Crock Pot Fun

Two of my latest interests, FlyLady and Gorgeously Green, both suggest cooking meals in a Crock Pot. I have wanted one for a while, but Morgan would tell me that he doesn't like stew. I went round and round arguing that you could cook more than stew in a Crock Pot. This has been the discussion over the last couple of years.

Well a few weeks ago I finally talked him into trying it - with the help of both the FlyLady and the Gorgeously Green Lady. (As with anything they were on sale - that always helps too!) It has been a busy couple of weeks with my brother-in-law in town and then my travels, so this week was our first test.

My mom gave us a slow cooker recipe book that is literally older than I am. We tried a Pork Roast with apples and ginger. Morgan waited until it was done to tell me that he is not crazy about pork done that way. It came out okay though. Yesterday we tried a brisket with carrots, celery, and onion. It was quite good.

The best part of it all...Morgan has decided that he really wants to try STEW! After years of telling me that he did not want to buy a Crock Pot because he does not like stew, he has now decided that it is the one meal he wants to cook in the Crock Pot! Go figure! (He argues that there a fancy stews in the cookbook and that they are not the plain kind that he doesn't like...)

Our goal is going to be to use it 1-2 times per week. It was SO nice to come home to dinner already prepared. So, If anyone has any Crock Pot recipes, please share!

Mother's Day Pictures

The last post was a bit sad so I thought I would add something a little more upbeat. I am home sick today anyway so I have time!

I treated Mom to Pappasitos when I was home. Yum! It was a good as I remembered! We did miss Morgan though to eat the pepper for us!

I managed to save room for the Sopapillas.
They are my favorites!

On Mother's Day Jason and I cleaned up the patio a little bit. Mom's tomato plants were looking great, so I bought some herbs to replant in the empty smaller pots. Here is a picture of Bailey, the three-legged cat, enjoying our work.

I had a great time visiting with Mom and her little dogs, too!

(Momma, Tyson, Rose, and Tator Tot)

Prayer Request

I got a call yesterday at school from my mom. She'd just found out that her cousin Kathy was killed over the weekend. She thought it was a car crash, but it turns out she was hit by a car while walking along the street with neighbors. It happened on Mother's Day.

The man who hit her has a history of problems with DUI and was about to have his licence revoked. Sometimes life just isn't fair! Kathy was so kind. She was a retired teacher who rescheduled her tutoring when my Grandma Jo took a turn for the worse so that she could take her mother (my Aunt Fran) to see Grandma Jo not once but twice. She and her daughter gave Morgan and me a wedding cake Christmas tree ornament that we treasure and talk about each year as we decorate.

Please keep the family in your prayers.

I'm pregnant?

How do you answer this? My husband sent me this e-mail at work this morning.

Tiffany in our office was advised this morning by a staff member at Lynn, who has a child at Henderson that you are pregnant! I thought I would email you to congratulate you. By all accounts it is a rumor travelling around Henderson…

Hope the morning is going well.

I always thought I would have been the first to know!

P.S. Just in case you were wondering, I am NOT pregnant. This is what happens when a few second grade parents find out that you want to have a baby...

The Good, The Bad, and Procrastination

The Good:
I had a nice weekend in Houston with my mom. I left school early on Friday and got to Hobby in time for dinner. It is the first real holiday without Grandma Jo, so it was nice to spend it with my mom. We did some shopping, some planting, and some bonding. I will post pictures soon...

I was SUPER excited today. Morgan and I stopped at Publix on our way home and I was checking the dates on my yogurt when it hit me - the school year will be over BEFORE my yogurt expires! Now that is a happy thought!

The Bad:
I think I am coming down with a cold. I have a stuffy nose, a sore throat, and feel yucky. Colds are never good, but I find summer colds the worse. It seems wrong to sniffle when it is 90 degrees outside. So much for soup and hot drinks...

The Procrastination:
I should be cleaning - changing the sheets, vacuuming, etc.
I should be grading papers.
I should be planning my ancient civilization lesson.

Oh well! I'll get to it...

What happened to Spring?

This weekend I was in Boston for a seminar. There are a group of teachers at school working on a project with the Music in Education National Consortium's (MIENC) Learning Laboratory School Network (LLSN). We have been doing it for a few years now and have expanded the project this year. This weekend was a seminar on what leadership looks like in music education. I went with the music teacher to share our story.

Usually I enjoy trips like this, but this weekend was just plain COLD! I had been looking forward to spring, but all I got was winter. (Even the team from Minnesota was complaining - it was warmer last weekend in Minneapolis!) On the plus side I did get to take some pictures of the flowers. While we have nice warm weather in Florida, we just do not get "spring flowers."

We had a nice walk from one hotel to the other - I am not sure why we did not just stay at the same place we were meeting, but it wasn't my seminar to organize! There are some nice people involved with the project so it was nice to see them again. I've returned to Florida to find summer in full swing in all but the school calendar!

Morgan got to spend time with his brother in my absence. My brother-in-law Robert leaves Thursday. He and Morgan went to play soccer tonight so I have some time to myself to catch up on the TV I missed last week. I think we have done everything thing on Robert's list of things to do before he returns to Ireland...with the exception of tomorrow night's trip to the Cheesecake Factory. Yum!

Not what I expected...

The first thing I heard this morning when I work up was "Breaking News." It seems that there was a shooting last night at a party held in the University housing at the University where I am employed. (The apartments happen to be right next to the school.)

I could see our school resource officer on the news as I heard them say that the campus was on lock down and there would be no classes today. I watched the news for a while and then the phone started to ring - word getting through the phone tree.

So far I have cleaned my bedroom, worked on my PowerPoint for Boston this weekend, done two loads of laundry, and emptied the dishwasher.

Now instead of giving a multiplication test right now, I think I am going to Home Depot to buy something to plant in my strawberry jar. Not quite what I thought I'd be doing this afternoon!

Brownie Points

Tonight Morgan proved yet again how great he truly is to me. The OGF Girl Scout group I work with had initially scheduled a Mystery Night for tonight. The advisers all figured that the event was canceled, but we found out on Wednesday that they had about 60 girls signed up. So it was a lot of last minute organizing - thankfully the person that usually runs this event is actually an event planner. There would be no one better to get things going!

However being an event planner, Kim had to work tonight so the rest of us stepped in...including Morgan. We were short actors so he reluctantly agreed. It was an event for middle school and high school girls. There were 65 females in the room and two males...and he came in costume. I owe him big! (Although Shannon was our big superstar - she is pregnant, has a cold, and gave up Bon Jovi tickets to be there! What a dedication!)

You have to love the shirt! He played the role of "Mitch Awave."

After a rocky start the event went well. Three girls guessed the correct murdered, motive, and so on. Morgan succeeded in making everyone THINK that he was guilty. He can be such a ham! He played the surfer dude with an attractive Irish accent.

Morgan & Dave

We are now off to bed. Hopefully our 4 legged children will behave tonight. Moses likes to meow as he plays with his toys. He is fine, but he carries on like he is dying. He found his favorite toy at 5am this morning. Then at 6am the light in our bedroom suddenly turned on. I look up to see Rafa hanging from the string that controls the light on the ceiling fan. He was kind enough to then repeat the action to turn the light off. By that point it was a game and I quickly made sure it was out of his reach. I am not sure what got into those two last night!