SAHW

I'm counting down the days to December 24th.  And not because I'm anticipating a visit from the fat man in the red suit.  Although I have been a very nice girl this year :). 

Nope, it's more because that will be my last day of work.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I'm quitting my job.  To be a SAHW (that's stay-at-home-wife, for the Jeremys of the world that didn't get that acronym :)).  Woohoo!  Jeremy and I have decided life is busy enough and full of enough things to keep me busy at home.

At the top of the list is finding a new home.  This tiny house is just too tiny.  We need more room.  So we can actually have our food storage.  So we can have more than one parking space. 

And I can finally get our 72 Hour Kits together. 

And work on family history.

And do menu planning.

And actually cook dinners most nights -- instead of grazing when I get home and then letting my poor sweet husband fend for himself whenever he gets home (closer to midnight these days). 

And do laundry (though hopefully this will be accomplished with much less hassle when we have a new apartment...  That's one of the requirements:  a washer and dryer!)

And go grocery shopping (and discover what is the best time to avoid the big crowds!)...  That's early in the morning, but maybe there's a little window in the middle of the day in the middle of the week, right ;)?

 So yeah...   13 more work days.  I'm counting them down!

The Horror!

I made two terribly horrible discoveries last week.  Perhaps these are actually good things in the long run.  But while not impossible, that's highly improbable.  You'll understand.

Horror #1:  It's official....  Target (at least the one closest to me) no longer offers their wonderful Target nachos.  I tried, yet again, to swing by to get some since I was up that way.  And this time I took the time to notice that the cheese dispenser wasn't there -- AND it's no longer even on the menu.  Sigh.  Now where's a girl to get some oh-so-good-but-oh-so-bad-for-you-cheap-nachos?  No, seriously... Where?

Horror #2:  No more Twinkies!?!  Jeremy and I actually went to the store Saturday to see if there might -- by some slim chance -- be some still on the shelf.  No dice.  But there was a notice posted where they should have been indicating the company was not in business any longer.  We were not so focused on this goal that we store-hopped... We only checked one store.  We figure the others would produce similar results.  Not only does this sort of stab at the heart of anyone who wants to know Twinkies are available if the craving ever arises (it doesn't very often for me... I can't honestly tell you when I last had a Twinkie -- but I can tell you I want one now (that I can't)!).  But it's also a bit of a blow to those with a nostalgic streak.  I've even blogged about Twinkies (more times, it turns out, than I had even realized.... I seem to be obsessed with the idea of having a fried Twinkie one day.  Now what am I supposed to do with that bucket list item?!?).  (You can read all about my Twinkie posts by clicking the link).  And today I read that the reason they had to file for bankruptcy is that too many workers have been striking due to bargaining issues.  Well, unions, you can consider yourself with another black mark on my list.  You have just killed the Twinkie.  How will my children ever know the joy of a Twinkie?  I blame you.

Actually, there's one glimmer available...  The company MAY be able to come to an agreement and be saved.  Or sold off to some big company willing to make Twinkies.  And deliver them in the same truck that they deliver other food items (apparently this is one of the issues with Hostess:  they had to have separate delivery trucks for Twinkies from all their other products.  What!?!  That's got to be among the stupidest things I've ever heard (and trust me, I've heard some doozies).  And it was established because of some bargaining agreement.  Seriously?!?)  Unions.  Blech.

The other good news?  Jeremy and I opened our snooty cookies :).  And they are oh so good!  We ate them and key lime pie frozen yogurt while we watched A B.C. Thanksgiving on Saturday for date night (and also Daffy Duck's Quackbusters).  Thankfully there are a lot of cookies in that tin.  Because I want to savor them for a while :).

It's Almost Nap-Time... For ME!

I'm serious.  Jeremy is back on swing shift, so I have about 2 more hours before he gets home.  And I'm tired!  Clearly I should have been writing this blog instead of perusing pinterest.  Clearly. 

But I had to eat half of my birthday caramel apple.  (I had to eat some more perishable birthday goodies first, so I'm only just now getting to the apple... and I still have half to go.  Unless Jeremy gives me a helping mouth...  And that's entirely possible ;)). 

I took pictures of me and Jeremy on Saturday.  But not at the restaurant.  I would have felt super-conspicuous, being that Jeremy and I made up 2 of the 3 people dining in the restaurant when we first arrived.  I'm happy to say that more people arrived later.  But, initially, it was a small crowd.  We so enjoyed it, though!  It was a fun experience.  So it was a restaurant called Aladdin's Palace.  It serves authentic Mediterranean food and is a family-owned restaurant.  We got Baba Khanoush (or however it's spelled) as an appetizer, and since Jeremy couldn't decide between that and the olive appetizer, the guy threw a bunch of olives on top :).  I love olives.  Anyway, the base of this stuff was smoked eggplant pureed.  And you dip pita bread (fresh) in it.  It was pretty good.  Then came the soup.  It was a sweet chicken curry vegetable soup with lemon.  It had a bit of a kick to it, but we liked it a lot.  Then came the main dish.  I got a gyro (I always go with the safe bet -- the thing I can identify.  Food is one area I don't want to have a bad experience, even if that means I'm unadventurous ;)).  Anyway, it was a fresh pita with strips of grilled steak and sauteed bell peppers and onions topped with what I'm thinking was a yogurt sauce; served with rice that had some sort of nuts cooked in it and topped with cinnamon.  Which was surprisingly good!  Jeremy got a sampler plate, so he had grape leaves, cabbage rolls, kebobs, and a couple other items.  Plus the rice.  It was quaint, and we really enjoyed the food and the opportunity to try something new together in celebration of me :).  The dark cloud on the evening (okay, that's dramatic) was what happened next.  See...  We joined Costco last week and we got our cards in the mail (I signed up at a benefits fair at work because we got $20 worth of gift cards if we did it that way!) on Saturday.  So I was thinking we'd go eat, walk around Costco to let our food settle (and spend some money, of course ;)), and then go get our Coldstone.  Um...  Costco closes at 6 on Saturday.  It was 6:45.  I was peeved.  I mean, seriously.  Who closes at 6 on a Saturday?  Ugh.  Oh well.  We went to Coldstone with full tummies.  Well, probably mine was more full than Jeremy's.  He's known for his ability to eat a lot.  Jeremy had never been to Coldstone before, so this was a treat for him.  I always get cake batter with cookie dough mixed in.  But this time...  Oooo they have this dark chocolate peppermint flavor out for the holidays.  Holy. Cow.  It was delicious.  I sampled it before making that big decision of stepping away from the cake batter.  I was not disappointed.  I mixed in oreos.  Yum.  I want more.  I should have gotten the "gotta have it" size, like Jeremy did.  Jeremy sampled cheesecake flavor.  He wasn't impressed, I guess, because he went with Sweet Cream and mixed in pecans, almonds, and graham cracker pie crust.  And put it in a waffle bowl.  He's cute.  He'd never had a waffle bowl either, so he informed me he was going to have that.  We opted to bring our ice cream home and eat it snuggled on the couch while watching Garfield's Thanksgiving.  And this is when we took pictures.  And because he loves me, he always has to do a silly one.  But this is the fun stuff life is made of ;).

His facial expression in this one cracks me up.  Reminds me of a dignified Englishman or something.  Maybe even a little snooty.

Anyway, it was a really enjoyable evening.  Plus, he didn't have to go to work at night for the first time in 13 days.  And that was nice. 

On a totally unrelated note...  I have issues with eating vegetables.  They are just not easy for me to eat.  I like raw broccoli and cauliflower dipped in ranch.  I am totally cool with veggie trays.  I'm just lazy and don't like prepping the veggies.  I also really enjoy spinach -- like in soups (so baby spinach).  Do you suppose I can count pickles?  They are, after all, just really really salty cucumbers.  I love pickles. 

There was something else unrelated I was going to share from last week.  But it's gone.  I have old lady brain now.  I'm 32, you know. 

Oh.  We probably aren't going to get that house.  Due to various walls that we've been hitting along the way, we are thinking it may just be one of those things that isn't meant to be.  And we're okay with it.  Kinda sad in some ways, but I do think there is a reason for things like this.  But that wasn't the aforementioned thing I was going to share.  The house thing is much more recent than last week. 

Oh.  There it is!  I want to share with the cool people who read my blog that World Market has the best gingersnap cookies ever.  Seriously.  I don't even like gingersnaps.  But I paid $13 for these (because I was determined I was going to buy some this year before they sold out, before I knew how expensive they are...).  They are worth it.  That look on Jeremy's face in picture #1 is the look he took on when I told him about the $13 cookies and he said, "Oh, these are snooty cookies.  The kind of cookie you offer while saying, 'would you like a cookie.'"  With that facial expression (and you can imagine the tone).  Yeah.  He cracks me up. 

It's nap time.