A Day Off

Today is presidents day and I don't have to go to work, it is nice working for the school district, you get all the holidays off. Rob also is home with me because he is feeling crappy. He has been off his percocet for more than 48 hours now and is not feeling the greatest. He was trying to gradually go off, but decided he wanted to be rid of them. After taking them for just over 2 months, he has withdrawals from not taking them. The withdrawal symptoms that he has are aches, chills, stomach hurts, flu-like symptoms, among other things. He has been researching and they say they can last up to a week. AHHHHH!! I just want him to feel better. It is hard for him to feel comfortable, so it makes it seem even longer for him. I am trying to stay strong and help him get through this. But, I gotta say it is hard sometimes. He is getting tired of always being in pain and I don't blame him, I would be to. His body just takes longer to heal.

Things are looking fabulous today, the sun is out and I got up early this morning and did my exercising, so I am feeling good. I was planning to take Rob to work, but since he stayed home, it is just nice to be up and ready for the day. Now, I just need to get Rob through the day and tomorrow he has a doctors appointment and we are hoping he will start really improving after that.

Sunday Bread

We have church at 9:00am now and so I have decided to make bread after church, and while the bread is rising, I can read my scriptures of take a Sunday nap. So I started my wheat bread at 1:00, by grinding my wheat. Then I started making the bread and for some reason got to strong for my bosch mixer, so I pulled it out and kneaded it for about 6 minutes on the counter. It took longer than expected this time but is just as soft and yummy. It was finished just in time to head over to my parents house for Sunday dinner.











While the bread was rising, I made Rob some dipped pretzels with the leftover white chocolate
from Christmas. I just made them Valentine's my using red sprinkles.
Rob loves the Mothers Grandma cookies with frosting, and says these are about just as good.


The bread recipe is one my mom revised a little from another yummy recipe
It is called
Grand Champ Bread Recipe - Oatmeal Honey Bread:

5 cups hot water
1 cube butter
3/4 cup honey
1 cup oat flour (blended oats)
2 cups oatmeal . . . blend and let sit 10 minutes
8-12 cups wheat flour
1 Tbsp. salt
2 Tbsp. yeast
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
2 Tbsp. dough enhancer

Mix for about 8 minutes.

Spray a bowl with cooking spray and put dough into bowl and then
flip dough over so it is coated.

Let it double.

Punch down and make into 5 loaves and let rise in pans for 1 hour until about
an inch above rim.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

I put it in a cold oven and then turn the stove to 350 for 25-30 minutes.
Makes 5 loaves.

Happy Valentine's Day!

For Valentines we just spent it together at home, Rob wanted to sit home and rest.
So he let me choose a movie to watch and I chose The Princess Bride. I have always enjoyed watching this movie.
I also made some sour cream sugar cookies. Yum!


The day before Valentines we had some more snow. It was crazy weather trying to bring the kids home from school. There were a few places because of the wind that we could not see at all. After work, it took me 20 minutes to get to Robs work to pick him up and another about 20 minutes to get home. You could not see our sidewalk from the house to the road because of the drifting snow. It was level with the rest of the snow. My dad came over and snowblowed and I didn't think his little snow blower would move the snow because it was so high. But, he proved
me wrong and pushed all the snow. Thank you dad.

Moved the drain

We have a drain in our basement that should be in the furnace room, but is in the bedroom next door. Ever since we moved in, Rob has wanted to move the drain to where it should be. So he got his dad to come out the last two Saturdays and help him.

The first Saturday we rented an electric jack hammer and brought it home. Rob started away at chisseling the concrete before his dad got there, and he made some progress, but also zapped his energy a little. So I made him some lunch and he worked a little more and then one of the tongs on the plug broke off, so we took it back and rented another. They were only open until 3:00, so we were in a hurry. But, they got it all dug up and got the drain moved and filled with some sand and called it a day. Rob really overdid it though, he wasn't able to come with me to church the next day, so he stayed home and rested.



The next Saturday Rob was feeling pretty good, his dad came over about 10:30. They got the cement poured and leveled and it looks wonderful. Thank you to Rob and his dad for the wonderful work they did. Now we are going to clean the room up, remove the wallpaper, paint, and then tear the carpet out. Then we will recarpet with the carpet that is in the rest of the house. This room will be our guest bedroom. We will put our old queen bed in there with our comforter set.

Snow, Snow, and More Snow

So, I told everyone I would post some pictures of our snow. So here they are. Sunday morning we woke up to about 6-8 inches of snow. So I got ready for church and went early(Rob stayed home, wasn't feeling good) and it was snowing pretty heavy still. About half way through Junior Primary, they informed everyone that they were canceling the rest of church so we could get home. It was still snowing pretty hard. So I scraped about 3inches off the car so I could get home. I got home and told Rob, and then we looked outside and the elders quorum president and the teachers and priests from the ward were out there shoveling. Thank you.

We stayed home until about 4:30, and then we headed out to Robs parents for dinner. It was still snowing. When we got home, there was about 3-4inches of new snow. So I shoveled it all, hoping we would not get anymore. Shoveling snow is hard work.

Monday morning came and guess what, more snow, probably a good 5 or so inches. So when I got home for my morning break from work at 9:00, I started shoveling. I got half of the driveway, some of the sidewalk, and I tried pushing some of the snow in front of the mailbox. I came inside exhausted. We have these piles of snow that I have to heft the snow over the top of, and my arms were dead. So I took a rest. During my lunch break, I shoveled a little bit more.

When I got home from work after picking up Rob, he helped me finish shoveling the other half of the driveway and then I re-shoveled in front of the mailbox, because the post man plowed through everything. Oh well. We didn't even get to the north sidewalk. Our entrance to our driveway keeps getting smaller and smaller, because there is nowhere to put the snow. And as of right now, it hasn't snowed any more. Thank goodness. This morning my whole upper body is sore and stiff. I used muscles that I guess I don't use very often.

The Color Green

We bought a counter height table at Sams a few months back and we love it, and it was a great price. Although we have not yet eaten on it. Imagine that, we get a new table and we want to keep it nice. Anyways, we will eat on it, we have just been eating in the living room, because Rob needs a more cushy seat for right now.
Well, I have decided to accent the kitchen and dining area green and black. Our table is a brown color and I really like brown and black together with green as an accent. So we bought placemats in green and an off white color. We also have an off white table runner. I really like it. So far the color scheme has only gone as far as the table. Slowly, we will get there.


It has been snowing constantly for a day and a half now and whoooooooh, tons of snow. I will take some pictures and tell you all about it in my next post.

2nd Attempt

Well, the bread I made the other day was so good and Rob even liked it(amazing), that I attempted to try it again. Everything went beautifully and the dough even looked better than the time before. So I let it rise and made it into two loaves and stuck them in the oven. After about 25 minutes of cooking, they should have been done, but were not.

So, I let them cook and cook and I swear they were in there for about an hour, when I finally decided to take them out and cut into one to see what it looked like. First of all, they were pretty tough on the outside, so I had to really saw at it. When I got inside, DOUGHY, aaahhhhh, I hate doughy. So, I stuck them in again to see if they would cook any more. Not really, I took them out and showed Rob, and he started laughing at the massive loaves. Next time, I will make them a lot smaller. I told Rob, this just means I am still learning and you always need a good laugh now and again anyways.
I did however make mine and Robert's favorite dessert, Berry Poke Cake. Although I don't have any cool whip for the top, except for a little we had leftover from the last time I made it, it turned out fabulous. Mmmmmmm!!!.

Winter Wonderland

I love it when it snows and you go outside before the sun comes up and it is just so peaceful and quiet and gorgeous. Granted, then you have to shovel it all. We have had so many neighbors helping us out with shoveling our snow. This snowstorm was a big one and we got about 8in. or more. I went to work at 6:00a.m. and plowed through the snow with my car. When I got home, our sidewalks and driveway were snowblowed, all I had to do was the walkway from our house out to the sidewalk. Thank you neighbors and parents. Then the sun came out and this is my favorite, freshly fallen snow, and then pretty blue skies and the sunshine. I can stand the cold when it is so beautiful out.

Basic Bread Recipe

I went to my moms enrichment the other night with two of my sisters and we learned how to make bread and the basic components to making bread. I learned so much. If your bread comes out to dark, just omit some of the sugar. The lady who taught us is amazing at whipping bread up. The basic bread recipe is:

2 1/2 cups liquid
1 T yeast
3 T sugar
2 tsp. salt
6-8 cups flour

Optional:
2 T oil
1 egg

Mix dry ingredients. Add liquid. Add flour as needed until a soft but not sticky dough is formed. Knead about 5 minutes. Allow to rise in a warm place until dough is double. Knead again as it is formed into loaves. Bake in greased pan at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.

She also said that you can add up to a cup of whatever(leftover noodles, veggies, leftover broth, cereal crumbs, frosting), pretty much anything. So the other day I decided to take a whak at making white bread. So I added some 2 cups water and blended in some leftover cooked carrots and broccoli. Then I added the rest of the ingredients and added as much flour as needed and also a little bit of oil. Mixed it all together and kneaded it. Then I left it to rise and it wasn't rising to well, but made into round balls and placed on a cookie sheet. Let it rise a little more. Cooked them for about 23 minutes and they came out with little orange specs all over. It tasted great, a little veggie taste but pretty good for my first try. It was really soft to. It is great for making sandwiches.