Hot and Humid Sunday here in Palm Harbor, FL

I'm going to say it again...SO hard to believe April is coming to a close.  Honestly....seems like it was just Christmas doesn't it?

Not much going on here the past 4 days since my last post.  I have been rather bored.  Might be time to get a part time job I'm thinking.  Didn't feel like creating in my craft studio, didn't feel like going to the beach (again), or bike riding......not sure what's up!!  Just bored.  Hubster is bored too...WAY bored.  So bored he's driving ME crazy.  Love him to pieces - but really.....following me around like a lost puppy asking me what I'm doing or why I'm doing it or how I'm doing it....you get the picture.  Perhaps 50 was a bit young to retire we're thinking....need to be a bit busier.  Yup...that's the answer...part time jobs!!

Now I must think about what I'd like to do part time!!  I did ask at the Catholic grade school at our Parish.  They are actually thinking about hiring a part time office person for next school year.  Now I must get applications filled out, finger prints done, safety class taken and references....and get them turned in to be considered.  Hey...that alone will keep me busy for a couple of days. :)

I thought about retail....Jo Ann fabric and craft stores, Michaels Arts and Crafts and places like that. May as well get a discount where I shop most.   Perhaps Macy's or Kohl's.  I just don't know.  Will think about it a bit and something will come to me.

I am on the substitute teacher list a 2 school but don't get called very often.  Have had so much company lately that I wouldn't have been able to go in anyway.  Now summer is nearly here.  Surely don't want to sit around all summer being bored.   Guess I better get busy and see who might need some part time help!!

In the meantime...I'm headed to my craft room to whip up a couple of 'thank you' cards that I should have sent out last week.  Better late than never!

Toodles for now.......Cherie

Hard to believe April is nearly gone......

Since moving to sunny Florida we've spent more time than ever outdoors!  We walk, ride bikes and love the beach.  We have stand-up paddle boards that we use weekly.  Most days I don't really think about what month it is....unlike when we lived in Northern Virginia and it was usually chilly right through Memorial Day sometimes!  We've had a very mild winter (no winter) here.  I can count on one hand the number of days that the temperature dropped below 70 degrees!  It's just felt like one long nice day :)

All of a sudden today I realized that it is the 25th of April.  Really?  April literally disappeared before my eyes!  Was it all of the company we had?  Was it the warm weather and the business of finishing the last of our home remodel?  I am not sure where it went - but it's almost gone until next year.  Wow!!

My sister reminded me today, as we walked along the beach, that my BIRTHDAY is next week!!! Yikes.   NEXT week....are you sure????  Yup...next Wednesday will be May 2, 2012 and I will turn 53.  It doesn't bother me in the least!!  I am one of those people who realizes that we get another year older each year whether we like it or not!  I EMBRACE each new year!  Heck...I embrace each new day.  I love the life I live.  Good days and bad days - I love them all.  I may not "love" the bad days when I'm in them....but I can generally look back on them and know that whatever happened was supposed to happen that way.  I don't have to know why....I just have to trust God.  He is in the drivers seat!!

We are headed to Texas the week after next.  We are both excited.  We'll visit Dallas and Austin.  I have not been to Texas since I was a kid and my grandfather lived in Amarillo.  Neither one of us has ever been to Dallas/Ft. Worth area or Austin so we are looking forward to the adventure!  One of the airlines was offering a sale a couple of months ago and we ended up BOTH going for under $180 - yes that is round trip for TWO people.  How could we pass that up?  We couldn't!!  I'll be sure to tell ya'll about our adventure and post some pictures upon our return.

For now, enjoy these last days of April.  Embrace May and all she has to offer.  Toodles.........Cherie

The Busy Life I love....

Oh my...it's been like a revolving door around here as of late!  First we had cousins from Georgia visit for 5 days a couple weeks ago.  Last week - Thursday pm - friends from VA flew in for a 4 day weekend.  This has left me little time to blog :)  We sure enjoyed both visits.  Why have a beach home in Florida if you aren't going to have lots of company, right?  tee hee.

One thing we will NOT do again is tell folks to fly into Orlando airport to save a few bucks instead of flying intoTampa or St. Pete.  We though Orlando airport was an "easy" 90 minute drive from our home.  How about over 2 hours in terrible traffic!!  Our guests felt badly!  We suggested it, however, so they had nothing to feel badly about.  We just won't do it again....not worth the $200 savings!!

So now I'm back to washing sheets and a bit of housekeeping.  Will work in my sisters classroom tomorrow for a couple of hours, as I do every Wednesday.  Friday she needs me all day to assist with their 'field day'.  Ofcourse it's going to be 88 degrees and humid on Friday.  Yikes!!  I guess we'll survive!!

I've been busy in my craft room again.  Painted a couple of pictures.  My friend from VA, Donna, and I painted some Palm tree husks to look like masks and we did a fish.  They turned out cute!!!  What fun we had on rainy Sunday doing that.

I gained 6 lbs with our guests here.  Too much  beer and too much great food!!  We can eat and drink for sure.  Double walks for me this week.  We enjoyed siting outside around the fire pit one evening.  The guys smoking a cigar with their "makers mark".  I am the only one, however, who ate a s'mores.  Okay, I ate TWO s'mores.  They were so melty and gooey and chocolatey and sweet.  YUM.  The others just don't know what they missed!

So now it's back to just Jack and I.  Sigh.  Sitting here on this breezy, cool Florida morning enjoying coffee, computers and paper.  Nice to have a day to relax before life gets busy again.  Laundry and some art studio time today perhaps.....after my LONG WALK.

So following are pics from our first guests...last week...Aileen and Dave from GA....

 Military Tattoo...lot's of pipe bands - such a fun evening!!!

 Tarpon Springs....our "go to" when guests visit....lol

Jack and Dave on the beach at Honeymoon Island...our other "go to" when we have guests!!

Listed below are pictures from Donna and Harolds visit this past weekend......

 Donna and Harold!!  Donna and I have know each other since high school...35 years!!

 Jack and Harold in front of our home!

 We went to the scottish highland games...what a great day it was!!!

 These guys were too funny!!

 Highland dancers...my sister and I did this at the Cowal Games when we lived in Scotland!

 The colors....I am such a patriotic fool...I get all choked up.  Something to do with my son being a Marine I guess....and having been deployed 4 times and shot by the Taliban during his third....yeah...I get emotional!! Five surgeries and a year of rehab...and he was sent back for a fourth tour!!!  Crazy.

 Our favorite band, Seven Nations.  We've followed them for years!!

 Donna and H....so cute.

 The four of us in Tarpon Springs at Hellas Restaurant...best greek food ever!

 fire pit time

 the boys and their stogies

Me and my girl on my front porch.  Sure did enjoy their visit!!!!

That's it for today folks...laundry to do and a long walk to take.  Love, hugs and peace!!

Another beautiful, sunny day in Palm Harbor, Florida!

April 18th and life is good.  We had guests from Georgia last week...what fun!!  Aileen is my husbands cousin.  Her husband, David, is the brother of one of my best friends.  Okay....I'll give you a minute to think on that.  Let me further complicate....David's sister (one of my best friends) married one of my husbands best friends - we introduced them at OUR wedding.   Talk about "all in the family".

Anyhow...we enjoyed having Aileen and David here.  25+ years ago we were all in each others weddings.  Their son and our son are 3 months apart in age.  We lived near each other and hung out for years...even before we were married.  When our boys were babies they moved from VA to GA.  Sadly we have not seen a lot of each other in 25 years.  We might see each other annually at a wedding or funeral.  We had lots of laughs and catching up, old stories and family memories.  What fun.

Tomorrow another dear friend and her hubster arrive from VA.  Donna and I went to high school together so we've know each other since 1975.  Yikes....do the math..that's 36 years.  Hard to believe.  She's only been married 5 years and our hubbies only met about a year ago.  They hit it off immediately and we always have such a great time together!!

I've baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies today and made pretzel bites.  Cinnamon-sugar pretzel bites to be exact.  Okay....buttered cinnamon-sugar pretzel bites.  And I ate about a hundred of them while they were still warm and just dipped in butter and rolled in  the sugar.  OMG....so freakin' good I cannot tell you.  I actually felt ill after inhaling them so quickly.  Why do I do that?  I'm so mad at myself afterward!
Oh well...the damage is done now.  My blood sugar spiked and now I'll crash - hard!  Not to mention the weight gain...just from THINKING about what I've done!  :(

The pretzel bite recipe I got off of Pinterest.  I definitely need a "Pintervention"!!!  Buy frozen Rhodes dinner rolls....thaw and cut into quarters...let rise....pop pieces in boiling water for 45 seconds (in small batches) drain on paper towels.  Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 min.  Baste with melted butter and roll in cinnamon sugar immediately.  All I can say is YUM.  You can also roll them in seasoned (garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper) grated parmesan if you'd rather savory than sweet.  Not a fan of they savory....love the sugar!!!

So we're ready for company.  Stopped at the butcher and bought 8 shish kebabs for dinner on Thursday....4 buffalo and 4 greek.  Cooking them on the grill.  Will bake some potatoes and a salad with them.  Perfect summer time meal.  That reminds me...I must make some iced tea!!

Gotta run....meeting a friend to walk our doggies on the doggy beach at Honeymoon Island.  Toodles!!

Company Arriving today....

Cannot wait for the Ga. cousin and her hubster to arrive.  ETA is 3pm-ish.  Cleaned the house from TOP to BOTTOM yesterday...and I mean CLEANED!!  Baseboards, scrubbed tile on hands and knees...LOL.
This place is SPARKLING clean!!  As I was on hands and knees on the kitchen tile....I noticed how GROSS the area underneath the bottom cabinets was...the kick board I guess you call it.  OMG...how embarrassed was I that I'd never seen that before!!  We've only been in the house 4 months...and I hadn't been on my hands and knees on the kitchen floor I guess.  You cannot see that area while standing.  Anyway...it's no longer gross!!  Who knew!!  I also cleaned inside the dishwasher door....the edges of the door were nasty.  I never use my dishwasher - well, rarely anyway.  Another hidden dirty spot.  Yikes.
I really need to pull the stove out and check behind and under it....dreading that scene.

So I baked a carrot cake this am for company....and now my oven won't turn off.  Got online to read that this is a common issue with Kitchen Aid stoves/ovens.  Why wouldn't the company fix this issue if it is so well known???  So now I have to call an appliance repair person to come fix the dang thing.  Just what I need today...NOT!!  For now we've turned it off with the circuit breaker!  Jeez.

The cake looks good though..LOL.  I'll whip up some butter cream frosting and we'll be all set.  Want to know what my secret cake/muffin ingredient is?  How about the left over pulp from my juicer?!?!  Yup.  I make fresh juice most mornings.  Carrots, apples, grapes, oranges, celery....etc. go into the juice.  I only keep the carrot and apple "pulp" from the juicer.  I save it after I've juiced those two ingredients before continuing with the rest of the ingredients.  It makes THE BEST "carrot" cake or muffins you've ever had. You can add nuts or raisins - or both!  I like nuts in mine.  So there u have it....I just couldn't see throwing all of that lovely pulp down the garbage disposal...and after doing so several times I just HAD to look on line and see what I could do with it!  Voila....love it.  I'm going to try to add some to meatloaf, burgers, spaghetti sauce, etc.  and see how we like it.  Sneak in a bit of fiber when/where we can!!  With no kiddos in the house...it's just the two of us...I can try these crazy things now.

So I'm sitting here relishing my clean  house, my baked cake, my meals planned for the week and some of my husk masks hanging up in the back yard.  Life is good...and I'm loving the life I'm living :)

Wonderful Wednesday...I usually spend the morning in my sisters first grade classroom helping her with Learning Centers.  However, today they are doing an outdoor activity and I'm not needed.....so I can get my house cleaned in anticipation of our company arriving tomorrow.

Wanted to quickly share a couple of recipes with you...as promised last week!  First my pork roast....so easy and so delish.  I purchase a pork tenderloin roast of about 2-3 lbs.

Pork Tenderloin in Puff Pastry
Ingredients:
Pork tenderloin roast
1 stick butter
dijon mustard
box of dark brown sugar
puff pastry sheet
salt, pepper, rosemary to taste

melt stick of butter in frying pan that's large enough for roast to fit in...I've also used my dutch oven for this step!   While butter is melting slather your entire roast with dijon mustard (I use my hands!).  Then roll the entire roast in the brown sugar....packing the sugar around the roast...yummy!!!!

Place roast in melted butter and cook on each side for 5 minutes....most of the sugar/mustard will come off but that's okay!!!!

Place puff pastry sheet on floured counter top and roll out a bit so it fits around the roast.  Place roast in center of pastry sheet and wrap, sealing edges and ends.  Place on cookie sheet, seam side down.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes....or until meat thermometer registers 165 degrees. YUM!!!!

Let roast rest 10 minutes and then slice....each slice will have puff pastry around it...it's OH SO GOOD.  Even if the pastry falls of a bit when slicing.....still delis.

Reserve some of the butter/mustard/sugar drippings for folks to pour over sliced roast...you will have to heat it up to keep it "liquid" as it wants to harden and caramelize :)

I make this often!!  Looks and seems very fancy but really isn't that hard at all to make.  Everyone loves it!!

Corn Pudding
One box jiffy corn bread muffin mix
2 eggs
1 can creamed corn
3/4 cup milk
3 TBSP sugar
6 TBSP melted butter

Mix all ingredients together and place in greased 2 qt casserole or 9" x 9" cake pan...bake about 40 min at 350 degrees or until center is firm.  You will make this again and again!!  You can kick it up a notch by adding hot sauce , red pepper flakes or peppers if you like it spicy :)

Potato Stuffing
Box of your favorite instant stuffing
small box of instant mashed potato flakes
chicken broth
1 stick butter

Add to pan 2 1/2 cups chicken broth and the stick of butter.  Bring to boil and add box of stuffing mix and   one cup of mashed potato flakes.  Stir and cover.  Set aside for 6 minutes.  Uncover and stir.  Spoon into a greased 2 qt casserole and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  Serve.   You can add more or less chicken stock depending on consistency you like.  I like mine a bit "wet".  If I have left-overs (a BIG if) I might pour on more chicken stock before re-heating as it dries out a bit in the fridge.

So there u have it!!  My easter dinner menu :)  I also served steamed broccoli and biscuits (Walmart frozen brand...perfect...love them!!!).

We had Strawberry Shortcake for dessert.  I make my 'cake' with bisquick....adding sugar, milk and melted butter....so perfectly tasty with those strawberries and their juice poured over the top and the fretted whipped cream.....ok...stop it...I'm getting hungry!

I've had my 60 minute walk this morning, had my coffee and had my computer time...now I must CLEAN THIS HOUSE - the dust bunnies are taking over!

Until next time.......have a blessed day!

The LOST Monday......
How quickly the days go!  Easter has come and gone.  It was a delightful weekend.  My sister and I did a lot together.  Hubster cleaned the outside of her windows for her while she cleaned the inside.  Pizza by the pool, etc. etc.  Now it's Tuesday!!  Cannot figure out how Monday got lost :)  If you find it let me know!

Today I was supposed to clean house....but played in my art studio instead!!  Hung some art work in the downstairs foyer and hung masks I painted out in the backyard along the fence.  MUCH more fun than housework...although to my credit I DID clean out the oven and the refrigerator!!  Hubster did the laundry, bless his heart!

aren't they adorable??  These are husks that fall off of the palm trees in our back yard!!  I paint them and then spray them with clear protectant so (hopefully) they will survive sun and rain.  We shall see!!  Added some "bling" to the latest ones I made...LOL.  Glued on some plastic 'gems' that I bought at Walmart.  Will take pictures of those another day!

I painted this picture for one of our guest rooms.  It says "The voice of the Sea soothes the soul".  Love the colors...they match the comforter and pillow shams :)

Tomorrow I will do the housework...promise.  Company coming into town on Thursday...and staying till Monday.  Looking forward to having fun with the Georgia cousin and her hubster.  Baseball, Beach and Bike Riding....going to "B" a fun weekend...get it?  Okay......I'll stop now!!