Holy crap!!!! It's been over a year????

Wow, I just rememberd about the blog and discovered it's been possibly over a year since I've crashed this thing!!!!!! Hmm, if it wasn't for Keeley just meesaging me on Facebook about grandma wanting to see it and getting my help to get her to this page, I would have COMPLETELY forgotten about it!!!! Since it's been this long, well, I have NEWS!!!!!

Well, I'll start with this tidbit: I moved out into my own apartment in April. I'm loving every minute of it!!!! Independence, combined with mooching off my parents for $$$ when most needed = a GREAT life!!!! Now, if I can only get my mom to come over and clean my dang apartment and do my dishes for a penny an hour. She's the one that has ALWAYS maintained that part-time employees do NOT have to be paid federal minimum wage. I told her she's wrong, but I'll let her keep this perception...then I can get away with cheap labor ;). For those of you who have me on Facebook (that is if you didn't get deleted off my list by Facebook...*shakes fist at Facebook*), you can see my pics in an album. Rent is pretty decent for a 1 bedroom. I pay $385/month plus utilities. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. And it's a nice apartment. It's a nice large bedroom. It was originally two efficiency apartments, but they knocked one out because my landlord/landlady knew it would be hard to keep tenants in those. Stormy is with me (yes, they allow cats, but not dogs). She took a LONG time to adjust to the place, but she's used to it now. Only problem, she's a porky lil cat now. I discovered that today. Time to put her on a diet. Mike and Ike remain at my parents being neglected and not played with :(. But Cathy would only let me have one cat, so I couldn't bring all three of them. Otherwise, I would have had a HUGE custody battle in court for the boys. Oh and I would have won paws down becuase GRANDMA AND GRANDPA didn't WANT anymore cats after Chippy died. I had to BEG them to let me get Stormy =). But that's one tidbit.

Another tidbit is that I'm still at the toxic HRC. Yes, we're still open. And yes, there are rumors that they are going to shut us down. I don't think the legislature is really that stupid to do such a thing after the mental health reform backlash they got after closing HRC down the first time. I REALLY need to get out of there. It's making my mental health suffer and my stress level shoot above the breaking point. I've been applying for state jobs like crazy in Lincoln/Omaha area, but so far, no luck. I'm REALLY hoping that I'll get a break in this one job I'm looking at with Voc Rehab and the state. But if that doens't pan out, then I'm just sunk. I can't get out of HRC and no matter what I do to try to get out of there, I just can't. Now, it's conspiracy theory time: HR is MESSING with me!!! Actually, I know they are because the lady has told me stuff she's done in the past. So I'm not liking them one bit!!!! But if I DO ever get out, I'll be sure to post it on here.

I got a SECOND Bachelors degree this last January. Maybe I wrote that already. I don't remember. But I went back to school for a second Bachelors because I was only four classes away. So I graduated with a Human Relations degree. Yay me!!! The first one is pointless, so this one should do me some good (that is if I can get a different job!!!!). I looked at grad school before going back for the second degree and tried a couple of schools as you know, but I decided to do the Bachelors. Heck, I should look at grad school again and find a different program. I would do Criminal Justice, but seriously, what can I do with that as a Masters degree? I'd do Social Work, but the thing is, I don't think I will get into UNO's program :'(. I could do one online, but the cost is WAY too much. So I'm just weighing my options right now.

It's Thanksgiving and I'm here by myself. But that's quite alright with me. I was supposed to have a Fringe marathon day, but instead, I decided to do the Internet marathon day of Facebook and e-mail. Haha. Mom and dad went up to Sioux City to see my relatives. I stayed back naturally so I didn't have to go. But guess who got stuck housesitting and catsitting and chicken sitting???? ME!!!! They left me $40 for pro-rated rent (a requirement I have if I have to stay here while their gone to make up for what I'm paying) and for doing the chores. Not enough if you ask me. I think I'll charge an extra $10-$15 when they come back Friday. The chores of the lone chicken are too much for me!!!! Heck, I almost killed myself lugging a half-full bucket of lukewarm water out to her this morning because it was so dang heavy! I know, I'm a wuss ;).

But now I'm gearing up for the Black Friday shopping!!!! I have no $$$, but so what? I still am going to do it because of GREAT Christmas deals! I have my mom's shopping done for the most part, except 1 or 2 more items, and well, my dad...nada. That'll change tomorrow. But I'm CLUELESS on what to get him in some areas. But I think I might have found one of the perfect gifts--if I can get up and be at Menards by 6 am. I doubt that. Oh and if any of you are going to be at the door at 3 am when stores open, YOU'RE CRAZY!!!! I'll be tucked in my warm bed, SLEEPING!!!! I never understand those die hards. But hey, I will admit, it's a rush of adrenaline to battle the crowds for the deals. I'm checking on a Walmart ad and might stay up until 12:01 am and go back to get some electronic stuff for me before they run out. I don't know yet. It'll depend on how tired I am because I couldn't sleep well last night. But Black Friday...HERE I COME!!! Yee haw!

I think after blabbing on and on, that is all I have to report. I'm using my trusty laptop mommy got me so I can cut down my cell phone bill by not utilizing the internet on my phone and doing the 900 minutes/month everything data plan for $70 plus fees. Much better. I get free internet access at my apt. complex (but part of my rent). They had a heck of a time for awhile with the connection, but I fixed that for them. I REFUSE to credit Andrew for it, even though he told me something they never thought about. So it's pretty good now. I pay for my own cable, but hey, without tv, what would I do???? I have no signal with a converter box, so I had no choice but to get cable.

Okay, okay, I'll go superglue my mouth shut now and superglue my fingers together so I can't type on the keyboard anymore. Haha. I'll be back to crash this blog at another time...perhaps a year again????

Suz

California 2010 photo book

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Pear Cobbler from Janice

You can take the girl off the farm, but you can't take the farmer out of the girl, apparently! I especially love to harvest things. There are two pear trees at a rental house down a couple of blocks from us. For years, I watched the fruit fall to the ground. I can't stand to see fresh produce go to waste! I knocked on the door, asked if I could pick, and the people were thrilled. (These two trees produce many bushels of pears, and it's a lot of picking up, if you don't want them.) And I have learned that pears always fall off green, and only ripen after several weeks on the counter. My patience has paid off, and I have been eating fresh pears daily for weeks now. Even better than that, I have made this fantastic pear cobbler a few times for family and friends. You may want to try it, too.

Pear Cobbler with Cranberry Streusel

Preheat oven to 350. Butter an 8 x 8 inch dish.

4 - 6 pears, more or less depending on size, peeled, cored, and sliced into large bowl. I left mine in large chunks and like a generous amount of pears.

2 tsp. vanilla - Sprinkle over pears and toss.

Next, sprinkle with the dry ingredients, and toss until well-coated. Put in baking dish.
1/4 c. brown sugar (or less Splenda blend)
2 T flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Streusel topping:

1/2 c. butter (I used less. Maybe 1/3)
1/2 c. brown sugar (or less Splenda blend)
1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt (only if the butter is unsalted)
1/2 - 1c. oatmeal (my addition)
Mix together with hands or pastry blender. Can use the same bowl as the pears.

Toss in 1 c. fresh or frozen cranberries.

Crumble topping over pears and bake 35 - 40 min. or until pears are tender and topping is brown and crunchy.

We eat it with vanilla ice cream, but it is also excellent without. You are going to love this!

See! You really don't have to have life changing news to post!

Love to you all,

Janice

Keep posting, Niki....we love it

Dear Family,

I have absolutely nothing interesting to add, but I just have to encourage Niki to keep us up-to-date on those darling boys. I check almost every day. It's such fun. Of course, I keep hoping I'll hear something from the rest of you, too.

Paul and I have had some kind of icky virus off and on and off and on for several long weeks. I started with a headache and achy calf muscles. That was about a week. Then Paul had a nasty sore throat and head cold symptoms. Then I got that. It surely is hanging on. I take lots of hand sanitizer to do the visits to the day care homes I absolutely HAVE to finish. I haven't been coughing or sneezing lately, so I tell myself I'm not contagious.

By the way, happy birthday, Niki. I remember your post last year when you gave us an account of your pasta maker, including a beautifully set table. Things are a little different this year, right?! (But lots more fun....)

Baptism and the Big Apple

Hi to all,
I don't mean to make this a Stamp family blog, but since there were no new posts since mine, I wanted to share a few photos from a couple of big events in our family. The twins, Sam and Luke, were baptized on Oct. 17 in the same church that Niki was baptized and confirmed. A brunch followed at our home and it was a special event on a spectacular day with many wonderful family and fiends. There is a beautiful family gown that has been worn by 16 members of the Wise family. Because there are two babies, Niki and Matt opted to have the boys photographed in the gown for the official gown book, but wore button-down, collared dress shirts for the service. They were just precious.



Our other big news is that Cassidy settled in New York three weeks ago. She found a great job as an assistant in a financial company. It's amazing how well she has adjusted to the most populous city in the country with about 2 million people on a 23square mile island. I can't say we don't worry about her, because we do, but she's living the dream and seems to be enjoying her new life.
Somewhere in midtown lives our little girl...

Gotta love their pizza.

Enjoy the rest of this beautiful fall season and let's all cheer the Huskers to a BCS bowl game!

Love to all,
Suki