Okay-I gotta be quick.  Katy called and forgot the prom tickets and she is 1/2 hour away.  But I posted a few pictures of prom and Katy in the prom dress that I got done in PLENTY of time.  In fact, I started it last Saturday and got it done last Sunday afternoon!!!  I was thrilled.  I gotta run so look at the pics and I will have more pics to post later.

My oldest child Katy is 18 years old today!  I informed her this morning that she is now old enough to vote, gamble and get married.  She laughed and said that she forgot about the getting married part.  Way to go Mom!  I'm so happy that I remembered for her, "Ha, Ha!"

 

It is just so hard for me to believe that she is 18 already.  Wow!  I will post some pics later.  Katy is the one who went to Africa this past summer on a missonary trip.  She will be going someplace else this next year through her missionary training she will be receiving but does not know where yet.  She now is thinking of living in Africa for about 2-3 years to do some mission work.  I am so not ready for that one!

 

Poor kid her birthday night will be spent on the opening night of her musical, "Guys and Dolls".  I ordered a full sheet cake for her to share with the cast so that she could at least feel like it was her birthday.

 

Well-I hope to be posting more often now that I will be going back to normal working hours.

Now I can BREATHE!  It is over. I had the day off yesterday but I had so much to do and so much running to do that I barely had time to even sit down. 

 

Work gave us a big party the night of April 17th.  It is usually an employee only party and usually has a costume theme.  This year the theme to the party was American Idol.  You could either just dress up as your favorite singer or you could dress up and sing or you could just sing.

 

They had 4 of the VPs be Randy, Paula, Simon and Ryan Seacrest.  It was really cute.  They even gave out trophy awards for many categories including best costume, best coreography and American Idol.

 

Well-I won a trophy.  I dressed up as a bald, Britney Spears.  I wore the school girl look like she used to wear and had a bald head and carried shavers wth me.  I was trying for the prissy phsyco look.  And I won third place.  I even had a sign on my back that said "Oops I did it again!"

 

I am hoping that someone got a picture of me because I didn't get one.  The party was a lot of fun.  It was a really cute theme. 

 

Now onto homelife being stressful.  I have a prom dress to sew in 9 days!  Yipee! ( I would much rather have this type of stress than work stress anyday.)

 

 

Only 5 more days and tax season is over!!!!  Tax day is April 17th this year.  April 15th falls on Sunday and Monday is a holiday in Washington D.C.  I believe that it is Emmancipation Day.  And since the IRS in Washington D.C. will be closed on April 16th that makes this year's Federal tax dead line April 17th.

 

I just wanted to let you know that I am still hanging in there.

Easter Sunday in general was a really nice day.   It was pretty cold here but nice.  My mom went to church with me which was a really nice surprise.  And I came home and made deviled eggs and baked beans to take to my dad's house.

 

 

To get this family ready to go any place is always a lot of chaoticness.  We were supposed to be at my dad's at 4:00 ( about a 10 minute drive) so I started getting on everyone to get ready at about 3:00.   As usual, it was about 3:55 by the time we were starting to head outside.  The usual things happened, Justin would not come because he was upset and wanted to take EVERY electronic toy he owned(including his t.v.).  So there was arguing and crying there.  The dog ran outside because she thought she was going with us and it took all of us yelling and screaming at her to get her to go back inside.  (Now I know why our neighbors hate us, we're the loud obnoxious family in the neighborhood).  My husband even said in the car that he is embarrased to be us.

 

Then on the way to my dad's of course the baked beans spilled all over the car because no one wanted to watch them.  (This happens every single time).

 

But we did make it there all in one piece.  And by the time we got there no one was crying or yelling and everyone was in one piece and there were still baked beans.

 

Both of the babies were there at my dad's.  I will update my pictures soon. (Just haven't had time.)  Aidan, my sister's baby boy, is now 8 months and huge!  He is as big as my niece Lilly, my brother's baby girl, who is now 14 months old.

 

My grandmother was there.  She is now almost 88 years (she will be this month) and it was kind of hard to see the changes in her.  Her heart is really bad and has been for as long as I can remember.  She has a really good heart doctor and she has been really lucky.  (Her dad and her brother both died pretty young of a bad heart.)  She was cold the whole time and stayed under the covers.  She was pretty wobbly and didn't get up hardly at all.  And I have noticed this for a while that her bottom lip is really turning and staying blue.  It's her bad ciruclation I imagine.  I know that it  is not God's will for her to live forever but it is the selfish side of me that doesn't like what I am seeing.     But the one funny part about spending time with her is that I am trying to teach her to knit.  Here I am the grandaughter teaching the grandmother how to knit.  She brought her knitting with her and she has been trying like crazy to learn to knit.

 

8 days and counting down with tax season.  I couldn't tell you how many returns we still have because I haven't asked lately but I know it's a lot.  I worked tonight until 8:00 and I have a feeling that tonight was my early night.

 

I still haven't come up with a good costume for our tax day party.  I have to dress as a Female Vocalist.  Any ideas???  I am turning up blank.  I was going to do a group thing with the girls in my department but they all chickened out so I guess I am on my own.

 

I guess that they are going to have their own version of American Idol but we don't have to sing because there will also be a costume contest.

 

Well-that's all I can think of for now.  I need to go and get in bed and get my rest for the rest of the week.  Hope everyone is doing well here in blog land.  And I hope everyone had a great Easter.

 

 

I made this recipe this weekend and my whole family loved it!  It is pretty seldom that I please the whole family with one meal.

 

1 pound ground chuck

1 medium onion diced

1 pkg. taco seasoning mix

1 pkg. hidden valley ranch dressing mix

1 can mild (or hot) rotel tomatos

1 can mexican rotel tomatos

1 can mexicorn (or regular corn)

1 can white hominy

1 can chili beans

1 can V-8 or other vegtable juice

 

Brown ground chuck and diced onion together.  Drain.  Add taco seasoning mix and Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning mix to the ground meat.  Then open and add all the rest of the cans.  The only cans that I drained where the corn and hominy.  I used the juice from the rest.

 

Then add about half the can of Vegtable Juice and simmer for about 30 minutes or longer if desired until heated through.

 

I doubled this recipe  and used a whole can of the juice.  Whenever I doubled it the recipe made about a stock pot full.

 

This is BEST served with shredded cheddar cheese and a dallop of sour cream on each serving and top with Fritos. 

 

I liked this recipe because it was easy and inexpensive.

 

Well Folks-we only have 13 days until tax day and about 600 returns to go.  I will probably be working late everynight between now and then.  I worked until 8:00 tonight.   I think we are working 8-10 hours over this Saturday.  I just keep telling myself it's almost over.

 

Hope you all are doing good here in blogland.  If I don't post anything on Saturday I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter.

 

Cara

Hey all.  Well-I know that I have not posted for a while but things have been pretty crazy busy lately.  My daughter Katy, her best friend Jesse's grandmother/mom (her grandmother adopted her) passed away from cancer and then my best friend Pam's grandmother passed away as well.  Pam, who now lives in California, ended up coming for the funeral and staying with us.  She stayed for a few extra days so that she could also visit with family while she was here (and me of course).  And we also went ahead and had our dinner party this past weekend that I had been planning for the past month with some friends from work.  It was a really nice time.  One of the couples that came are a young couple who are from China.  So, in trying to think of something very American, we had everyone make their own pizzas, which is something that they had never done before.  I have a nice brick patio with a fire bowl(I'm not sure what else to call it).  And after dinner, we all went outside and sat around the fire.  It was a little cool but not bad and the trees on my patio are flowering and it was a really nice atmosphere.

 

Then of course it's tax season.  We are now working over at least 2 hours everyday and working on every Saturday.  But only for about 2-1/2 more weeks and then it's over, YIPEE!!!

 

And I have to come up with something that I can dress up as for our tax day party here at work.  This year's theme is American Idol.  We can either sing or we don't have to sing but we are supposed to dress up as a musical artist of our choosing.  So I really can't come up with anything yet but I would love to do it.

 

As for my shoulder-thank you so much everyone for asking-it is doing better.  It still bothers me some if I make a movement that I am not used to or something but it is a whole lot better than it was. 

 

Now what I am planning for next is:  Katy's 18th birthday, Katy's upcoming musical she is in at school (Guys & Dolls), Katy's upcoming prom (I am making her dress, which is going to be a 1950s vintage pattern), Katy's upcoming Graduation, and Katy's upcoming Graduation Party. 

 

And since we are having Katy's Graduation Party at the house we have to finally finish remodeling our bathroom that has been in the process of being remodeled for the past year.

 

So this is all that has been happening for the past few weeks.  I have not been on the computer much as I have been too tired to do it once I get home at night.   I haven't even been knitting for the past few weeks but that will change soon too!

 

Hope everyone here is doing well and thanks again for the concern of my shoulder.