Snow Day

Kat's school is out today. I'm not sure why, because we were on the southern edge of a big storm, and there is only about an inch of snow on the ground. I suspect some of the school's have closed because of the cold instead of the snow; windchills are hovering between -5° and -10°.

Shane's work is out, too. He was home yesterday because of ice and snow on the jobsite. Today, I'm sure it's BOTH the slick conditions and the cold that have warranted the shut-down, and they've already called work off for tomorrow. Three days without pay this week is going to hurt the bank balance a lot, but he should be back to work by Friday and will hopefully get a full week in next week.

Now, books and television depict snow days as peaceful and fun days with the family. Ours usually don't turn out that way. Having everyone home when we "aren't supposed to be" throws us into a tailspin. It could be fun and games all day, or we might all be whining and fussing by noon. There's just no telling how the day will turn out, but I have high hopes it will be a good one.

Who else is having a snow day today? What will yours be like?

I Need A Tardy Slip

When bloggy friend SonyaAnn at A Mom, Money and More, asked me to write something, I thought to myself that it hadn't been that long since my last post. Yeah, right...I was wrong. I had no idea it had been ten days!

I'm not sure you could handle me telling you all the fun and exciting things I've done in the last week and a half, so I'll just give you today's highlights:

• I realized that not only do I need to renew the tags on our van this month, I also need to renew my driver's license. So, after getting the van inspected and gathering all the necessary insurance cards, tax receipts, birth certificates, and proof of residency, I walked into the DMV, then I walked right back out. I didn't have the patience for waiting that long for two hunks of tin and plastic photograph.
  
  
• Which was a shame, because my hair looked pretty good today.
  
  
• Speaking of which, as of early this morning, my hair is now all one length. I've never had it all one length before. I'm mildly thrilled.
  
  
• I tried my first Caribou Coffee, a Caramel Hi-Rise-Something-Or-Other. It was pretty darn good for an overpriced cup of coffee.
  
  
• Who do you know besides me who can cut herself on a pair of sunglasses? I have these little rimless clip-on shades for my prescription glasses and I had them in my coat pocket while I was inside the Caribou place. I slipped my hand into my pocket and sliced the back of my index finger open across the middle knuckle. It would NOT. STOP. BLEEDING. I finally had to beg a Band-aid from the Caribou guy. Maybe these freak accidents happen a lot there, because I had the bandage on my finger quicker than I had the coffee cup in my hand.

I guess that's my grand finale; I'd have to lie, or at least embellish, to top that stunt. Now go on over and visit SonyaAnn if you haven't already. She tells better stories than I do.

Our Leftovers Have Leftovers!

Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend! I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready for tomorrow to arrive and for things to get back to normal.

We hosted a small crowd here for Thanksgiving...my daughter and son-in-law, my parents and my older brother. I like to send leftovers home with my guests so they don't have to scrounge their supper, so between the main meal and the leftover packages, an entire turkey was consumed.

Never fear...Shane deep-fried a second one so we could have our own leftovers. I wound up with about 12 cups of diced turkey, enough sliced turkey for a couple rounds of sandwiches, and 5 quarts of rich turkey stock!

Whether you still have leftovers in the fridge or you just want to plan ahead for the next turkey-centric meal, here is the list of dishes on my use-it-up list:

Turkey Stuffed Shells. The better the gravy, the better this dish will turn out. We enjoyed it a lot and although I cut the amount of filling in half, we had enough for two meals. (leftovers of our leftovers)

Turkey Nachos. I got the idea from the link, but when it came time to put it all together, I opted to use the seasoned turkey to build individual taco salads. It was a nice change from the turkey and dressing flavors.

Cold Turkey Sammies. I'm a bit of a purest when it comes to turkey sandwiches. All I want on mine is turkey, mayo and dill pickle slices. Shane adds mustard and cranberry sauce to his. Kat likes hers on leftover dinner rolls.

Turkey Enchiladas. I'll be subbing diced turkey for the ground beef in this recipe.

Turkey Noodle Soup. I'll be using some of the stock and some wide rolled dumplings to make soup.

Turkey Curry. Odd ingredients, but good reviews. Can't wait to try it.

Kentucky Hot Browns. A classic open-face turkey sandwich.

Turkey Pot Pie with Cranberry-Thyme Crust. I just found this recipe today and had to add it to my list.

Then, after all the bird recipes, I'm going to make a big juicy hunk of cow.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope all of you are enjoying a wonderful day with family and friends!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As Promised

Shane did a great job. I thought it would be done in stages, but he worked straight through and was finished in six full days (two weekends plus two rain-out days) and five evenings. Everything is new except the toilet, which was still in very good condition.

First, a quick peek at what it used to look like:





And now, introducing...our new bathroom!





Tomorrow may be Thanksgiving, but it feels like Christmas to me!

Takin' Care of Busy-ness

The bathroom remodel is almost done. Shane was true to his word that he'd have it 90% finished by the end of the day Sunday. It was close, but that remaining 10% is details, and we all know that's where the devil is. All that is left to do is a little touch up painting, put the towel racks up and hang a few do-dads on the walls. Done or not, I'll be posting pictures tomorrow.

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Today Kat and the rest of the 1st Graders are having their Thanksgiving Feast, and I'll be heading to school in a few minutes to take some hot rolls and join in. I think it will be a pretty good feast, although I'm not sure how well turkey cold cuts are going to go over instead of an actual bird.

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Speaking of turkey, how long does it really take one of those things to thaw?

Every year I move it from my deep freeze to the spare fridge and come time to cook it, it's still a little frozen in the middle, resulting in us scrambling to get it thawed by running warm water in the cavity. This year, I moved the bird from the deep freeze last Thursday, allowing it a full week to thaw. When I checked it on Sunday, it was still rock solid. So I put a cooler filled with cold water on the back deck and stuck it in there, making sure to bungee down the lid to keep out any stray raccoons.

Yesterday, the water was so cold it hurt my hands, but the turkey was starting to thaw. This morning, the water is still nice and cold and the turkeys feel like their coming along. By tomorrow, I'm sure they'll be ready for Shane to inject with some yummy Cajun-spiced butter and store over night in the spare fridge again. Then by Thursday, it'll be ready for him to deep-fry. We love deep-fried turkey, and it frees up my oven for other things on Thanksgiving morning.

How are the rest of you doing with your holiday preps? Anyone else frying their turkey?

Keeping The Cost Of Checks In Check

I pay the majority of our bills online these days, but I have a couple of bills each month that I still pay with a paper check. I also use paper checks to pay for things such as school book club orders (i.e., Scholastic Books), PTA membership fees, our daycare provider (on the rare occasions we still need her), and the occasional thrift store purchase if the store is one that still does not take plastic.

I wrote the last check I had last week, so I decided to go online to order more. I checked several of the "well-known" check printers...the ones that have offers in the coupon sections of the Sunday newspaper, as well as another printer better known for its free business cards. In my search results, I noticed that both Wal-Mart and Sam's Club offered check printing services. I checked them out, too.

Wal-Mart's prices were good, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Sam's Club was the least expensive. At just 4¢ per check, including shipping, their prices were half those of the next closest non-Wal-Mart competitor. Some of the companies were 3 or 4 times more expensive.

During my order I was asked to indicate whether or not I was a Sam's Club member. I can't say whether or not I got a better price because I am a member; I tried to go back in as a non-member to find out, but wasn't able to do so. I do know that you don't have to be a member to order checks from Sam's.

I had never considered looking to Sam's or Wal-Mart for checks, but I'm glad they were in my search results. Maybe other major retailers offer check printing, too. I wonder if Costco or Target do? What about the office supply places, such as Office Max or Office Depot? Anyone know?