January 13 picture

Some days, you just have to get some dinner on the go and Chilis hit the spot!

January 12 picture

When Rob & I got married, someone gave us a waffle maker. We used it several times, but when we moved to our current place, it somehow ended up in the garage, which is packed full, very full, horribly full. There is no finding the waffle maker right now!
We decided, though, that we wanted to make waffles, so we borrowed one from his mom. This waffle maker is ancient - older than me, even older than Rob. It has a cloth covered cord!
The waffles were delicious, and the perfect dinner for a chilly night.

January 11 picture

Today, it was COLD! Snot freezing cold. It reminded me of growing up in Iowa, so I snapped a picture of the Hawkeye mug one of my students gave me for Christmas.

January 10

Yesterday we got snow - maybe 5 to 6 inches total where I live. It was cold, but not below zero and with the snow totals, I wasn't even wishing for a snow day. This morning I woke up at quarter to six and told my husband, "I have 15 more minutes." Ryan came up about 10 minutes later and we snuggled while he told us about his dreams. I kept thinking, "I need to get in the shower because we need to leave early." Just then, the phone rang! It was my assistant principal telling me there was no school today. Later I found out it was due not just to the snow, but extreme illnesses in our building including strep throat, scarlet fever, and H1N1. Whatever, the reason, we enjoyed the day. I got to watch some of my favorite shows (Gilmore Girls & Dharma and Greg), play Toy Story Yahtzee, play Go Fish, and just in general, play. Oh, and of course, I got a little knitting done. Oooh (I keep forgetting things, can you tell?) I also made a batch of breakfast burritos for those mornings when I'm running slow, a batch of Rice Krispy Treats, and if the pumpkin thaws, I'm going to make Ugly Muffins.

Ugly Muffins are a recipe my sister gave me. You take a chocolate cake mix, a can of pumpkin, and a 1/2 cup water and make muffins. Oh, and add a handful of mini chocolate chips. Unfortunately, I'm out of chocolate cake mix, so I thought I'd try spice. I'm thinking they might be pretty good.

The picture for today is a flat snowman. The snow, though cold and beautiful, was not conducive to snowball or snowman making - just too light and fluffy. So, we got creative and made several flat snowmen. Isn't he cute? My sister, Renae, sent Ryan the snowman kit for Christmas and he's been dying to use it, but this was our first real snow. I have a feeling we're going to get a lot of use out of it!

January 9

Today we got our 2nd real snow of the winter. We had a dusting or two before Christmas and then some snow last weekend amounting to about 3 inches. Today and tomorrow we're expecting 5-10 inches. Ryan and I took advantage of the weather and had a little snow fun. I love how the snow clung to his little eyelashes.

January 8

My mother-in-law had surgery on December 21. Originally we thought she'd be home in 2 or 3 days. Well, when they got in there, it was a bit more serious and she ended up not going home until December 26. It made for an interesting, busy, and stressful week with trips to the hospital, her place to feed the cat, etc. We had been planning to do Christmas dinner at her place, but when she got discharged, the doctor put her on a liquid/blended diet until she saw him on the 3rd of January. We opted to wait on our ham dinner until she could have it. So, on January 8, we had Christmas dinner. Here is the ham before I took it out of the electric roaster. If you don't have one, get one - I LOVE our roaster!

January 7

Quite honestly, I don't know why this photo is sideways - I'm still figuring out this whole blogging thing and am not quite sure how everything works. This is our book club book for this month. I finished it the other night and it's quite good. Check it out.