Back to the Real World

After a fabulous week off work, it's time to get back to reality!! What a great week I had off. A surprise party for Dale...one of Tony's friends from high school. Another for my mom on Sunday...Dale's was on Saturday. And just a week of hanging out with my mom and my husband. All was great until I fell down the deck steps last night and probably either sprained or broke my wrist so typing is kinda hard right now. But still, life has been pretty fabulous anyway. No work and all play...love it!! I really can't type well, so I'm gonna go for now, but I will have HUGE news on Friday so come back and check it out!

Life is good...for the moment!

Have you ever felt like wow...life is finally all it's cracked up to be. Things are looking up for Tony and I. With Tony's new job, it looks like we will be able to move out of the "dungeon" and move into a wonderfully small apartment that is just perfect for the two of us and the animals! We went to the gourmet grocery store, DiGreggorio's, today to see if the apartment was still available...the lady we needed to talk to is on vacation so we will find out on Monday if it's still available and if so, we hope we can talk her into saving it for us for another couple of weeks until we can get her some money!! Oh, I hope we can get this place. It's perfect for us. It's on the second story, not crazy bout the steps but i need the exercise. There are a couple of drawbacks for us...like no laundry hookups and no yard, but it's in a location that we love and we can walk the dogs to the park that is really close by. We just have to be dilligent on picking up after them. We don't want angry neighbors because of our sweet girls! All we still have to do with Galahad is get him used to the dogs. Oh how he growls and hisses at them. It's actually quite funny. Today we had all of the animals in the living space of the basement so that the girls could get a drink of water and oh boy, did hilarium preside. Galahad apparently doesn't like them much! The hissing and the growling and Lulu being rambuctious self...it was great! Lulu didn't know how to react...everyone loves her, right?? Apparently not!! She has never come across this hostility before in her short little life! I can't believe she's 3 going on 4!!! But alas, he will have to get used to her excuberance eventually!

Tonight is the last night that I have to work before my vacation!! I'm so excited. I know I was just off work because I was sick but still....this is a vacation. Completely planned!!! I am going to start packing and going through my stuff. I know I promised to go through all of my scrapbooking stuff before the end of March but well, let's face it, I'm just not motivated enough to get that done! I think when we pack to move, that's when things will be purged. Some of my family members are doing this 40 bag purge....well, I obviously don't have that much stuff to throw away but i think I'm going to go with a goal of 10-15 bags...I wonder how many bags an old bed will take!!! I will definitely have to figure out what we need to buy. There were some things that we didn't take from Tulsa because we thought that we didn't need them anymore but apparently that's not the case. I know we needs some new pots and pans so I'm going to start looking for those and see what kinds of deals that I can find. I have an idea of what kind I want but I just need to find them on sale...why is it that everything seems to be so expensive these days??? I also know that we need to get a new couch and a new tv. But those are some things that can wait until we get down there and figure out how we want to decorate our new place. Oh my, so much to do and so little time. I CAN'T WAIT!!!

So tomorrow we are going to spend some time with friends...let the vacation begin! I get to spend some time with my cousin on Wednesday and help her with her wedding plans. I also get to spend some time with my husband before he starts his new position at Barnes. It's so awesome that he and I have pretty much the same shift. There's like an hour difference so that's not that big of a deal. He will start at 1030 and i start at 1130. But other than that difference, we pretty much have it good! I'm sure that I will have plenty of fun stories to tell about his working in housekeeping. We aren't sure but we think that he actually has the lead position. Let's hope so!! Anyway, that's all for now! I'm tired and my fingers hurt!!! Talk to you soon!

A great day for some fabulous news

It seems like it's been forever since I last posted. I was soooo sick for a while there that I did nothing but sleep and watch movies and eat chicken noodle soup...for like a week. But I am back and in business. It's actually nice to be at work, wish my hours were different but that's partly my fault...although, that's actually kinda changed now as well. I am actually glad to be on this shift. I'm sure you are all curious to know why...well, wait no longer...here we go...TONY GOT A JOB AT BARNES!!! Well, he got the offer today. We haven't seen what it all entails and what position he actually has. But he's really excited. I know that it's not a fabulous job and he will have to deal with a lot of crap...sometimes literally...so we shall see how long he can handle it. I told him that if I could do my job for a year or more, that he can handle housekeeping for that long until he can transfer to something else. I also think that he is getting the lead position, so he may be able to move pretty quickly up the ladder. He may just stay with it. I'm not sure what's going to happen in the future but right now, it's looking brighter than it was before...and get this...we are going to move!!! As soon as we get a couple of paychecks under Tony's belt, we are out of the basement. That apartment we want is still available, so we are going to have to go and check it out. Very stoked about that! I can't wait to have some place that I can call my own and love and keep clean and just enjoy myself in! The dogs will be out of their kennel more and the cats will have more opportunities to drive the dogs crazy!!! HAHA!! Can't wait for life to finally look up again.

So, I didn't get much of a chance to cook this last week because I was so sick. It seems to me that between my mom and my husband, I didn't have to cook much. Tony is such an awesome helper in the kitchen. He's so handy to have around. I never realized how lucky i was until this week...like, I always knew that he was fabulous, but I was really horribly sick and he was just so concerned and loving and caring and just all around fabulous, that it made me love him more and realize how lucky I was to have him!!! So awesome to be in love with someone that loves you back!

So I am not going to stay on this computer very long....I'm going to say goodbye and then update you more on Friday as to what is going on!! I will have lots more to tell you I'm sure! Stay tuned...there's always excitment in the Farhner household!

I am learning so much!!

It's pretty interesting. I feel like I'm relearning things that I already know. Like, I know that cooking at home is better for you as is cooking from scratch but sometimes, it's just so much easier to use a mix or eat out. For those of you who don't know, Tony and I have been eating out a ton...like for every meal. It's expensive. With Tony being out of work and I not having much overtime and doctors appointments and prescription costs...things are just not working out financially so I have turned into a recipe-aholic. I love reading Rachael Ray's magazine. I'm addicted to allrecipes.com. Food network is my go to tv station when I have a chance to watch tv. I am your typical foodie I guess. Well, I have decided that I am done eating out. I'm sick and tired of all the fat filled, cholesterol laiden, artery clogging crap out there. I am sick of McDonalds. No more Burger King for this girly. The occasional El Maguey's will be nice but really, who needs it! I am going to find out how to make the foods that I love to eat at home! I'm going to learn to make them a little healthier and just as tasty! That's my goal for this year. I am going to try and make it 1 month without eating out. It's going to be a challenge because we are on the go alot and I sleep most of the day and am home at night but that's what a microwave is for! Now, I just need my mom to stay home more often so that I can use the kitchen!



I absolutely love having my mother live above us. She is such a wonderful person and I get see her almost everyday. I love having her around. She and I are incrediably close. I can honestly say that between her and my husband, I really don't need many other friends. I have everything that I need with those two! It is nice to be able to hang with others and to enjoy other people's company but if I didn't have other friends and only had those two, I would be just fine! And to me, that's nice to know. I love being able to talk cooking with my mom and get her opinion on stuff. I love to figure out what I did wrong with a recipe and have her help me figure out how to make it better. I love having a husband who will pick up a new recipe, knowing that I really want to try it but sometimes I'm just soo tired and just can't seem to find the energy to make it, so he makes it himself!! We then go over the recipe and figure out what we would do differently, if anything, the next time we make it. It seems we always give a recipe a shot and then we change it. Or if I'm making something and I know that I would add more spice to it, I do!



I love being able to play in the kitchen with my mom and my husband. It's such a delight. The other day, my mom wanted to make pancakes but realized that she didn't have the pancake mix so she found a recipe and turned it into corn fritters...omg..they were absolutly amazing! I have never tasted anything so fabulous in my life!!! So I wanted to see what they would taste like using the pancake mix...yep...I will be sticking with a homemade pancake mix....so much better than the prepackaged stuff! So it will be interesting to see what other stuff I can make from scratch that's sooo much better! It's a new adventure in cooking for me! I'm kinda excited. Now, what I really want to do is find an awesome new mexican cookbook and cook my way through mexico! I think that would be fun. And then I want to cook my way through an Italian cookbook, making homemade pastas and everything. Although, I'm not sure how cute my bowtie pasta is going to be!



I was thinking the other day about how "domesticated" I have become. Like I want to learn how to make my own candles and my own soap. Not necessarily the old fashioned way, and I definitely don't want to learn to make my own butter, but I think there are some things that are ridiculously expensive that can be made at home possibly cheaper but definitely better for you. One of the ladies that I work with thinks it crazy ridiculous to try and make things at home. Now, I'm not talking about sewing and things like that...because there is no way that that holds my attention. But I think that soap making and candlemaking could be interesting. So one of the things that I want to do this year is learn how to do those things. I mean, how tough can it really be! Well, we shall find out. You know, it's already March...I need to get started on these things but I really need to have my own kitchen to do these things and get out of my mama's kitchen. I know she can't wait to have her kitchen back but she doesn't have to cook much right now...no complaining Ma!



Talking about being "domesticated." I look back at some of the things that I like to do and never thought that I would be any good at any of it. I love to scrapbook and I love to bead. Who would have thought that I was creative in that way. Apparently I am loving being creative in the kitchen too. I love to cook. I remember when I was younger and my dad made me cook and I hated it. I think it was because it was something that he made me do. My mom told me that my dad was worried that I would be a failure in the kitchen and I almost was until I discovered my love for cooking. I had to be the one to change my mindset and realize that I really did like to do it and I could be creative in what I do. I used to tell people that I was never creative and sometimes I still feel that way. I "scraplift" a lot as well as lift other people's jewelry ideas but you know, there's nothing wrong with that. I still have to match up different papers to go with my pictures or i still have to find beads that will work with a particular design...so in that sense, I am still being creative. I may not be the one coming up with the actual design but I still have to make it my own in some way! That's the part that I like. Oh well, maybe I am more creative than I thought!



I don't have any recipes today to share but I am off this weekend so hopefully some cooking will get done! I do plan on sleeping some on Saturday though! Working this overtime is hard stuff when you work overnights! Bye for now!

A need to be crafty

So I have this desire to be crafty and start selling some of the things that I do. I love making different things and having other people enjoy them...not just me and my immediate family. I used to sell different things when I lived in Tulsa. Not a lot of things, but I did sell a couple of completed scrapbooks (all they had to do was add pictures), and a few picture frames. I wonder if there is any type of craft store that has booths that I can sell things at...kinda like a "Coomer's Craft Mall" type place if you know what I'm talking aboutl. Does anyone know if there is anything like that around here?? I may have to look around and see what I can find. I want to be able to be creative and make some money off it. I'm just not bringing in enough myself. It's so frustrating to not have enough money to enjoy things. UGH!! Anyway, I think I may have to look into a craft mall type place....hhhmm..wonder what I can find! I'll let you all know what I decide to do!