Caleb’s In Charge!!

I know that I have been absent for a few days. Work was so hectic last week and on top of that my husband had the flu. Thank goodness it wasn’t the H1N1 flu but he was very sick none the less. On Saturday he returned to work so I hosed everything down with Lysol and our grandson Caleb came over.

He was quite a bit late and I was getting concerned. Here is the story. Usually Caleb arrives in the mornings at 8:30 but this past Saturday my daughter-in-law called to say Stephen wanted to take Caleb out for breakfast and would be bringing him around 9:00. When he arrived around 10:20 I had questions.

Seems Stephen carried Caleb out to his truck and left the diaper bag on top of the hood of his truck. He sat Caleb inside the truck and placed his cell phone on the console. He put the keys in the ignition as well. He noticed that the diaper bag was on the hood so he got back out and slightly clicked the truck door so that Caleb couldn’t fall out. You guessed it. Caleb pushed the lock button on the door.

Luckily it was cool so there was no danger of him being inside the truck. Stephen begged and bribed Caleb to get him to unlock the truck door but Caleb just laughed at him and held onto his little belly shaking his head no. He is 18 months old now and quite the little ham.

Stephen said he felt like the worst father alive when after 30 minutes of having Caleb laughing at him he had to go to a neighbor to ask to use their phone. Remember when he placed his on the console? lol

Stephen called his wife and mommy quickly came home from work to unlock the truck door and get her laughing little boy out of the truck. Anytime we asked him if he locked daddy out of the truck he laughed really hard. Daddy learned several valuable lessons on Saturday. First always put Caleb in his carseat first. Never leave the keys inside the truck and never leave your cell phone in the truck. The biggest lesson is to never turn your back on your little boy because he is EXACTLY like his FATHER.

I will never forget the coiled up rubber snake that he put in the pantry behind the can of green beans. When I got the can out the snake jumped out at me. Stephen was only three at the time. At the age of three he also put a whoopie cushion under the behind of the  pastor’s wife during a ladies church luncheon at prayer. Everyone was standing for grace and no one had begun to speak yet and were sitting down when we all heard a large sound come from under a very blushing woman next to Stephen.

God has a sense of humor and has provided Caleb for Stephen. We all get to enjoy him too. hahahahahaha

Cosmico

My sister sent me this online game and I love it. You get higher points for the more items that you can connect to turn into stars. It is addictive.

http://games.yahoo.com/free-games/cosmico

Valkyrie

Saturday night Mike and I watched Valkyrie. Samantha knows that I am not a Tom Cruise fan but she insisted that I get this movie and I am so glad that she did. Mike and I are both big history buffs and I learned things from this movie that I had not known had happened.

I was very blessed to have a woman in my life that was in Germany during the time of Hitler’s reign. She was in the work camps and her entire family torn apart and sent to different camps. She was not Jewish but her brother had been in the military and he had sent a letter to her mother speaking against Hitler.

Germany’s military intercepted it and he, along with the rest of their family were sent to the camps to make an example to others.  I thought of Mrs. Runyan while I watched this movie. I miss her deeply and even though she has been gone now for 9 years I still can remember the feel of her touch when she held my hand. She was such an amazing woman and I am a better person for having known her.

This movie shows the real personal sacrifices that people made to try to stop Hitler from within his own regime. This is the trailer for that movie.

Missing In America

My daughter, Samantha has me addicted to buying the used movies at Blockbuster. It makes so much more sense to me to do this as we can take weeks to watch the movies so it is nice to have them on hand for when we have time.

This past week we watched Missing In America with Danny Glover. We loved this movie. I took it to work with me and loaned it to several people and they also enjoyed it. I have never been disappointed with a movie with Danny Glover in it and this one is a keeper.

This is the trailer for the movie. I highly recommend seeing it.

Grilled Spice Fish

This is my first fish recipe and hopefully won’t be my last. My husband is wonderful but highly allergic to anything that swims. Therefore, I never get to make fish for meals where he is going to eat.

Saturday I did make this recipe for myself for lunch. It was absolutely wonderful. I did feel badly for the delivery men who were bringing my new microwave because the house did reek of fish. But it was worth it anyway.

I hope to make this for myself again sometime soon.

I got this recipe from the Taste of Home Backyard Grilling cookbook but I of course made some changes. I did not grill it. I was feeling a bit lazy so I just fried it in a pan using a little bit of olive oil and a non-stick pan. It was absolutely wonderful. I used to enjoy eating fish with rice but that is not low carb so I had a few sliced strawberries with mine.  It was a very nice lunch.

Grilled Spice Fish

4 red snapper or orange roughy (I used cod- already had it in my freezer)

1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons paprika (I used Spanish Paprika)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (Next time I will use a bit less)

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1/4 teaspoon each of dried oregano, basil and thyme

Brush fish with oil. In a small bowl, combine the seasonings; sprinkle over fish and press into both sides. Fry in a non-stick pan using a little bit of olive oil. This only takes 3-4 minutes on each side to cook.

Kristin’s Hat and Scarf

I finished the hat and scarf that I have been knitting for Kristin, my wonderful daughter-in-law. I found the pattern at www.ravelry.com in their pattern section. I can’t shout high enough of how wonderful Ravelry is. They have thousands and thousands of patterns to choose from. If it is on the internet it is pretty much available through the Ravelry search engine.

This is the hat and scarf that I made for Kristin. I will have the direct link to the pattern for the hat below.

The direct link to the hat pattern can be found here.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lace-edged-womens-hat#

For the scarf I used a size 8 knitting needle and just did knit stitches for all rows until it was almost 6 feet long. Then I added fringe to each end. I use Caron Simply Soft yarn which was variegated. I loved the gentle way it was changed from one shade with burgundy to the next.

12 Rounds

This movie is a must see. If you are a fan of action movies you have to catch this one. I watched it with Samantha and Ben when we were there for vacation a couple of weeks ago. I loved it and so did my husband. I loaned it to several people at work and they loved it too.

Yes, Donna you can borrow it as soon as I get it back from a coworker. Check out the trailer.

Bacon Wrapped Beef Patties with French’s Onions

I have found something that my husband can not get enough of. They are very similar to the Ranchero Onion Burgers on this site but with bacon and they have a very smoky flavor to them.

The original recipe came from the Taste of Home Backyard Grilling Cookbook but I made a couple of changes to them. Instead of regular onions I added French’s Onions (the kind people put on green bean casserole).

I highly suggest using non-stick Reynolds Aluminum Foil when cooking these as they did tend to stick very badly. It also helps to keep the flames down while the bacon grease drips onto the hot coals of the grill.

Remember to keep them low carb by not eating them on a bun. You will get used to not eating hamburgers on a bun. I don’t miss the bun at all anymore. This way you get the full flavor of the meat and vegetables.

Bacon Wrapped Beef Patties with French’s Onions

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

2/3 cup French’s Onions

1/4 cup ketchup

2 eggs, slightly beaten

3 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

2 Tablespoons Parmesan Cheese

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 pounds ground beef

10 bacon strips

In a bowl, combine all but the bacon and form into patties. Wrap each burger with a slice of bacon. Secure with toothpicks.

Grill patties until done. Serve with extra French’s Onions on top.

Daisy The Bumble Bee

While we were in Virginia Mike found the cutest little bumble bee outfit for Daisy. Daisy is terrified of flies and bees so making her a little bumble bee is hysterical. We don’t have costumes for the boys but Mike really doesn’t want me to dress the boys up. He believes that they need their dignity. I believe that Buford must have the Darth Vader costume that I found. Yessirree I do.

Anyway, I digress. Back to Daisy. Daisy loves getting dressed up and all of the attention she gets when she is wearing it. She just struts around wagging her tail.  Saturday she was all dressed up when Caleb arrived to spend the day with Grandma. She was so excited to show it off. Caleb of course gave her lots of hugs and kisses.

For those wondering. Daisy is a Basset Hound/Beagle mix. She is the diva in the house and her Daddy couldn’t live without her.

Hat And Scarf For Samantha

While we were in Virginia I gave Samantha her hat and scarf that I had made for her. I used yarn that I had purchased from the Kanawha Yarn Company store and it was exactly the right shade for Samantha’s personality. It was made by Plymouth Encore. She loves pink. It had just enough contrast of slight white spots in it to make a beautiful shading on the hat and scarf.

Because I wanted to share it with the blog I made her put it on for me early in the morning before we left to come home. I am sure she is plotting my demise for not giving her time to do makeup. bwhahaha.

As you can see this is a very long scarf. Samantha is very tall so she really needed a long scarf. I found this pattern at www.ravelry.com in their pattern section. Looking for patterns is wonderful there. You can put in the search hat, scarf, free and all of the hat and scarf patterns that are free will come up. Their website took me to the pattern which was at this website.

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/kcw-hatScarf.html?r=1

The pattern was very easy. You simply do reverse stockinette stitches and stockinette in different variances. The scarf got a bit boring after a while but that was because I had to make it so long. Did I mention my daughter is tall?

Her height has gotten her into so many problems over the years. While I was visiting she took great joy in hiding food on the top shelf of the cabinet so that I couldn’t reach it. Someday I will get even. As a matter of fact I have already plotted my revenge. bwahahaha.