Suz Chef

Last night Uncle Joe and I made home-made pizza. He texted me at work and can apparently read my mind because I had just been trying to decide what to have for supper and pizza sure did sound good.

Text: Pizza at home for supper?
My reply: Yesss! You are reading my mind!


I stopped at the grocery, list in hand, to pick up some last minute things for the Pizza De Jour. I only had to call Joe once to ask about yeast preference and only had to go back for one forgotten item. (Good thing I was still in the parking lot!)I got home and he prepared all the toppings: Ham, pinapple (fresh!), onion, mushrooms, pepperoni, sausage and cheese.

The recipe for crust we found was easy and tasty. I would recommend you try it next time you want to impress your family. :o) This batch makes TWO regular crusts.We made two batches of this dough after one other recipe flopped. Our company loved it and the girls had fun making their own pizza.

Quick Pizza Dough

1 pkg Quik Rise dry yeast
1 cup luke warm water
2 T olive oil
1 T honey *** yes honey! it was delish!
2 1/2 cups flour
pinch of salt

*this recipe also calls for 1/2 t garlic powder and 1/2 t onion powder, but we didn't use it.

Mix yeast in water in glass bowl. Add other ingredients. We used our stand mixer and it worked beautifully. Place in a bowl that has about a teaspoon of olive oil..just enough to coat the bottom. Cover and let it sit for 15-30 minutes.
Turn out dough on lightly floured surface. Cut in half. Flatten out on a floured surface and place in pizza pan. Add sauce, cheese and toppings of your liking and bake at 450 degrees for 12 (or more) minutes.

I was in charge of mixing dough. UJ patted most of the pizzas out and i topped them. I didn't do TOO bad for my first "Suz Chef" job. Hey... at least I got lots of kisses while I was working. I bet Chef Gordon Ramsay doesn't kiss his sous chefs!

My 39th Year

My 39th year.

Hardest by far and by far the most rewarding.

On the eve of my 40th birthday

I am stronger

mentally

physically

emotionally

and spiritually

than I have ever been.

40?
Bring.It.On.

Holiday?

Just sittin' @ home enjoying a cuppa joe with Joe on my first Federal Holiday!!

Be My Valentine?

Do you see love?

********

Have I Told You Lately

Song by Rod Stewart

Have I told you lately that I love you

Have I told you there's no one else above you

Fill my heart with gladness,

take away all my sadness

Ease my troubles,

that's what you do

For the morning sun and all its glory

Meets the day with hope and comfort too

You fill my life with laughter,

somehow you make it better

Ease my troubles,

that's what you do

There's a love that's defined

And it's yours and it's mine

like the sun

And at the end of the day

We should give thanks and pray to the one,

to the one

Have I told you lately that I love you

Have I told you there's no one else above you

Fill my heart with gladness,

take away all my sadness

Ease my troubles, that's what you do.

******

Dear Uncle Joe,

Will you be my Valentine?

Love,

Aunt Josefina

Hurry Up and Wait

Well my first week of Federal employment is over. I heard from our trainer that there is a lot of "hurry up and wait" going on.

Oh. How. True.

With 88 people in my trainee group, it takes us a while to do ANYTHING.

When we do something in unison, like getting on the internet, we crash the system. (Tech guys said they were glad we crashed it because they had been asking for more bandwidth....now they'll surely get it!)

I sit by a really nice lady.....Beth. She is so quiet and I have to lean over every now and again to try and make her crack up. The lady behind us however is pretty close to getting hurt. She doesn't know what is going on because she won't keep her mouth shut. She talks loudly making it difficult for us to hear. Since she doesn't know what is going on she has to ask a "coach". She dominates them with her incessant chatter and I am getting very annoyed. We haven't been doing any real training yet so I have been patient, but if she causes me to miss something I will have to tape her mouth shut and tie her to her chair. Let me also add that I sit on the back row.....a very different experience for me. I am a "B" so I am usually at the front, and it is very weird being in the back. (although at break time, I get to the bathrooms first!)

So, I am enjoying NOT anwering the phones, NOT having to deal with difficult patients in person or on the phone, NOT pulling faxes, NOT filing charts,and NOT balancing my money. I know that this job will ramp up real soon and all these slow days will be a thing of the past.........

Have a great weekend!

First Days

My first days at the new job have been good. Very busy with do's and don'ts, training and orientation. There are 88 people in my "class" that is a lot of new faces and names to learn. We are the largest group to train in the history of this office.

The hours are 730 to 415 and if any of you know me I am morning challenged. It will take a concerted effort from my whole family to get everyone up and ready on time and get me out the door by 710am. I may be putting my shoes on on the car, but I will be on my way!!

It was so nice to be in a room full of people who are "thrilled to be here", "tickled to have this job", "happy to serve our Vets", etc. everyone WANTS to be there and will work very hard to maintain the awesome reputation of the Muskogee Office. Let me say here that in all the Veteran's Services that Muskogee offers.....we are the top office in all of them. We get extra work because we rock it out so fast.........can you believe that?? Okies know how to work and we ROCK!!

Gotta skitter.....look at the time.

Closed for computer maintenance and upgrades.....

Y'all come back now...

Fortunately

Today we went to Whole Foods in Tulsa. What a beautiful store! When we walked in I thought I would like to work there. It was so vibrant and colorful and the smells were heavenly......

We have seen Alton Brown and Emeril shop at Whole Foods and we have wanted to visit one for a long time. UJ learned there was one in Tulsa so we went on a spur of the moment today.

Came home with several interesting items: Tandoori bread, veggie chips, sweet potato (ha UJ I spelled potato right!) chips, roasted veggie dip, beets, clementines, and an organic frozen pizza.

We stopped off at Pei Wei for lunch and here is the fortune I got:
A secret admirer will soon send you a sign of affection. I can't wait!! I love affectionate signs. I hope it is a sweet love note. :o)

Don't be jealous

I am getting my an up close and personal concert at Tedly's house. Uncle Joe and Tedly are jammin away........I am listening and blogging. :o)

It just isn't fair when on your first day "off the job" you are awake at 4am. Just. Isn't. Fair.

Onwards and Upwards!

Today was my last day at the office.

I arrived and there was a gas leak. We couldn't open the clinic for about an hour. There was no sense in everyone standing around getting asphyxiated so I suggested they go get breakfast and I would remain behind to answer the phones. If they came back and found me comatose then they would know the gas company didn't show up. (The smell actually was very faint and we had plenty of ventilation so I was in no danger I was assured by the physicians)

what a memorable last day on the job!!

I said farewell to my 8-5 family and left knowing that I am doing what is best for me and my family. Onwards and upwards!!!!!

The List

This scene takes place at the Sunday dinner table.

Cast: CarlyJo, CassiJo, Uncle Joe and Aunt Jo

UJ: AJ did you all go to church today?

AJ: Yea, we just went to big church though, we missed Sunday School.

UJ: Good, that'll keep you off Papa's List.

CassiJo: What list?

UJ: The list.

CassiJo: What list?

UJ: The list you get on if you don't go to church.

CassiJo:............... You're on the list.

UJ's drink almost came out his nose.

New Beginnings

Good news Blogger Friends.......

I got a new j-o-b! woohooo!!! I have been with my current employer for almost 20 years and finally decided it was time to try something new. I am mentally prepared and ready for a new beginning.

I will be starting a Federal job on Feb 2nd.

I am very excited to be getting a raise, a few more paid holidays, great benefits and better hours.

Yay!

.....and We're Back

Did you EVEN know we were gone??

Our computer has been ill with several nasty viruses and various computer germs and we have been computer-less for several (long) days.

My Computer Genius Brother In Law, Ron has disinfected and de-virus-ized our little machine and we are back to normal.....and somewhat faster thanks to his computer prowess. :o)

Getcher Free Smile......

Did you hear about the NEW corduroy pillows?

NO?

They are making headlines all over the world!

:o)

Colder Than.....

It is so cold here my eyeballs got cold when I ran last night.

The Buttah Post

Aunt Lil got us some sheets for Christmas. White sheets (antibacterial too!)250 thread count.....and they feel like buttah! They remind me of the hotel sheets in Chicago. I could hardly go to sleep last night for rubbing my feet on them while I snuggled in for the night. :o) Ahhhhh

I think I hear them calling me now.......

New Year

Last night was JorySan's final night at home. He left with his family and Outlaws early this morning. They should be in Japan late tonight.

Before their departure I got one last dose of lovin' from the children. I arrived at G-moms shortly after the office closed and picked up Maya as soon as I arrived. She was getting a teeny bit fussy so we went to the rocking chair and rocked for a long time.........a very long time. She looked around and smiled at me, pulled my hair, scratched me a while and wallered me while I rocked her for miles. I thought I might give up when she started making I-don't-want-to-go-to-sleep-but-I-am-about-to sounds and the end was in sight. I didn't miss the opportunity to snuggle with her so we went to G-mom's big tall bed and got under the covers and had ourselves a little nappy. It was sweet to wake up and see her little face smiling at me with sleepy eyes.

We all had such a good time with the children. It will be several months before they have a chance to come back. I wonder what they thought of our family of what probaby seemed to them to be GIANTS? :o)

Oh and Happy New Year! Thanks for reading my blog for one more year........

She Works Hard for the Money

Today UJ and CassiJo went to G-mom's to help out with the babies, visit and generally soak up all the love they could.

They put in a full day of it, arriving at noon and not returning home til 8pm tonight.

Joe bragged on how much of a help Cassi was with keeping Kai occupied and being sweet with Maya. (UJ got a big dose of love when Maya fell asleep on his chest......ahhhhh the sweet sounds of babies sleeping on you...)

Cassi and I were engaged in an embrace so I could love on her and brag on her and she whispered, "Can I get paid?"

I replied, "How much do you want?"

She said "Well I worked 8 hours how about $8?"

"Done!"

Let's hope she feels the same way in a few years. Yea right.

There is No Such Thing

There is no such thing as too much love.

But there may be a point of exhaustion.

I think we may have reached it yesterday.

We spent the entire afternoon and evening with JorySan and the babies.

We played, wallered and kissed them all day and they tolerated it very well.
Kai is a hider. He hides his toys and puts them in cabinets, under sofas, behind furniture. Jory has to hide his wallet so Kai doesn't get a hold of it and hide it! (he almost forgot where he hid it too!)Maya is a doll baby. She rarely cried and tolerated all the girls holding her and playing with her. She got a little fussy last night and when we took some of her clothes off and went outside to cool off and rock in the swing at Papa's she went right to sleep. I can still put "the moves" on these babies!

We even made time to squeeze in a Walmart trip with Mr.& Mrs. Iwabe, Noriko's parents. They don't speak much English but did very well. We lost them for a while and after I walked the store, it dawned on me to look in the music section. They love country music and whenever they get a chance, they buy lots and lots of cd's to take home. When I found them.....at the check out with Joe, I admired all the cd's they had. Mr. Iwabe could say all the names of the artists. :o) They also can't believe the price of ham here. In Japan a small (maybe) 3lb ham might be $200!!! Mr Iwabe (or J-Pop as Jory calls him) loves ham, so last night when we had ham on our little snack buffet, you know he was there eating some of that!

We ended the evening at Papa's for a little Christmas with them and took the Iwabes through the Garden of Lights or Illumination as they called it. Kai kept saying "atah" or "look what I found"!

Needless to say we were glad to see that bed last night! (But can't wait to see the babies again......but tomorrow.)