into my stove top and lost everything. I decide to not let the chicken go to waste, so I put it in a freezer bag and labeled it "Dog Chicken." I figure they won't notice if it has all over the counter/stove or not. So, I started again and made 2 more batches. Thankfully, they made it to the freezer without a catastrophe. Now, whenever I want chicken and noodles I can just make the noodles, thaw out my stock, and have a delicious dinner.

Tonight, I went to "Eat and Drink for Pink." Ever year, AMWA hosts this event to raise money for breast cancer research. This year and last year were at Fat Patty's. I mean, if you have to twist my arm, I guess I'll go to Fat Patty's. Its a good cause and all. ;) Thankfully, I got to catch up wwith a few of my friends while enjoying my beer and wrap. Unfortunately, now I'm stuffed but, again, it was for a good cause!

Finally back!

Sorry its been so long! I've had some big stuff going on in life (if you don't know and want to know, I will tell but its kinda personal) so I left bloggin world but now I'm back (holy run-on sentence)!

A few days ago, I started remodeling our dining room. We've only used it to sit infront of the firepalce a handful of times and its the passthru from the garage to the rest of the house. Basically, its been a catch all. Well, now that I have some time off, I've decided to tackle the room. It was all paneling to start off with. Not just paneling, 2 different types of paneling. Who knows why. So far, I have taken off all the moulding and all but 2 pieces of paneling. Behind most of the paneling surprisingly was drywall. Good, except for what I guess is remnants of carpenter ants. There are places of missing drywall paper and "trails" of dirt. I thought it may have been termites, but there is no wood damage to the studs or the actual paneling. There aren't any bugs, so thats good. Then I ripped off the paneling by the door to the garage. Someone has re-framed the door. My guess is the previous owners, they always do crappy work. Some of the wood that was new is pressure treated, why use pressure treated wood in the house? The top of the frame doesn't even span the whole door. No wonder that door sticks. Dumb-asses! Anyway, the remodeling is going well so far. Not too many surprises that I can't handle. Next is the carpet then the ceilings! Wish me luck!

Last night I actually made dinner. I found a recipe online for chicken parmesean. It was really good and quite easy. Kyle liked it and even offered to eat the left overs (he doesn't usually like leftovers). Here is the recipe. I found that it needed to be cooked a few more minutes than the reciped called for but I had really thick chicken breasts. I served it over pasta and with salad. Hope you enjoy it!

I've been crafting a lot here lately and can't wait to show it off but I have to wait till after my friend's shower cause she might be lurking on here!

I started my C25k late last week. OMG I am OUT OF SHAPE! I mean I knew it was bad, but I didn't know I was that bad. On to day 2 tomorrow! Hopefully, I don't fall over dead half way through!

Friday morning, I saw that someone (I figure a kid) left a bike half in my drive way half in the neighbors yard, its happened before but was only there for a few hours. There is a teenage neighbor that lives in that house, but he seems nice and I don't think would leave his bike a foot off the road. I assumed it was the kids who like to walk through my front yard (no big deal, but really, my yard is the size of some people's bedrooms, but whatever) to go around my garage to get over the rail road tracks. I mean, why take the road, it would only take like 25 extra steps,but again, whatever. The other day they gave me nasty looks when I guess I surprised them by being in my garage/driveway. Way to start a relationship punks. Back to the bike. It was there when I got up early to run Friday, and still when I got back quite a few hours later. I scooted it off our driveway so Kyle wouldn't run over it and tear up his car. It was about 4:30 when I got home, so I figured I would call the non-emergency police line b/c the whose ever it was wasn't around and didn't look like they were coming back. Of course in Barboursville, there isn't anyone to answer that line at 4:30, they go home at 4 (must be nice). So I was going to just let it sit till someone stole it or came and got it. Saturday afternoon, I am helping Kyle clean the carpet for his Mustang and see the neighbor. He mentions the bike and asks if we know anything about it. He doesn't know anything either and even another neighbor noticed it and mentioned it to him. This evening those punk kids who gave me a nasty look rang our door bell. They ask Kyle if we know where there bike is. They said someone told them to ask us. Of course we don't, it just wasn't there when we got up this morning. I of course had to mention that its not too smart to leave your bike in someones yard, but of course the punks ignored me. Oh well, learn your lesson, don't leave your bike in a stranger's yard all weekend! I know I sound like the crabby old bag in the neighbor hood, but first, don't leave your crap on my property. Second, don't give me nasty looks when I am on my property and you walk through my yard everyday. Sorry, it just aggrevated me!

Saturday, Kyle and I ran errands including closing out old bank accounts, getting his employee discount on his phone (woo-hoo for a job finally!), and having lunch with my friends at Buddy's. My favorite part was when Kailyn was stirring Jill's lemon water "making lemon" as she said, but Jeff and I both her "naked women" out of it somehow. Never a dull moment with that little girl!

Today, my mom came down to shop. We always complain that when I my dad comes he rushes us. Somehow, we were done in 2 1/2 hours. I only found a few tops and a birthday present for my brother in law. Kyle went home to see his Granny because she isn't doing too well. After he got back, we went grocery shopping. I can't wait until our Walmart is put back together! Who would have thought that the paint brushes would need to be 4 rows away from the actual paint? I picked up some ingredients for a cookie recipe I saw online. I made the cookies when we got back. OMG they are SOOO good! You can find them here. Now I have 50 cookies to get rid of, anyone want any?

Couch to 5 K

I was looking at some friends' facebook pictures and noticed that someone I haven't seen in awhile had gotten in shape and looked really good. I was so proud of her. She said that she tried the "Couch to 5K" program it was pretty simple. I am not even close to a runner but looking at the schedule, it looked doable. Its a 3X a week 20-30 minute training schedule for 9 weeks. I am going to try to start training next Monday. Kyle and I have been trying to go walking in the evenings 4-5X a week but this looks like it might get me in shape. Kyle has been running since the begining of June so hopefully, I get caught up to him and we can start running together. We'll see how it goes!

An update to my cooking, I made my freezer pickles Tuesday night. I haven't been able to try them yet, you have to let them sit for 24 hours in the freezer so they are thawing now. YUM! Its my grandma's recipe and I LOVE them. I also made blackberry syrup. Now i need ice cream or pancakes to try it out on but it tasted good on a spoon. The recipe was basically blackberries plus sugar and water. How can you go wrong with blackberries and sugar? On my parents way back from NC they dropped off two huge containers of blueberries. Now I need to try to find a way to use those. Yesterday, I also cooked and froze 8 of the ears of corn they brought down. I'm sure it'll be great come this winter.

I just realized how "domestic" I am sounding. Wow. If anyone is reading this that doesn't know me, I'm not that domestic, trust me. I got called domestic a few weeks ago and it just didn't sit right with me. I don't know why. I was at JC Penny's and found some curtains on clearance so I bought them to try out in my living room. I see one of my male classmates and when he looked at what I was buying he said "Being domestic huh?" My response was "you expect Kyle to buy curtains?" Oh well, maybe it was just the fact that I don't really care for that person as to why it put me off.

My uncle came down a few weeks ago to measure for new windows for the house and Dad finally ordered them. I am so excited! Even though we have storm windows throughout, I really think the windows are original to the house, so 60ish years old. They need replacing! The windows came in today, yay! Unfortunately, they are back home so who knows when my uncle, dad, and cousin will be able to come up and install them. I just requested that they be in before winter. Can't ask too much of free help right?

Trying to get started at this again

So, I love reading my friends' blogs (and even some people I don't even know, so I am going to try to keep up with this again.

I am taking my boards in September and am trying to get back to the grind of studying 24/7. So far, its not going so well. I made a schedule so lets see if I can stick with it. I plan on putting together the "best books" by organ system. For every system I am reading 4 books, a pathology book, a physology book, a pharm book, and First Aid (supposively the "bible" of Step 1). We'll see how it goes! I started off with this plan yesterday with my best system, Musculoskeletal/Skin. Today I started renal, but its not what I'm best at, so it is taking a little longer than yesterday.

My parents stopped by today on their way down to North Carolina. They dropped off a TON of food. I have green beans that my mom cleaned can cooked, watermelon, potatoes, cucumbers, 12 ears of corn, and a 13X9 pan FULL of blackberries. I am so excited. I made freezer pickles tonight from my grandmas recipe. Tomorrow I am attempting to can blackberry jelly and syrup. We'll see how those turn out!