WE WON! WE WON!

We actually WON a trivia night tonight! Yessssss! We had a team of 8 and I think there were about 40 or so teams total at this particular trivia night! I doubt this will ever happen to me again so I am enjoying it! Thankfully, we had a few people at our table who really knew a lot of stuff. My main contribution was of course food! I took crab rangoon dip and pecan tassies. Our friends brought buffalo chicken dip, which is one of my very favorites, so it was a great night!


CRAB RANGOON DIP (Katie asked for this recipe. If you like crab rangoons, you'll love this dip!)

2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
2 6-ounce cans crab meat, drained and flaked
4 to 6 cloves crushed garlic (I always use the larger amount)
dried chives and dill weed to taste
2 tsp soy sauce
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 pkg. large won ton wrappers
vegetable oil for deep frying

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except won tons and oil using an electric mixer. Store covered in refrigerator until 20 minutes before serving. Separate and quarter the won ton wrappers. Drop them one at a time into the hot oil - fry for 30 seconds. (It is key to get the oil at just the right temperature as to not burn the won tons.) Drain of oil and salt. Store in air tight container. The dip and the won tons hold well, so this can be made well in advance.

PECAN TASSIES (Dan the Man asked for this one.)

Shells:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup flour

Filling:
1 cup pecan halves, finely chopped
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp butter or margarine, melted
1 tsp vanilla
powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. For shells, beat butter and cream cheese until well blended. Add flour, mix until a soft dough forms. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place balls of dough into ungreased wells of mini-muffin pan. I used a Pampered Chef tart shaper, dipped it into some flour, and pressed it into the dough just until the dough rises slightly above the rim of the pan.

For filling, combine pecans, brown sugar, egg, butter, and vanilla. Fill each tart shell with 1 tbsp filling (do not overfill). Bake 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove pan from oven, cool for at least 3 minutes and remove tarts. Cool completely, sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired. (Makes 24 tarts)

Overwhelmed

I am feeling a bit overwhelmed right now with activities going on at church and trying to keep up with school. This week seems soooo long already and it's only Wednesday. I am not up to posting anything lengthy right now. I will be back to "normal" soon, I hope!

At A Loss

Bruce's 40th birthday is Tuesday and I have NO IDEA what to get him. Seriously. None. Maybe that means we already have too much stuff, I don't know. He mentioned wanting the 2nd season of Matlock, which has come out on DVD. I told him I have no clue what else to get for him and he said that's OK.....he said I can just keep and "open mind" in case he finds something in the near future he would like to purchase for himself. I guess this is OK but I feel kinda lame not getting him anything. Then again, I don't want to buy just anything, simply for him to have a gift. Augh! I do plan to bake a chocolate cake for him.....his favorite. And we have cards ready to go. But otherwise, I am at such a loss and it makes me feel like a bad wife. Any ideas? I need help.

Sick Day

I stayed home from school today with a sick B1. She has a cold I think and her nose is running a lot. It's running down her throat, which is making her throat sore. Today is the day that her doctor is only there until noon, so we weren't able to get in because they said they were double and triple booked. They are usually really good about getting us in so I wasn't too upset. I got a lot of stuff done today at home while she stayed on the couch and watched TV and played on the laptop.....

I did 4 loads of laundry, folded them, and put them away; I washed dishes that have gathered in the sink since yesterday morning and then I washed our lunch dishes; I finished cleaning the kitchen, including mopping the floor; I typed up all the trivia questions for our church trivia night on March 1 (I and a few other people MADE the questions, but I organized it all into 10 rounds); I exercised; I pattied out our hamburgers for tomorrow night's supper; and I kept B1's hair cut appointment at 3pm and took her there. She was feeling better by then. Oh, and I got our tax information together and dropped it off to the lady who is going to do our taxes this year. I think that's it. Tonight I will try to put a few more things on e-bay. Tomorrow night will probably suck, trying to get caught back up with school work. It always stinks to miss school on a day you weren't planning to miss. But those are the breaks..........

Our Valentine's Day

So this Valentine's Day was spent with our girls. I did the math and figured out that the next time Valentine's Day falls on a Saturday will be in 2015. B1 will be 18 years old then and B2 will be almost 15. I wonder if they will want to spend it with Mom and Dad. So, I figured we better enjoy this one!

This morning, I accompanied B2 and her Brownie troop (along with 3 other moms) to an activity called "Pet Love." It was really pretty neat. I will post pictures and write more about that this week.

Before we left for the Brownie event, we exchanged Valentine's gifts. Bruce and I had said we weren't going to get each other anything but he said he heard something on the radio that said you cannot not get your wife a Valentine's Day gift. So he gave me a little statuette of a Shiba Inu, like Shinza. It is very lifelike! I love it. He gave each of the girls a new Webkinz and a few candy items. We actually did buy him something.....a package of Oreo double stuff cookies! He has been talking about them lately so we decided that would be a good thing to buy for him! Hehe!

We got home about 12:30 and left again a little after 2:00. We first went to a movie. Our girls like movies, if nothing else, for the popcorn! But we saw "New in Town." It was cute and fine for our family. I think B2 got a little bored with it by the time it ended but all in all, a good movie. Then we went to Chuck E. Cheeses! They love going there. We were planning to take them to Dave and Buster's (as a report card celebration along with Valentine's Day) but B1 did not get all A's this quarter. She got a B+ in English. I know this really isn't a big deal but she has earned all A's for quite a while now so we had to make the B+ hurt just a little. Chuck E. Cheeses is a little bit of a step down from Dave and Buster's. But since they remodeled the one in Fairview Heights, it is really good! There is a lot to do there, even for us adults! And I love that they have a salad bar. I think we were there for 2 hours. We used some coupons and got plenty of tokens for the girls and for us. B1 didn't see anything she wanted at the prize stand (I think she is getting too old for that sort of stuff, but she still likes to play the games) so B2 lucked out and got all the tickets to use for some Hannah Montana toy she picked out. While they played games, I sat and graded papers at the table, so I felt very productive!

At one point, there was actually a line out the door to get into the place. I guess we weren't the only ones with the idea to take our kids there for Valentine's Day. We then went to Wal-Mart in O'Fallon to do the shopping. I really don't like that particular Wal-Mart, but I can tolerate it once in awhile. Once we got home, the girls and I prepared 2 dishes that I need to take to church tomorrow. This was after 9:30pm.

I am tired now and ready for bed. Tomorrow night is DATE NIGHT!!! Yippeeeeeee!

Barney

Two years ago today, my first "baby" died. He was a miniature dachshund who we got after we were married for 1 year. We named him Barney. There was a story behind his name. You see, Bruce began his teaching career in Livingston, IL at Livingston High School. Bruce taught PE back then and had several nylon sweatsuits in different colors. Because Livingston's school colors were purple and gold, he had a purple sweatsuit. Bruce organized an intramural hockey league for the kids to play after school one winter and the name of his team was "Barney's Brawlers".....because of the big guy in the purple sweatsuit! One of his students even made a big poster of Barney the dinosaur playing hockey. We kept that poster for several years. Anyway, Bruce switched jobs that year but I knew he would miss his days in Livingston. It is a small town and he became attached to several of the kids. When we were considering getting a dog, I thought that if we named him Barney, it would bring back some good memories for Bruce when he said the dog's name.

Barney was my buddy. He knew who the person in this house was who really took care of him. We got him in August, 1994 when he was 11 weeks old. He was so cute and never really lost the cuteness in his face. He went through a lot in his (almost) 13 years. He had hernia surgery and with that, lost one of his (male genetilia). And then he had to have another surgery a few years later and lost the other one. I cannot even remember exactly what that surgery was for. Then, in 2006, he was diagnosed with diabetes. I noticed he had been drinking a lot and therefore, peeing a lot. I took him to the doctor and thus began giving him insulin shots twice a day. Barney used to go to my parents' house while we were at work. My parents live caddy-corner from the lady who babysat the girls. So.....I would drop off the girls (or pick them up) and then back out of one driveway and right into another one to drop off or pick up my furry child. My mom loved Barney like her own dog. She took great care of him while we were at work. So she too helped with his shots. Finally, we realized that we should be giving him his shot at the exact same time every day. This helped keep him stablized.

Barney still had a lot of accidents in his final months. My dad finally said that we could no longer bring him to their house during the day, and I really didn't blame him for doing that. Whenever we got up in the morning or came home from work, we always had a few puddles on the kitchen floor. We had grown accustomed to blocking Barney in the kitchen (on the vinyl floor) while we were gone. We kept a blanket there for him and sometimes even that was wet. We kept a stack of old towels and did a lot of laundry during those final months.

Barney died on a Monday. The Friday prior to that, he had some real trouble going up our front steps. Once inside the house with my help, I noticed that he just pretty much laid on the carpet in front of the fridge or on his blanket. I would carry him outside when I thought he should go, but he didn't even want to walk anymore. Thank goodness this only lasted a few days. By Sunday, all he did was lay on his blanket. Monday morning, Bruce had school but the girls and I didn't. Bruce came into our bedroom before he left and told me that Barney was not doing very well. I went to check on him and he was still breathing but his eyes were closed and he wouldn't open them. This was early in the morning. A couple hours later, Brittany yelled at me to come into the kitchen. When I did, we found that Barney had lost control of something and there was this brown/blood/chocolate looking fluid that had come out of him. I didn't know what it was but I knew it wasn't poop because it didn't smell like that. I had already called the doctor and we were going to take him in that morning anyway but now I called the doctor and told them what was going on. They said his kidneys had most likely failed. So the girls and I put another of his blankets into a large box. I picked Barney up and B1 tried to wipe some of that substance off of him with one of his clean towels. I then laid him in the box and we loaded him into the back of the Escape and headed to the vet. I knew we wouldn't be bringing him home. I just prayed that he didn't die before we got to the doctor. He didn't. I think God was helping me because I didn't break down and "lose it" in front of the girls. We got there and I paid the bill for enthanasia and cremation. We then said our goodbyes, petted Barney one more time, I took his collar off, and we left. He had been in a doggie coma state for some hours by then. We cried when we left but knew we were doing the right thing.

Now, I wish I had stayed with him while he passed on. But I didn't know if I wanted the girls to witness that and I didn't want them sitting in the waiting room all alone. I think I did the right thing at the time. And I know that one day, whenever I get to Heaven, Barney will be there waiting for me to pass over that golden bridge. I hope he is up there right now having fun with all the other dogs that I grew up with. I miss him.

Bloggy Block

Yeah, I'm having Blogger's Block. I can't think of anything that I deem to be worthwhile to write about. So here are some things happening recently with us:

* A parent at B2's basketball game on Saturday almost got into a fight. Yep.....3rd grade basketball.

* I am currently in the process of making up some trivia questions for our trivia night at church on March 1. We are also doing trivia on Feb. 28, March 27, and March 28!

* My friend Mike today gave me a bottle of Weiner Dog white wine! (Our first pet, Barney, who died on 2/12/07, was a miniature dachshund.)

* Both the girls are spending the night at a friend's house on Sunday night this weekend. No school on Monday means it's a DATE NIGHT for me and Bruce and we CAN'T wait!

* I found out today that my Curves in Highland is reducing hours which will affect the time when I go there. Bummer. So now we are considering joining the Korte Rec Center, which overall would cost $56 more per year and include the entire family instead of just me.

* I have recently fallen in love with crumbled blue cheese! I consider putting it onto just about everything I eat!

That's about it for now. Total randomness!

Just Checking In

Not much new going on with us.....just wanted to check in so Dan the Man doesn't think I am ignoring him!

Last night I kept the scoreboard/clock at the Triad girls BBall game, which we lost to Highland, our arch rivals, by 11. Yuck. Tonight B1 had an orthodontist appointment after school, then B2 and I had haircut appointments after that, then B1 and Bruce left to go to Granite's girls BBall game while B2 and I grabbed a bite at home before heading to church for a meeting for me. We got home about 8:30. Tomorrow, I have a union meeting right after school and then it's my turn to drive B2 and her friend to gymnastics while Bruce takes B1 to pitching lessons. Thursday, both girls have basketball practice after dinner. Friday, B2 wants to go to a "Kids Night Out" at THS. Saturday, both girls have basketball games in Mt. Olive in the afternoon and then we have Blues tickets for all 4 of us that night. Looking forward to that. And Sunday, B1 has hitting practice in the afternoon and Bruce has a khoury league board meeting at 6pm. I guess for not having much going on, we have a lot going on!

Today was the first day of our 2nd semester. Yeah, today, not Jan. 5 but Feb. 3! It's because we started so darn late this year. Oh well! Hope your week is going good so far.