Happiness & Persian on the outside...Texan on the inside.

60 degrees and SUNSHINE today! What wonders sunshine does for the soul! I am so HAPPY today! Yay! The reasons I am happy are as follows.

#1 - No School Today! Woo Hoo! Though I did have to stand outside and knock on the door for about 5 minutes before someone saw me and let me in (had to drop something important off). I am not cool enough to have the much coveted 'main' key' - just a key to my room. Sucks for me.

#2 - SUNSHINE! What more can a person in WA ask for?! I even washed my car today. :)

#3 - Seattle for me tomorrow! I am so excited I just can't wait. You will have to wait until Sunday to find out what the Seattle post is about. It's great & wonderful and I can barely stand the wait!

#4 - Sound of Music tonite! Go Nas' friends!

Okay...now to the Persian-Texan tease. Most of you know, Omid is Persian (eye-rain-ee-an) by birth. There is a redneck (aka Texan) hidden in that man. He is way more redneck than I am and I grew up in Olympia for goodness sake! If you need more proof of this: watch the following videos. Anyone know of a parade out there I can sign Omid up for? ;) He is so funny...he makes me laugh everyday!

Quick & Easy Dinner

This recipe is just that: quick & easy. I found this recipe in Tuesday's Oregonian (in the Food Day section).

I grabbed what I thought was a bag of frozen rotisserie chicken and when it was thawed, saw that it was actually razor clams. Ooops! Our chicken chowder just became clam chowder. Still nummy!

Creamy Chicken & Corn Chowder

2 T butter
1 1/2 c chopped onions
1 t. ground cumin
1/4 c flour
1 14 oz cans chicken broth
2 11 oz cans Green Giant Mexicorn, drained (I just used 1 15 oz can regular corn)
2 c milk
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
2 packed cups baby spinach (I didn't add any of the spinach)
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 t Tabasco sauce or to taste

Melt butter in saucepan, add onions & saute until tender. Stir in the cumin. Whisk in the flour and cook for 2-3 mins (stirring occasionally). Whisk in the chicken broth until smooth. Add the corn & milk and bring to a simmer. Let cook for 4-5 mins more or until the chowder is thickened slightly. Stir in the chicken & spinach and cook for another 1-2 mins and the spinach is wilted. Add salt & pepper to taste. Stir in Tabasco & serve immediately.

Wild Olive Tees

I found this site thru Pioneer Woman this morning. I love the Transform Your Mind tshirt. I must have it. Check out these cool and positive tshirts at Wild Olive Tees. Too cute!

Dog Friends

When I arrived at work this morning, I found this note & ball in my box.

Remy's friends Buster & Beaner "Beanie" Owen were shopping with their mom this weekend and bought Remy this giant ball.

It's definitely a mouthful!

Thanks Buster & Beaner "Beanie" Owen!

Love, Remy

Vinyl Sillhouettes

I want these! I am already thinking about which photos of Nas, Matty & Remy I am going to send in. Too cute!

http://www.vinylsilhouettes.com/index.html

Backgammon & ice cream sundaes

Several nights a week, Omid and his mom play a competetive game of backgammon. Both always claim to win - the kids and I never really know the truth. If Omid's mom 'upsets' the game by moving the pieces around (which happens fairly often) we have a good idea that Omid is winning. Last night, the 'loser' had to take the kids out for ice cream. I was excited as I had found a coupon for Baskin & Robbins (buy-one-get-one free sundae) on the Coupon Cravings blog.

We drove to B & R and I announced to the person helping us that we have a coupon for a bogo free sundae. He said, "We don't accept any coupons here. You have to try another B & R." I was bummed. Those sundaes are $4.99 each! I also have a Payback book, so I guessed he just didn't want to accept internet coupons (plus, I don't like to be told: no). I said to him, "Well, I also have a Payback book cooupon for a bogo ice cream cone." He again told me, "we don't accept coupons here," and pointed to a sign that said, "EACH STORE IS INDEPENDENTLY OWNED & OPERATED & MAY NOT ACCEPT COUPONS."

So...instead of driving to Cold Stone (where I KNOW they will accept my coupons) we stayed there and got the kids their sundaes & Fari her ice cream cone. We were the only ones in that store & I would think the owner would WANT business there. My advice to him...start accepting coupons. I won't be back to your B&R store again...but will visit Cold Stone instead. Everyone is using coupons now. Get on board!

Mary's Microwave Caramel Popcorn

One of my coworkers sent out this recipe today with YUMMIES in the subject line.

It's super tasty and super easy. It takes less than 10 minutes from start to finish. It is sticky and greasy, but the results are worth it. I usually make my carmel popcorn with a bag of melted caramels. It stays sticky, whereas this popcorn is crunchy (like Fiddle Faddle). The sticky-greasy bag afterwards.

The end result.

Remy waiting for his share. He loves it!

Here's the recipe:

Mary's Microwave Caramel Popcorn

Pop 2 bags microwave popcorn and put into a large brown paper sack. Combine in a tall bowl:

1 stick butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup Karo syrup

1/2 t salt

Cook in a microwave for 2-3 mins making sure it comes to a full boil.

Stir in 1/2 t baking soda. Quickly pour syrup over popped corn in bag. Shake to mix.

Microwave bag with the top rolled down on high for one and a half minutes. Remove from micro and shake well. Return to micro and cook for another one and a half minutes.

Pour caramel corn onto buttered cookie sheet to cool.

Olive Juice

Just found this blog, Olive Juice this morning. It's full of delicious recipes. Check it out.

The Case of the Missing Brown Bag Lunch

My friend Lin brought me lunch today. She said, "It's a brown bag lunch with a sandwich and a few snacks. Your name isn't on it, & it's in the small fridge." I told her 'thank you very much' and was so hungry by first recess there was no way I was waiting until lunch to access that bag.

I went into the staff lounge and grabbed the lunch bag (without my name on - just like she said) and ate the sandwich. It was good too. Roast beef on whole wheat. Yum.

About an hour later, I saw Lin and thanked her for the lunch. She asked how I liked the turkey sandwich. I said, "That was turkey? It sure tasted like roast beef." Lin said, "No, that was turkey" and some other things that I didn't hear because I was thinking: 'Dang! I think I ate someone else's lunch!' I asked her if she put a bag of Cheez-its and a Jello in for snack. She said, "No, I went back after first recess and wrote your name on your lunch." Once I heard that I ran to my room to check my email to see if someone had put a lost lunch alert out. There was nothing there, so I decided to put my own "Are you missing a lunch because I just ate it" email.

After I sent the email, I took the brown bag + snacks and went to the staff lounge. Swallowing my pride, I held up the bag and asked about 20 people if they were missing a lunch. Two ladies held up their hands and I asked who had the roast beef & Cheez-its, etc. It was poor Ashley who is already deathly thin and needs to eat. She was eating chicken noodle soup instead. I explained to her and everyone else what had happened. I apologized profusely to Ashley and gave her the snacks I didn't eat plus the lunch Lin made for me (which now had my name PLASTERED on the bag).

I bet after this incident, Ashley (& everyone else at work) will write their names on their lunches. This'll teach 'em. :)

Visit with Denise & a drunk guy

Our friend Denise came back for a visit this weekend. She and her family moved to North Carolina back in August and we have been missing her a lot! The moms headed out to Cactus Ya Ya while the kids had other plans.

Lin & Wendy

Tammie & Denise

All of us and an ANNOYING drunk guy who wouldn't leave us alone.

This guy was WEIRD. While we were waiting for our table, he came up to Denise & Tammie and was flirting like crazy. They tried to ignore him but he was really persistent. After he failed to get the girls to flirt in return, he tried hitting on Lin. Our table was finally called and we were laughing at him. We were laughing too soon, as he and his friends were seated at the table behind us. Too bad for us.

I took some photos of our table and he offered to take one of us. I hesitated as I didn't want him to #1 - drop my new camera, #2 - break my new camera or #3 - puke on my new camera. The waitress was nowhere in sight, so I said okay. Bad move. He immediately started playing with the zoom and that just pissed me off. I leaned right over and said, "Give me back my camera!" in the meanest/nastiest tone I could muster. Then he started to talk to our table again about 'what makes ladies like us happy.' We all just ignored him and I grabbed the waitress and asked her to take our picture. That creepy guy got in our picture and we were not pleased. Then Lin said, "Woo hoo Erin! I didn't know you had it in you to talk like that to people."

The minute I walked in the door, I took a Clorox wipe and disinfected my camera from that guys' germs. Other than putting up with that guy, we had a great time!

Close, but no cigar.

Just a few minutes ago, I thought for sure I had won something akin to the lottery.

I left a comment on The Pioneer Woman's blog last night (hoping to win a prize - $500 at the Apple store). I just went on her blog and saw that Erin (#4786) was one of 3 winners. My heart skipped a beat. I was hoping it was me....I had Naseem help me check. Holding my breath....Naseem found out that I had left comment number 4856.

Darn it!

Twitter

In my quest to always keep up with the latest & greatest in technology - (haha!) - I joined Twitter today. Look for me under: goremygo.

According to others around me...Facebook is "so yesterday." I don't believe that though - there are so many people on there all the time. Thank God I can't access FB at work. :)

Gisela

Here is an article about Gisela's appearance on The Price is Right tomorrow.

http://www.theolympian.com/localhighlight/story/768732.html

Netflix This!

This is a darling movie!

The kids and I laughed our way through it. This movie has it's share of swear words...though they are bleeped out with either the sound of a basketball or ping pong ball bouncing - very clever.

It's funny & terribly quirky and I will probably watch it tomorrow night too.

The Price is Right! *Update*

This Thursday, February 26th - you can watch Gisela win big on The Price is Right. I will miss it - but have checked out the website and will be able to watch it online later. Exciting stuff!

By the way...Gisela decided to pay the hefty game show taxes and will receive her loot sometime in May.