Fifty-first post

I've had this blog for how long and I only have 50 posts? My life must be really busy ... but strangely I don't have anything to blog about ...

This week has been kinda crazy. We had a teacher work day on Monday so I only saw the kids for 4 days, but 4 days was enough! I was so emotionally exhausted by Friday evening. This week we have another 4-day week as well, with Good Friday being this coming Friday. Let me tell you I'm looking forward to that! So do I still want to be a teacher you are asking? Yes, I am still planning on it. I figure I really have to give it at least a couple of years before I decide against it. I really do enjoy teaching, the kids can just be difficult to deal with sometimes. I LOVE my co-workers. Teachers really are amazing people. They really do care about the kids and want them to learn.

So you may be wondering how we fared out here with all the tornadoes last night. Well, everything is just fine where we are. We haven't had any tornadoes right around us. There was at least one that touched down in downtown Atlanta last night and it did quite significant damage there. Then there was another that touched down north of here today. It completely demolished an older couple's house. The wife did not survive and the husband is in critical condition at the hospital. It's so heartbreaking to see the pile of lumber and know that it used to be a house and also to think about all that family is going through. It makes me feel so lucky and so blessed to have all that I have and to be safe right now.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, my friend finally cut all his hair. So, no more mullet.

The Mullitia

I have a friend who in an act of rebellion decided to grow his hair long and grow a full beard after he left BYU. A couple of weeks ago he shaved most of his beard off and he left a really bushy goatee. I've been bugging him to cut his hair because I personally think it looks really awful. Last week he decided to experiment with corn rows:


Well, he decided that he would let me cut his hair if I would first give him a mullet. So tonight I cut him a disgustingly lovely mullet:

I'm not sure how long he's planning on keeping the mullet for. Not long ... I hope ... I can't believe this was EVER a cool hairstyle.

I got this recipe from my aunt at my sister's bridal shower. It was a sort-of game where we had to guess the missing ingredients. So I just found it the other day and since we had a fryer chicken in the freezer I decided to see if I could modify it slightly to go in the crock pot. This is what I came up with:

Viennese Chicken

Cook together in large pan:
2 Tbsp. Butter
1 minced onion

When the onion is yellow add:
2 T. Canola oil or Extra Virgin Olive Oil would probably work well too
1 green pepper, chopped
6 mushrooms, chopped

When vegetables are all sauteed, dump those in a crock pot along with:
1 roasting chicken, cut into pieces
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 can chicken broth
1 can tomato soup
1 Cup water
Salt, Paprika, and I added some Pampered Chef Greek Seasoning, but I think anything with garlic and something that goes well with poultry would probably work well here. You might have to get a little creative with the spices.

Cook on high 4-5 hours or so. About 30 minutes before you take it out, mix together:
1 Tbsp. flour
1/2 Cup Sour Cream

Stir into the chicken and sauce.

Serve over rice or mashed potatoes.

It turned out pretty tasty although I think with the skin on the chicken it was a little greasy. Maybe next time I wouldn't add the chicken broth from the can. If you need extra moisture, I think a little extra water with a little salt would probably work just fine. The tomato soup isn't in the original recipe, but I added it for flavor and moisture. I might consider using chicken breast next time to make it lower in fat. Let me know if you try it!

It's amazing ...

I got a full 8 hours of sleep last night for the first time in ... forever and it's really amazing how energized you feel in the morning after a nights sleep like that! Or maybe that's just because it's so atypical for me. When I was in college I made absolutely sure I got 8 hours of sleep every night. I had a very tedious job which involved quickly looking back and forth between two computer screens, so I had to be fully awake for that. I found that if I didn't get 8 hours of sleep I couldn't function very well at my job. Not to mention reading textbooks ... ugh. But now that I'm out of college I've stopped sleeping 8 hours a night. For some reason it's easier to function on less than 8 hours now.

On Saturday our singles branch went and helped out a build for Habitat for Humanity. We along with several other small groups actually finished 6 houses that day. Most of our work involved laying sod. It was VERY dirty work. When they called us for lunch, the best I could do was get my fingers clean with 2 baby wipes! I was still filthy. The Outback Steakhouse catered lunch. After lunch we finished up with the landscaping and then Habitat, along with Clark Howard who is a prominent radio talk show host here in Atlanta, dedicated the 6 houses. It was neat to see all the people who had helped and then see the families who would be living in these new houses at a fraction of the cost of buying a comparable home. Some pictures:

We WERE raking, but we stopped to pose for the camera.

Sod line ...

All the folks who came out to help.

One of the houses we finished. Yeah, we laid ALL that sod you see.