Super Bowl XLVI in Indy!

Things are getting exciting back in my home state with Super Bowl about to happen there! Lots of my friends are volunteers so it'll be fun watching for people I know. Lots of activities will be going on in downtown Indianapolis starting this weekend. Friends are already posting pictures on Facebook.

Done!

As of tonight, I am done with my part of the taxes!! Always a relief. This first picture is of our cubbyholes that we put each month's receipts in. Tim made these. It's amazing to have them empty in Jan. and before you know it, it's half full or more again.









The rest of the pictures are from my last babysitting day. While Camry took a nap, Lacey & I made cut out cookies.


















I thought it was cute how Camry had wadded up her blanket for a pillow!

I'm having trouble with the "I" in the last sentence! Can't get it down where it belongs!

White Chicken Chili

We always have our bigger meal at lunch time and then a sandwich at night. I'm not usually very hungry at night and soup sounds good to me in the winter. Bill is not much of a soup eater though. I've always wanted to make some White Chicken Chili so finally did last night. I really liked it for something different. Here's the recipe:

WHITE CHICKEN CHILI

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 med. onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. olive oil
2 - 15 1/2 oz. cans Great Northern beans, rinsed & drained
1 - 14 1/2 oz. can chicken broth
1 - 4 oz. can diced green chilies
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. black pepper
3/4 c. light sour cream

1. In a large saucepan, saute chicken, onion & garlic in oil until chicken is no longer pink.

2. Add beans, chilies, seasonings and broth.

3. Bring to a boil.

4. Reduce heat and simmer (uncovered) for 30 min.

5. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.

6. Serve immediately.

I liked that this made a small batch (about 5 servings). The original recipe also called for 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper and a second can of green chilies so if you like more heat, you could add those. Next time I'll probably cook the chicken and shred it instead of doing the chunks.

Snowy Day

It's been snowing here all day and in the single digits for temp. Going below zero tonight. I think we've gotten about 6" of snow.

Bill and Tim had to meet the farm manager of one of the farms we do work for in Spencer (about an hour and a half away) but they didn't have any problems. Luckily it's not windy so the snow's not blowing around. Bill had said he didn't really want to move the snow until some got packed down so we wouldn't get a bunch of gravel in our yard, but I guess he changed his mind. That's probably why he used the loader instead of the snow blower. Most schools in the area were closed, but ours just had a 2 hour delay.

I joined a friend and another lady yesterday at the pool in the hotel in West Bend for some exercise in the afternoon. Then we headed back to Rolfe for our cookbook meeting.

I'm going to be babysitting 2 little girls tomorrow while Diane goes bridesmaid dress shopping. She's in a friend's wedding in Aug.

This and That

I haven't posted a sunset picture for a long time and saw this in my file. It's from a Nov. evening. Tonight we're down to 0 already. Supposed to be really cold tomorrow. This morning we had a little snow but nothing that stuck to the roads or anything.

Bill has been working on our taxes. I've gotta start working on my part tomorrow. He's hauled some more corn and been to another class or two. Tomorrow is a Pioneer Seed grower meeting with a BBQ lunch provided.

My brother, Glenn, was here over the weekend. Diane & girls and I took him to the Omaha airport Sun. morning and then spent the day shopping there before heading back. It's about three hours away from here. Nice day except Lacey was sad to see Papa go back to Texas.

Yesterday I had Lacey for the afternoon. We baked a "cake" in her new Easy Bake Oven. It was more like a cookie. Their pictures and things are very misleading about what you can make in those things! Then we had our cake and real tea using her little tea set she has here. She liked my Constant Comment tea. We read on our Nooks for a while. I was hoping we'd both fall asleep but no such luck.

I finished typing the recipes I had to do for the Rolfe Cookbook tonight! Next meeting is Thurs. We'll probably start putting them in the order we want them to be printed in. We ended up with right at 800 recipes. The cover is going to be in the school colors with the mascot and a picture of the school on the front (there is no longer a school in our town), and there will be several other old pictures throughout.

Reserve Your Copy Now!

After going to the cookbook committee meeting yesterday and sitting here entering recipes (we're up to 750 now!), I thought I'd do a post letting those that are from here or originally from here and scattered now - or anyone else - know that you can reserve your copies of the cookbook now at the Rolfe State Bank with Joni or tomorrow night at the RBI Membership Dinner. Cost is $15. Reserving them now will help us know how many to print as it's very costly to do reprints so we hope to just order once. You can also let me know that you want one - or more - for gifts. We're excited about this cookbook! We're seeing lots of great sounding recipes as we enter them!

For my stamping/scrapbooking customers - check out my web site (top right) to see the new Occasions Mini catalog that you can now order from! Lots of new products including Framelits Dies to be used with the Big Shot. My favorite is the Hearts Collection. These are on page 6 of the Occasions Mini. We also have brand new Edgelits Dies and Textured Impressions Embossing Folders (pg. 7), a great new set called PS. I Love You (pg. 8), Dazzling Details (glittery glue) in the pretty red Cherry Cobbler, new color of Smooch Spritz (Blushing Bride), new laser cut cards, pleated satin ribbon, more fabric, more designer paper, a new Blossom punch, new stamp set with large tea cup and 3 smaller ones called Tea Shoppe and so much more! Order now until April 30th.

Sale-A-Bration begins Jan. 24th! It's a great time to order - free product with every $50 order! Check my web site above for all the details!

Bill is in town today after going to several farm related classes lately. It was a sunny but cold day (with no wind!). One of the things he's been doing is hauling some more corn to the elevator.

Just another glimpse of rural living - last night we had to run to Humboldt (23 miles one way) to pick up prescriptions for him. I tried to get them at our closer pharmacy in Pocahontas (13 miles one way) but they close at 5:00. There was only one dr. in today - some were out sick and it was the others' day off so the one dr. didn't get to the call in problems until after 5:00. The Humboldt Pharmacy is only open until 7:30. Our closest Walmart is 82 miles round trip.

Today I've been doing one of my favorite things - baking. I was asked if I could bake some "bars" or other dessert for the RBI Membership dinner tomorrow night. So far I've made 7 Layer Bars and Cream Cheese Cupcakes.

Winter Has Arrived

The warm weather is gone for now. Starting yesterday the temps. dropped and we've had lots of wind. It's 13 at noon today with 30 mph wind gusting to 36. We had just a little snow during the day yesterday but nothing that really stuck. Eastern Iowa is to get a few inches today, and I hear it's snowing in Indiana.

Bill was asked to go to a precision planting school in Peoria. He left Mon. at noon and got back late Tues. night. He learned several things and was glad he went. Today he's at a day of insurance school in Storm Lake with a couple others from our town. He has a bad chest cold that's not going away with medicine so I called the dr. for him this morning.

I had a P.E.O. meeting Tues. Yesterday I went with Diane and Camry to Camry's dr. appointment for shots in Emmetsburg. She came out pulling up her pants leg and saying "owie" trying to tell me it was not fun back there! (I could hear that out in the waiting room!) We had lunch at the salad and pasta bar in the Wild Rose Casino and got groceries at the Fareway store we like before heading home.

I'm still entering recipes for the cookbook and have a cookbook committee meeting in town later today. We have about 750 recipes now for our book.

Carmel Misc.

While in Carmel, we "had" to eat at White Castle once for Diane and Glenn. There are no White Castles in Iowa or Texas. I'm surprised that they still come in these little boxes!

We went to the Carmel Library. You can see that it's busy when there are three men returning books at once! The other library picture is of self help book check out stations. Those are pretty nice! Looks like there are at least 5 of them.






















The last picture is of my long time friends Deena, Cindy and Dana. We worked together at a Carmel law firm and have kept in touch for 17 years since. We had our Christmas celebration at Maggiano's. Bill and Mom went to Charleston's (Bill's favorite) that night.

Back Yard Snow Globe

We were at Mom's in Carmel, IN for Christmas this year. They have not had much snow this year either but on the day after Christmas we were treated to really pretty snow coming down most of the day. Bill saw these pictures and asked me why they were in black & white. I said "uh, that's just the way it looked out that day!" I love this video (below) showing the big flakes coming down fast.

This was on Mon. and we weren't headed home to Iowa until Wed. so we just enjoyed it.

Carriage Ride with Lacey

This is what we rode in with Dream Carriage Rides a couple of times this Christmas season. Just Lacey & I went right before Christmas and she LOVED it and mentions it every time I see her. She and I were lucky that the night just the two of us went, the weather was perfect. Chilly but not freezing and no wind. She had on a cute hat and I bundled her into a blanket so she looked pretty comfy. On this night, a couple ladies in the back even started some Christmas carols, and I could tell that Lacey liked that, especially Jingle Bells since that mentions riding in a one horse open sleigh and she had been singing that a lot all month! The owner/driver of the horses said that kids riding always sing "two horse open sleigh"!

I think the man who does this light display every year is in his 80's! What a light bill he has to have! The house is on a hill so you can drive in front of the house and also go down below and see the back.

Click on the short video below if you want to hear the clop, clop of the horses and the jingle bells again. I know at least two of us that will probably do this again next year!

Nice Winter Walk

I got a lot done this morning, we had a good lunch of homemade lasagna, talked to Diane and then headed out to our Three Rivers Trail. It was sunny all day and about 42 so bundled up, it was a nice day to get some fresh air and exercise!




The last time that Terri & I walked, we were looking for bittersweet and didn't see any. We decided it must be too late. Then I spotted some up high in some trees (1st 2 pictures)!

We've only had a little snow once this winter and that's been quite a while ago, but you can see there's still some of it left on the trail in shady areas.

Bill & Tim are taking advantage of this unusually good winter weather and hauling corn to the elevator and getting the grain bins cleaned out.

Can't believe it's time to work on taxes again . . .

We're just about done compiling our sesquicentennial cookbook, but today I picked up about another 75 recipes to enter.