Great Way to Begin the Day...

With a joke or cartoon so here is your laugh for the day:
I love this one!

For those of you who peek in and like to cook, you have to make this recipe. It is really delicious. You can serve it over noodles or rice or even mashed potatoes. It is low in fat and calories and super yummy. I am planning on putting a can of chinese vegetables in it next time and making chop suey. It tastes just like the beef gravy in the canned chop suey mix from Chun King.

Braised Sirloin Tips (I used sirloin kabobs, but if you can't find either, a cut up sirloin steak would work just as well)

1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp meat tenderizer
2 lbs beef tips, lean
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 c finely chopped onion
1 1/4 c beef broth (I use low sodium canned)
1/3 red wine (I used burgundy and I imagine this could be omitted if you prefer)
1 TBL light soy sauce
2 TBL cornstarch
1/4 c water

Using a skillet with a lid, prepare pan by spraying with Pam over medium high heat. sprinkle meat with tenderizer and pepper (I just put the meat in a ziploc bag and sprinkled stuff over it and mixed it that way,) brown in pan than add garlic and onions and cook until onions are transparent, mix beef broth, wine, and soy sauce together than pour over meat. Bring up to boil, reduce to simmer and cook 1 1/2 hours or until meat is fork tender. Mix cornstarch with water, stir into sauce and thicken. Serve over rice. Serves 8
177 calories, 5 g fat, no fiber 4 WW pts per 4 oz serving

Tonight is a treat for us even if it is lower fat. I am making sloppy joes and hash browns. It fits fine into our points and is something a little out of the ordinary dinner fare I guess.

Jack did what he called his "half week weigh in" and has lost 4 lbs so he is all jazzed about it. I am glad he lost as he will stay on it that way. I told him not to stress if he didn't lose as it happens sometimes. He has his cardiology appt the end of February and so I hope he is about 8 lbs or so down, which will make the cardiologist happy. He doesn't say a word to Jack about his weight (Jack is about 30 lbs overweight and carries it all in his belly area) but he probably would if Jack got to be much heavier. I will let my weight loss be a surprise. Check in on Saturday as my weigh in is on Friday.

We get to have Thomas the WHOLE day on Saturday. I am so excited. They are dropping him off at around 7:30 and picking him up around 4 PM. We rarely get him at all let alone the whole day. I hope this can continue because I love it and we have a lot of fun. I think I am going out and buying a kid's Scrabble game for us to play here at the house. He is such a smart little boy and he loves to play board games. I have checkers, dominoes and such here at the house, but not too many board games to play. Jack likes scrabble so he would participate in it too I think.

It is cold again this morning so I think I will stick to my regular walking route. It is tough to hit the hill right off the bat, but then I go downhill for a city block so it makes up for it. I get too cold to walk the mile when the weather is like this and end up having to go pee before I get home so for now I am going to keep at the .8 routine.

I am finally at the arm decreases for my dd's sweater. In all the things I have made, I have never done a ssk and boy is that tricky for me. I imagine it is for a lot of knitters since they basically are knitting with the opposite hand, but I have to do some crazy stuff to do it properly. Glad no one sees!!! I am still on track with the blanket. I did my 6 rows yesterday though the last row last night was tough. I have arthritis in my hands and it flared up in my left pinky (my yarn holding hand) and when it does, my pinky doesn't want to bend so keeping the yarn around it is tough.

I guess I better get the ole New Balance on, hat, gloves and my Glenn Miller CD and get out and get the walk in.

Go out and make this a great day!

Donna

When all else fails....

Walk anyway! It is cold here again this morning and I decided like an idiot to take a different and longer walking route this morning. Boy, do my gluts hurt! I guess that is a good thing, but oh my aching . There are a lot of unused muscles in that mass and they are complaining because I am now trying to get them into working order. It will all pay off in the long run so I just have to keep at it until pool time!

I am so excited that Jack has really taken to the WW program. He really really likes it and even plans out his points in the evening for the next day. I decide what we will have for dinner then we do points for the meal then he sets his up for the whole following day. I decided to peek at the this morning and looks like I am 5 lbs down so we shall see. My day to is on Friday.

I have been working on the camel sweater for my dd this morning before walking. I watched Knitty Gritty yesterday and she had this great technique for putting on buttons without having to sew them on so I am going to find it online and put it in my favorites so I always have the instructions then try them out when I am knitting the front of the sweater and ready to put buttons on. The placket for the buttons is fake and they are just for decoration.

My T-baby made all A's on his report card again. He is one smart little cookie. So, Nonny and Granddad owe him another trip to Chuck E Cheese or wherever he wants to go. I haven't heard from my dd yet as to whether we will be going on Saturday or not. That is when she wanted us to take him but I will get with her on Thursday if I haven't heard from her. She is so busy with her company's aquisition that she might have even forgot she asked me.

When I talked to her last time she said she had washed the sweater I made him for Christmas and it seems to be ok. I think she thought it would fall apart! I guess it kind of surprised me too!

Time to get to . This guy is doing it backwards (I am left handed) but looks like he has some nice yarn!

Onward and upward! Donna

What is with this Cold Weather???

It is way too cold for my liking here in land. I have to go out and walk in a few minutes, brrrrrr! I just get betting exercise if I walk outside than on the treadmill. It is easier for me outdoors for some reason and I can walk farther.

WW is coming along just fine though I am so afraid I am eating too much. Nutty to say for someone losing weight, but right now with my size I have a lot of points to use and I find that towards the end of the day I have several I have to use up. They state that it is imperative that you eat all your points everyday, but yesterday it was hard. I actually had two dessert style snacks before bedtime to use them up.

I truly hope this program works for both Jack and I. He is really enthusiastic about it and he hasn't been about anything else he has tried. This is the man that 14 years ago quit smoking cold turkey.

I think I am going to frog my dd's whole sweater and start with a smaller size. I think that the size I chose is one size too big. The sweater is to fit snug and I don't think it will. I am going to check the gauge again and maybe use smaller needles also. This yarn is stretchy so I want to be sure it is the best fit possible.

Other than that, not much news in my world! I am off to freeze my off outdoors!

Donna

Progress for Progress Sake...

I am making progress on the baby blanket. I have committed to doing 6 rows a day and that should finish it in about 2 weeks. I did 6 rows yesterday and am about ready to sit down and do 2-3 rows when I get finished here. I am also making progress on my dd's sweater and it is going to be very nice. I really like the yarn I am using. The Bernat Satin is nice and soft and has a beautiful sheen to it.

Granddad wanted to go shopping for his grandson yesterday so here is what he bought. It looks huge in the picture, but is actually a 3-6 months size and the shoes are tiny little things. My son said the baby is going to be really big so he is afraid newborns will fit for "about 2 hours." He was a very big boy though (9 1/2 lbs and 23 inches long) so he has his dad's genes in that sense. I want to go back and get him a pair of OshKosh overalls and this little white tshirt that has an anchor on it so she can change out the shirts between the two.

WW is going fine and Jack is even giving it a try. We are writing pts on boxes and such so we don't have to figure every time and I am also writing down pts for stuff we use the same, like my favorite yogurt brand, cereal and such. I am figuring out points for my recipes and putting them straight on the sheets so we can have the pts readily available for those too. It makes it so much easier. I guess we are just a pts family now.

Today is the dreaded day at the you know where. Jack is gong with me today so maybe we can get finished faster. Seems the last few months, everytime I go it rains to beat the band so it will probably stay stone dry since Jack is gong. This little guy seems to be a lot faster than I am at the job!

On to morning chores and my walk.

When was anything you ever really wanted really easy!

Donna

We have Sadness at our House...

We received very sad news last night. We called Jack's favorite aunt and uncle (his dad's sister) last night to tell them we will have a Jack the IV. His aunt has really missed her brother even though he has been dead over 30 years now. She was thrilled when we named our son Jack, and we wanted to share the news with them that there would be another Jack in just a few months. We tried their phone and got no answer, tried their son and left a message, then called the other aunt and she told Jack that Aunt Liz passed away two months ago. She said Uncle Buddy was living with his dd now and their son was living in the house. She gave Jack Betty Carol's phone # and he called and talked to her. We couldn't have gone to the funeral as Jack was still recovering from open heart surgery, but we could have sent flowers as a family. I guess she wrote our phone number down wrong and they couldn't get ahold of us and didn't have Jack's sister's number. My poor husband cried on the phone he was so upset he hadn't been able to be contacted. She and her husband were wonderful people and whenever we would go through Mineral Wells, Tx we would stay with them. The last time we saw them, we flew out there with Kelly and Thomas and I think he was around 3. She was in her late 80's so had a long life. It was such a shock though as we usually called them each Christmas and didn't this year because of Jack's stuff going on. We just forgot. Life does go on, but it won't be the same without feisty Aunt Liz.

Well, we have filed our taxes so we will get our refund in a couple weeks and I can buy the airline tickets for our vacation. We are going to have a bunch of regular maintenance done on the car too, like brakes, shocks, etc, etc. We have to have some possible major work done on the blower for the heat/ac. It has quit working. It may be some fuse Jack can't find or total replacement or wiring problem, we just don't know at this point. We will have it looked at after the refund comes back so we have plenty of money.

Jack has decided to go with me to Indiana for the baby shower so I am glad about that. I don't mind going alone, but it is a 10 hour hard drive, 12 if you stop and so it is nice not having to go alone since my dd can't go. My dd has offered to give her what is called a blessingsway shower, where important women in the mother's life get together to give blessings to the new baby. They do some kind of bead ceremony where each one provides a bead and a written blessing from her that is strung on a a necklace for the mother. They then wash the new mother to be's feet. They also a lot of times bring meals that are frozen to give the family easy meals for a few days after returning home. I think it is a nice idea actually. It sounds kind of hokey, but it was a generous and sweet thing for my dd to do and there have been a lot of hard feelings with regards to her and her brother and stuff so I applaud her for trying. She feels really really badly she can't go to the shower, but it is the same weekend as the aquisition of her company and she is having to work 3 weeks straight 7 days a week to go through this I guess.

I am now an official WW member and think I will like the program. I know I will stick with it since I have to get on that scales every week and though they don't say out loud what you weigh (though I could care less) they do say stuff like, "You're one lb up" or "You lost two this week," stuff like that. I can stand people knowing my weight but I don't want anyone to hear, "You've gained 3 lbs this week!" It takes some effort, but is a pretty easy program to follow. I am doing pts versus the core thing. That I am not sure I would stay on. You get extra pts for exercising and 35 weekly pts extra to use as you choose, but I am going to try hard not to use any of those. The only manditory pts are the daily ones and you are to use up all of those.

I am so mad at NBC! They shower a RERUN of Las Vegas again last night. I do not know what is going on with programming this year. They don't show reruns of that American Idol or some of those other lame reality things, but the one show I look forward to each week seems to be reruns all the time.

Time to get up and Well in my case, something a bit more sedate, but I need to get the day started.

Everyone!!! Donna

Now the Wait is on...

Waiting for a new baby is always hard, I think. You are anxious for it to get here. She has set the shower date so I can prepare for that. My dd is not going to be able to go because her company is going through a huge aquisition at that time and she would get fired if she tried to take time off. They have already been warned that there will be no time off starting in March up until June. She and her brother and sil have a very rocky relationship and she is afraid this isn't going to help. She is his only sibling, didn't go to his wedding, didn't go to her bridal shower and now can't go to this. I try to stay out of it, but always get stuck in the middle and I hate it. I am again and I am upset about it. I guess I dropped the ball on something that I didn't understand I was supposed to do etc etc. Anyway, my husband is going to call his son and tell him in this case he needs to give his sister a break because she can't do anything about this.

Today I sign up for WW. I was a WW member over 30 years ago back when the program was really rigid. I couldn't afford it back then and didn't last long. I guess now I wish I had.

I am coming along on both my ribbon top and my dd's sweater. I really like the camel color. This yarn has a nice sheen and gives it a slight golden color to it. I hope she likes it. My ribbon top is just a funky fun thing that I will enjoy wearing I hope. I am not sure how comfortable wearing ribbon is though! Alas, I have made no progress on the blanket. My left pinky finger was swollen at the joint yesterday and I couldn't keep the yarn wrapped. It wouldn't bend much so I knew that knitting on the blanket would just not go.

The weekend is upon us and I hope to get a lot done.

Donna

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails...

That's right, ! He will be named after his father, grandfather and great grandfather, Jack Nolan Wilkinson IV. His great grandfather, who is deceased was Jack, my husband was Jackie, our son is Jay so we have to find something for the new Jack. I like LJ for little Jack. We will have to see what his parents come up with. His dad called me yesterday afternoon and said I was the first one he called. He said he looks perfect that they could clearly see his head, hands, feet, legs and arms etc. I could hear Alicia in the car on her cell phone busily telling her family. My husband called her like 3 times yesterday so see if they had called.


We are taking a trip to Nashville in 3 weeks to Opry Mills to go baby clothes shopping. They have a bunch of children's shops, one of which is Oshkosh b' Gosh and I want to get him some little overalls. His daddy had a pair and was so adorable in them. Actually, his daddy was a beautiful baby and little boy, blond with little curls in the back. Such a sweet child.

I got the yarn for my dd's sweate and this time it is a nice color. I have started her sweater. I am reposting the picture of the pattern with the yarn and buttons for it. Unfortunately, the yarn called for in the pattern was discontinued so I had to find a substitute that I thought would look good on a redhead. I really like the peach yarn and I have made some baby stuff with the brand and style so I know how it works up. It is a really soft yarn and I think it will make a great sleeveless sweater for Vegas.







I better get going Donna

TODAY'S THE DAY....

Like the old joke, today I find out if I am going to be a grandmother or a grandfather... Even Jack can't wait. He told me that if they call while he is at work to call and page him. He thinks it is going to be a girl and I am totally with a boy so we shall see. I just hope the baby is in good health etc.

I had to sit and pay bills this morning! UGH! It isn't as much a chore anymore since so many of my bills can be paid online, which I love. No writing a bunch of checks, envelopes etc, just click and my bank account is smaller!

I finished the last baby layette last night and had about 3 yards of yarn left! I wasn't looking forward to having to go and buy another skein of yarn for just a couple rows to finish it. Now all I have to do is sew my knitting labels in the inside of the sweater and they are ready to be boxed up and wrapped. I want to get the one going to Chicago out this weekend, but have to get baby paper and a card first.

Seemed a bit warmer this morning than it has been when I took out the trash. I sure hope so, I am sick of cold weather. Actually, I want hot weather so I can start swimming. I love to go over every morning and swim for an hour all by myself. It is wonderful. Our condo complex is right in the airport landing zone and with FEDEX having their main hub in Memphis, there are planes flying overhead all the time. I can go and swim and see the planes go past dreaming of the morning I will be on one winging my way to sin city! We are now just a little over 7 months until vacation. I should be able to get the airline tickets in 2 weeks when we get our tax refund back.

Speaking of airline tickets, we fly business/first class on Airtran from Memphis, to Atlanta then to Vegas. Jack hates to have to take this really early flight at 6 AM, but the other flights get there at night so it wastes a whole day of vacation that way. This way we are there before noon their time. Anyway, he told me to check Northwest, which has a hub here in Memphis to see what first class tickets cost. Good grief! They want $4030 for business class tickets! I checked American Airlines and they want $3400 I think it was. Our tickets are $1641! Now, in my opinion the only thing different is you get a meal with the other airlines, but darn, I think $500 for a meal each way is kind of steep!!!! With Airtran, we get treated like first class passengers, our cabin has its own flight attendent, she continally comes up and asks if you want anything, the booze is free, etc. The prices went up from 2005 by a total of about $300, but I think most of that was fuel costs. My question is, if the cut rate airlines can fly for that amount and be in the black, why are airlines lik NWA and AA in bankruptcy reorganization all the time???

I need to get out and get to My feet aren't going to do it by themselves!

Have a good day! Donna

Knittin' to pass the time...

Jack is concerned that I am in the house too much so we talked about it last night. I told him that knitting keeps me busy and I don't get bored and I enjoy it since I have mastered some of the techniques a little more and can knit stuff other than simple scarves or whatever if I want to. He says he worries about me being in the house alone all the time. Bless his heart. So, because of that AND other reasons I am seriously considering joining WW. I think I need accountability and I know me and if I have to go to a meeting and weigh every week, I am surely going to stick to a diet program and not bounce around. Besides, I like the program, it is nutritionally sound and I can do basically what I am doing now except instead of figuring fat and calories, I just do the point system. Though I will stay for meetings, I have a pretty good handle on why I eat, the triggers and such. I have done this for a long time on and off and realize it is not a quick fix that I have to fix emotional, physical and other issues along with just overeating. I have two things that make me jump off the wagon, boredom eating, which knitting really takes care of and I love food, plain and simple.

I am almost done with the third baby set. I have about half of the sweater complete. I had more problems with this sweater than the other two combined. I kept goofing up and having to frog it back. I would get lost because of so many patterns in this sweater and end up tearing out the whole thing and starting over. I think I did that 3 or 4 times. For one thing, this pattern has some mistakes in it, though they can be easily ignored if you pay attention to what you are doing. For some reason this lady cast on 34 instead of 33 stitches and would end up with one side have a k4 border and the other a k3. Anyway, it is coming along, though I can't say the same for the blanket, which I haven't touched in several days. Mardi, let's trade and I will finish your scarf for you and you can do my blanket. I need it back by the middle of March though!

They have finally shipped out the yarn for my dd's sweater so I need to hop to it and get some of this stuff done. I have about 1/3 of one side of my ribbon top finished, haven't gotten any of the sparkle top started and would if I would stop making baby stuff!

I am now past 5 AM and Jack will be up for work in just a few so I need to get going.

All is well in my world today.

I am in a knitting hamster wheel...

I'm knitting and I can't get up!!!!! I am on my third and very last layette set. I talked to my dil yesterday, who doesn't know I made one for her and ask for a friend of her's address so I could send her a baby gift. She is due a couple months after Alicia and Jack and I became friendly with her when my son and dil started dating. I think she went to college with Alicia. She is a tv commercial producer in Chicago. Anyway, Alicia told me yesterday she was going to call Jorie and tell her someone was sending her a present so I figured I better get it going. I have one bootie to finish up this morning then start and finish the sweater and I am done with it. I am trying to get time constraint stuff done first, except for the blanket, which is of course frustrating that I haven't finished it.

We kind of lazed around yesterday except I did clean the downstairs late yesterday afternoon. Watched the movie, "The Black Dahlia" which except for a great butt shot of Josh Harnett, wasn't a particularly great movie. It focused too much on the two cops and not enough on the murder itself in my opinion. It was interesting enough to watch all the way through though. Last weekend Jack and I sat down to watch "Talledaga Nights" and found it so foul we turned it off after about 15 minutes in. I don't find obnoxious children funny and they had this dinner table scene where the kids are just awful so we turned it off and sent it back pronto.

We are still trying to get my poor husband his referral to go to his cardiologist on the 14th. You can't do anything but leave a message and Jack has been trying for like 2 weeks. He now is going to have to make a dr appt so he can get one, which is a pain, because we shouldn't have to pay for an office visit for him just to get a darn piece of paper. Lord, I do hate our medical practice. Hopefully, he can get somewhere with it all today.

We should know sometime on Wednesday whether we are going to have another grandson or a granddaughter. Alicia has her ultrasound on Wed. I am keeping my fingers, toes and eyes crossed for a boy, but we shall see. We are excited waiting to hear then I can go and buy the shower outfits I want to get from Ralph Lauren. I am dying to buy them, but want to buy gender stuff.

It is off to do some cleaning upstairs.
Have a delicious day everyone and I am out of here for now!

Donna

When you can't sleep...Type

I am soooo sick of menopause and all the crap that comes with it. I just want this to be over and done with. I have been going through this stage of cramping for a few hours then it goes away until the next month or the month after that or whatever. I mean, I am glad it is all changing and I can tell it am getting towards the end, but enough already! I woke up not feeling too great so I had to take Advil and wait for them to work so here I sit setting up my blog for Sunday morning.

Jack had movie passes he got for Christmas so we went to see "Letters from Iwo Jima" directed by Clint Eastwood. If he doesn't get the Oscar next year there is no justice. I am not a military/war movie kind of gal, but this was a superb movie. Incredibly sad, but he did a terrific job of it. He filmed it in black and white, just a little fuzzy like 1940's newsreels and used subtitles. You had to read fast though! It is about a true story where archaeologists doing a dig in some tunnels in Mt Suribachi on Iwo Jima, found buried letters from Japanese soldiers. I cried through half the thing.

I hear it is still raining out. Well no walking outside for me later on I guess. I may just take the day off. I guess there will be no shampooing the upstairs rugs either as they would never dry. Guess I will just have to knit!

I finished the baby layette I made for our grandbaby. Came out really nice I think. This pattern is so incredibly easy to do. I am making one more set for some friends of my son and dil's that we got close to when Jay and Alicia got married and are expecting a baby in August.

I think I am going to try and head back to bed and see if I can go back to sleep for a few hours.

see you soon! Donna