kateoverjoyed: December 2008

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happiest of New Years!

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

I'm really excited about this new year. I feel change in the air. It is tangible. Life sure is different from the way I'd imagined it would be. I'm not letting the tough stuff taint the good. I choose to count my blessings instead. God's not random. He controls the smallest of details, so I know his plans for me are under control. Just a small sample of what I'm am thankful for: God loves me each and every moment of my life...I'm in pretty good health, although I need to lose some weight (Um...duh! I'll probably be blogging a lot about that issue later!)...I have the bestest kid...he is happy and healthy too...Mom and Dad are still plugging away even in their eighties, and although I grumble about the lack of privacy sometimes, I really do enjoy being with them...I have a great and talented sister who loves me in spite of our differences...Chris and I have not only a roof over our heads, but a cozy and lovely one at that...I have the most wonderful friends...and I love school (who the heck knew that would happen?!)! God has big things in store for me I think! I'm excited to get on with this new chapter. Gonna make a lot of lemonade this year!

I wish all of you a fantastic year, and thanks for letting me be a small part of your lives! You rock!

Stupid Japanese games shows....they're the best!!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Prayer please!

I need some prayer warriors! I think I've decided to try school full-time and put job hunting aside. I can't seem to find a good one, and at this rate of schooling I won't be an official nurse until I'm 60 (perhaps a slight exaggeration). I could only do this with financial aid. I'm so afraid of making a mistake here. This is big stuff, especially financially speaking. I have to be able to keep Chris at RVC. What if my car doesn't want to get with the program? What about health benefits, especially for Chris?? Do I try to get him on the county plan? What other questions can I write to express my angst??

I need some sound advice please! Do you think this is a mistake, or a good plan?

Thursday, December 25, 2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS

TO ALL

AND TO ALL

A GOOD NIGHT!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Breathing room.........

I did it again. I get bored of the blog background. I thought this one was cute, and it was free. Kinda looks like fabric, which I like. The only thing I can't figure out is how to center the body. I used to have a sidebar too, but now it's at the bottom of the blog. What the heck? I also found this music wigget thingy. I'm not very technical. However, I am impressed with myself that I've figured out how to do as much as I have. I need to bug my sister. She's amazing at technical stuff! OOHHH JUDE????????

School wrapped up last Wednesday, I just received an email from my English teacher saying I got an A in her class. I'm so happy about that! I checked SRJC's website to see if Tom posted my Nutrition and Diet Therapy grade, but he hasn't yet. I'm hoping I got an A in that one too! It is nice to have some time off from school.

Thursday night Chris was feeling funny and complaining about back and neck pain. I felt his forehead, and sure enough....fever. 101.6 to be exact. The next day we went to the doctor. I feared he might have pneumonia, since the cough from his last illness seemed to be hanging on. The doctor though it might either be mono or strep throat, so he took a throat culture. It's strep. Poor kid! He's really responded well to the antibiotics. The doctor said he'd stop being contagious after 24 hours on the medicine. He also said if he had mono, Chris would probably break out in a rash in response to the antibiotics. They told me I may have it too. In my brain I'm picturing the can of diet Pepsi we shared a couple nights ago. Lovely! Sometimes I just don't listen to my inner germaphobe. I do feel tired, but not really sick tired. I think it's just from all the brain-strain the last few weeks of school have induced. I guess we will see. Mom was feeling crummy too, so I encouraged her to call her doctor. She really dug in her heals, but I told her that it's Friday and you don't want to be sick all weekend without medicine. She gets pneumonia every year. Turns out she was boarder-line, so she came home with antibiotics too. Too make matters worse, Friday was Dad's 84th birthday. We will make it up to him!

I found a really easy toffee recipe that used saltine crackers. You make a caramelly syrup and pour it over the saltines you've layed out in a jelly roll pan. You bake it and then take it out to cool for 5 minutes or so. Then you pour a bag of chocolate chips on top, let it melt, then spread the melty goodness across. Sounds good right? Not so good if you use jalapeno flavored saltines. That's right.....I was curious about the green flecks...but not curious enough to bother my sick mommy, or even taste one ahead of time. I think they would have been awesome.....minus the spiciness. Silly girl! I'll make some more when I get the right kind of cracker.

Here's the recipe if you'd like it.....I suggest plain saltines........

Terribly Terrific Toffee

1 cup unsalted butter (no margarine allowed), 1 cup brown sugar, 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, 40-50 saltine crackers.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with foil and spray with non-stick spray. Lay a flat layer of crackers out on the foil. Melt the sugar and butter until a boil is reached. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5-6 minutes or until mixture is thickened and sugar is completely dissolved. Pour this mixture over the crackers and spread to coat evenly. Bake for 5-8 minutes, or until the toffee becomes bubbly. After removing the pan from the oven, let it sit for 3-5 minutes. Sprinkle on the chocolate chips, let them soften and melt, and then spread them into an even layer. (You can add nuts, cracker crumbs, or whatever else floats your boat at this point.) Let cool and, if desired for expediting purposes, refrigerate until hardened. Break into pieces the size of your choice. I personally prefer a hand-sized chunk.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

One more class!

As I was cramming more facts into my brain this afternoon, I began to reflect on this last semester. I really did enjoy myself! My English class helped me discover that I can write pretty well. It was stressful at times, but I didn't have to be committed to a facility. I made it through. It was weird having an online class. I don't know whether it was just my teacher or what, but I was frustrated that she didn't communicate with me more. I think that would have made the class even better. Nevertheless, I really learned a lot.

I'm really going to miss FDNT 62 (that's diet and nutrition therapy for those of you that are not in the know!). I won't miss the smelly classroom, or the freezing bathroom with the window that never closed. I will however miss April. Her friendship was a nice surprise. The fact that she knew me as a kid, but hadn't known me as an adult never seemed to be a problem. She was my very first boss when I worked out at Mount Gilead in high school. She wants us to have a Bible study together, just the two of us. We've endured some similiar things over the years. She has such an amazing perspective on life, and God, and marriage. It's always nice to know a familiar face when you walk into a new class.

Then there's Tom. Croc-wearing, shirt untucked, belly hangin' over the pants that are about to fall down, hairy as Robin Williams Tom. You were the most mellow teacher I've ever encountered, which was nice, and also very, very frustrating. I wish you'd yelled at those stupid blond twits who talked through your lecture each and every week....but you didn't. You had to wait for one of us to finally explode about it. Is it because you need hearing aids Tom? Maybe it was your confession last week about your pot-smoking habits? I don't know...explains a lot though! You blinded me with science you weird, weird man. I'll miss you anyways.

Tomorrow night is my last class of the semester. The final exam. Arthritis...diabetes....polypeptides...liver cirrhosis........Wow, I've learned so much! Hope it all stays in the brain...at least until tomorrow night!

Anytime I want to make my child lose his mind, I torture him with this song. Man, this video is bad...love the song though. Takes me right back to high school!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

It's beginning to look a lot like.....spring??

It is officially the Christmas season, but it sure doesn't feel like it to me! It's like spring out there people! I want co

ld weather....soup weather....smell the fireplaces in the neighborhood weather....wear a scarf weather! I can't get with the program! I've tried to force it. I've watched A Christmas Story, my personal favorite, at least three times. Nope....nothing. Driven around looking at the lights. Nada! The fact tha

t I have zero...I repeat zero dollars to spend on presents does not help my festive mood...or lack thereof! Bummer! AND...still no job. Ya'all are gonna faint on the floor when I finally do get one, aren't ya?! Be prepared...cause it's gonna happen! It's gonna....

I have two more weeks of school before fall semester is over. I think I'm going to get A's in both classes....pretty sure at least. I'm still waiting on word from my teacher on my latest essay on bioengineering. She takes forever to give us our grades! I took exam #2 last Wednesday in Nutrition and Diet Therapy, and I'm confident I got an A. It was easy peasy lemon squeezy! I owe it all to acrostics. Acrostics really work! Trudy Nudy never needs Nancy O'Blancy eating gooseberry jam. Can Roger clean Fido's cruddy dog dish if Ida Irwin is in Raft River, Idaho? Nancy Jonas always eats fish, but Patty eats a hamburger hurriedly every Monday. I know!! Cleaver girl! What does it mean? Don't ask...I don't remember. I remember the acrostics, but not the things the acrostics represented. One of them is the clinical symptoms of liver cirrossis. I remembered long enough to take the test though, so....at least there's that! I've worked really hard on both classes. If I'd known I wouldn't be working by now, I would have taken more of them...but what ya gonna do? In spite of accidentally sleeping through my priority registration (WHOOPS

!), I was able to get the classes I wanted for the spring semester. My priority was from 7-9am. Think I woke up at 9:05. I don't usually sleep that late anymore either! When I tried at 9:10, they'd locked me out of registration until 7pm that night. I was sure I would never get the classes I wanted.....another opportunity for me to trust God. I get a lot of those! I'll be taking a history class, and a humanities class. What the heck is humanities? The study of humans? Humans and manatees? I really don't know. The humanities class is a two-fer, so it will count for two classes on my record. That's really cool!

I've been busy knitting, crocheting, and other crafting-type business. Not very satisfied with the knitting and crocheting though....guess I'm a bit of a yarn snob. No...I am

positively certain I'm a yarn snob. The stuff at Michael's and Joann's doesn't do it for me. I wind up pulling it all out cause it looks cheap. I'm getting some good practice though. I finally made the strawberry pincushion. Holy cow, it was cute!!! I gave it to Mom so she could take it as a gift to her small quilting group's Christmas pa

rty this week. She was so appreciative! Made me feel good to do something for her for a change. The pictures I took of it really doesn't do it justice. I need a new camera. It is a deeper, richer red, kinda like a cranberry. The stitching detail really doesn't show up well in the photos either. Now that I've made one, it will not be my last. Got to get my hands on some more velvet. I am also currently working on some adorable baby booties. I'd like to get good enough to have my own ETSY account and sell something I make. I've tried this pattern before, and wou

nd up with something that looks custom-made for a deformed baby's foot. Oh...sad....deformed baby feet. Anyway, I'm not going to let the pattern get the best of me! I'll keep you posted! Hey...that's funny! Get it? Posted.....on my blog?? Ok...that was random! Man, am I tired!