An oldie but a goody

So I was cleaning off my myspace blog page and I came across this old one. I wrote it when I was a Nanny 2 jobs ago :( Miss that job NOT the family. Ha. Anywho edited it a little b/c of certin content (email me for ? on that if you wish) So anyways ode to Becky and her beef stew expierances:
**Side note #1- for refrences purposes this was written last March before we were married.

So as everybody knows I am a pretty domestic person. I am a full time nanny, meaning I have to care and clean up after 3 kids, 40+ hours a week. I clean the house, cook the meals, and wipe snotty noses (among wiping other things!). I love to clean, be organized, and cook and bake. I told Steve one day I am a horrible Fiancée I need to learn to cook better. I totally go for boxed things or even better frozen skillet things that you just brown on the stove top. But I can't like make a lasagna from scratch or anything. Of course he reassured me he LOVES my cooking and even brags to his co-workers about it! So I decided I was going to make him home-made-from-scratch beef stew. One of his favorite meals of all time. With dumplings even. So I go and I print the recipe off Betty crocker's website, go to the store and buy the special meet, bay leaves, carrots, stewed tomatoes, and red potatoes. Little did I know I needed to buy a pan. So I decide I am gonna make it one night, put it in the fridge over night, reheat it the next night and make the dumplings (it took 3 1/2 hours to bake so dinner wouldn't have been ready until after 9). Sounds good right? I start reading the recipe and it says to put it in a "dutch oven" wtf? Clearly something I did not own. (I had to ALSO look THAT up online and it's a big cast iron pot. I registered for one on Target! lol) So I decided I would use my handy dandy pasta pot cuz it looked similar to the picture of this "dutch oven" I saw on google. Of course it's me though and I did NOT pay attention to the fact that the lid had a plastic handle. Oops. The pot was in the oven at 325 degrees for 2 hours. I tried to open it to stir it and the pot holder melted to the lid. Oops! So I am cracking up and frantically call my Mom (who says I am retarded. Well she raised me!) and she said to take the lid off and put foil on it. So I did much better. So the lid is cooling and the stew is still cooking. So I decide I don't want to put it in the fridge w/ just foil (cuz God love him but knowing Steven he would SET something on top of the foil and it would end up in the stew. Seriously it would happen) on so I put the lid back on. NOT a smart idea Becky. Since it's a pasta pot it has a strainer in the lid (little holes) so you can dump the pot upside down over the sink and drain the water out of your spaghetti. It works GREAT for Spaghetti but not so great for beef stew in the oven for 3 1/2 hours. :( So since it's a strainer it has to lock in place. So I put it in the fridge w/ the handle melted lid and lock it. The next day I take it out to heat it on the stove top and make the dumplings. I can NOT get the lid off. The melted handle got to cold in the fridge and shrunk and fell off the top. So I have to jack it off with a fork in the strainer holes. Classic huh? Meanwhile I am trying to use my new MP3 player which I do NOT know how to use. Put the 2 together and you get me throwing silver wear across the kitchen stomping my foot like the 2 1/2 year old kid I nanny for saying f bombs every 2 seconds. LOL. It was quite amazing. So I get the lid off and go to heat it up. I end up burning the bottom of the stew so it smells like road kill on fire in our house. Lovely! The dumplings turned out awesome which was like the only thing edible at this point. Haha. So yeah then when I am trying to get out what parts of it I can to save for Steve and I come across a SCREW. Yes a SCREW was cooked in my beef stew. How amazing is that?? So yeah I guess it's canned beef stew for us for awhile :(
P.S The whole entire pot including the lid AND the seperate handle ended up in the trash. Now I have to registered for a fancy new pasta pot too! :(


***Side note #2- So since then I have attempted home-made-from-scratch-beef stew a couple times. The first couple times did not turn out much better then that one. One other time I decided I should make it in the crock pot. So I put everything together and then I didn't want it to cook to long so I waited until the last possible minute to turn it on before I walked out of the house for work, yeah forgot to turn it on. Oops. That rotten meat that sat there smelled good let me tell you. But I must admit I have made it and it did turn out amazing and the Hubby loved it. And they lived happily ever after!

Ponderings............

Some things I wonder about;

Why is it that when your enjoying your jello for lunch you notice that the orange flavor does not stick to the sides and bottom of the plastic container like all the other flavors? I have noticed Cherry, Strawberry, Green Apple, they all stick but orange comes out clean as a whistle!! Disturbing............

No matter how many times I attempt to write and spell check the following words I can not ever get them right for the life of me;
absolutely
obvilsely
defiently
I know there are more I just can't think of them now (will add later if I come up w/ them). Seriously I suck as a speller. Most times I do it soooooo bad spell check can't even fix it :( Makes me sad.......(and as much as it hurts me I will not spell check them just so ya'll can know just how BAD of a speller I really am :*( even tho it kills me..........)


Why do people call somewhere just to listen to a poor poor girl go through her whole entire spheel she was told to say at work to answer the phone only to slam the phone down in her ear???

Why do I cry when people win contests on the radio? Seriously can somebody please tell me............

Thank you, that is all!

Real quick......

Just wanted to put out a request just in case somebody actually does read this! My Grandma just came down with shingles. She just got over a very very bad form of leukemia last year (why she was unable to attend our wedding) so this is not good. I'm pretty sure it's due to a lot of family stress going on w/ some family she lives close to but that is only my speculation. So please please pray for my Grandma she is such a portrait of God's love and grace and I really don't want it to be her time to go be w/ him yet! I need her here a little longer! Thanks so much everybody!

Fun on da 4th!

So we had a really great 4th weekend! It was so great it fell on a Friday and we had a whole 3 days to relax and not think about work! Friday (on the 4th), we laid around during the day and got ready for the BBQ at my parents house. We got to my parents around 4ish, of course Mom and Dad and Brother Andy were already there, and Nat and Brian were there to! Shortly after we got there Steve's parents showed up. I hated the thought of them sitting at home alone on a Holiday. How depressing! And then my Dad's sister (Aunt Ruth) and her husband (Uncle Jim) came to! What a full house! We had a great feast. Everybody brought their own meat and threw it on the grill, I brought fruit salad, Nat brought a grape/walnut salad (Ahamazing. Gotta love Paula Dean and cream cheese!), Sheri brought veggies and dip, chips and salsa, and potato salad! A. Ruth brought a jello cake thing (decorated all cute like a flag!), and Mom made beans, and corn casserole. YUM! Then for desert we made homemade ice cream (Cramer tradition every 4th!) and we had Mom's famous cherry and peach pie. Oh be still my heart! I feel fat just thinking about all the yumminess I ate that day! So pretty soon after desert we (when I say we I mean Andy, Steve, and Nat) started to blow things up with fire works. Love parachutes! Here are some highlights of the evening

A big semi truck remote control car that Andy bought (at Bag n Save mind you) that he wanted to blow up. Didn't work out, we will save it for next year which is very exciting for me cuz I love to drive it around!

The boys driving their remote control cars around in the street before blowing things up.

Steven being cheesy for the camera and showing off the pen that doubles as a race car from a kids meal we got at Arby's in like 1992 (actually I am pretty sure it said 1992 or 1994 on the bottom of the car. Andy checked). Awesome. It got a lot black and lost a wheel. RIP Arby Car/PenHe thought it would be fun to stick 239018293 black cats and other explosive stuff in a water bottle and blow it up. It was funny until the burnt plastic smell hit us. I almost puked.

Not sure if you can see it but Steve lit a smoke ball and it went off and then continued to smoke for seriously like 30 minutes. It was so funny. We kept calling it the never ending smoke bomb!

o0o0o0o pretty things!

My most favorite part of the night is spending the whole entire day and night w/ my Lovey. I just love Holiday's being with our families, and being a wife! LOVE IT!

So after sleeping in we laid around some more on Saturday. Actually we almost completely cleaned our house out and Steve's Mom came and packed up her SUV and took everything to her house where we un-loaded it! We are empty! I kept all my decorations and pictures out b/c we are having some friends and their little boy over Saturday night and I don't want the house to look empty and yucky! So it still feels like home, but you open a closet door and everything is empty. We still have some clothes, some dishes, and a couple towels and that is about it! Oh and of COURSE my cleaning supplies as I will be psycho cleaner the weekend we move out! Ha. Then Saturday night we had tickets to go see the AA Division of the Kansas City Royals team that play here in Omaha. You can get super cheap tickets for the Omaha Royals cuz it's pretty much a joke and nobody goes to the games. But I still think it's fun and love the Atmosphere. I love to people watch! Unfortunately Steve was SUPER sick (still is :( I think the poor Baby has a sinus infection) and had to stay home. Well, he missed the game of the century. We were entertained by this

Scary lady with a nasty mullet. Isn't it a beauty??

These weird girls who IMHO (in my humble opinion) should not have been wearing shorts OR the hideous socks, and had NO team spirit.

This boy who decided to down a 40 Oz beer before going out on the field to play "dizzy bat game" (you spin for like 10 minutes with your head on a bat around and around on the ground and then have to run in a huge circle. Needless to say you can see what happened when he got done spinning and was supposed to be running). Oh my to to funny.
And unfortunately I did NOT get a picture of our best friend from the evening. Due to mostly that every time he did some picture worthy I was laughing so hard I was either crying or about to pee my pants at the same time. The guy was about 50's and so drunk before the game even started. Oh my. All I'll say is honestly you had to be there. It was quite entertaining. I'm sure he was from Council Tucky (Council Bluffs IA.) as we will NOT claim him as our own in Omaha. Very embarrassing but very enjoyable to watch. I'm sure he is still sleeping it off somewhere 4 days later.................

Some more highlights!

A huge inflatable duck outside the stadium it's supposed to look like Andy is squeaking it but it didn't quite turn out w/ the effect I was going for. But this picture took us like 10 minutes to set up and take so it's blog worthy :)

Natalie as Casey the Royals mascot. So cute!
And Andy as Casey!

So the game you ask? No idea we were to busy eating our funnel cakes and laughing at the Crazies! I know the Royals lost, but not much more then that. Oh $5 for all that entertainment! lol (actually mine cost $10 since Steve skipped. poop) Then there were amazing fireworks, we went home and passed out! A great night was had by all and we spent most of Sunday laying around watching Lifetime movies (me not Steve. He did manly things like hammer nails and such. Haha not really more like played video games all day!) and sleeping. So lovely! The last relaxing weekend we'll have for awhile b/c we have 2 weekends left in our house! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

OCD????

I'm on a blog roll so I'll continue!

Here is what is entailed when a slightly OCD, total type A personality, perfectionist, tries to sell and show their house. (some but not all things are done on a daily biases. A sign in your yard you never know who is going to show up on a moments notice)

-Get rid of the 2 ugly nasty blankets we use to sleep with and cover the whole bed with a comforter. EVERY morning. Then before bed fold it up and shove it in a closet and re-make the bed with the 2 ugly blankets. EVERY NIGHT.

-Try to do as little laundry as possible b/c bras and your ugly Husker shorts hanging in the laundry room drying is NOT a selling feature.

-Empty all the trash in the house so nothing smells like any sort of food as EVER been eaten in your house EVER.

-Mow the grass at least 2 times a week. Won't it ever stop raining in Omaha so our grass will stop growing? Who would ask for such a thing???

-Clean 2 bathrooms top to bottom, ESPECIALLY after one has already been "cleaned" by Wonderful Hubby

-Vacuum every square inch of house. Yes that includes all closets, and especially the vinyl floor where there is no carpet. Vacuum lines are the most beautiful things a carpet could have on them and I am addicted to them.

-Vacuum all 16 (yes I count I am weird have you noticed yet?) stairs so they all have those amazing carpet lines as said above

-shove about 12 dishes to many in the dish washer. Who cares if they get clean they will NOT sit on the counter/sink that is nasty. Run said dish washer so at least if they open it all the food is washed off the dishes and they don't see dirty dishes

-Ban your husband from using any sink other then the last one left to be cleaned. If he does touch it or turn on any water in a sink other then said sink chase him around and pretend like your going to beat him

-Find every single speck of dirt or paint that does not belong and scrub it until you have no finger nails left. AT ALL

OK I think this is most of my cleaning list! As you can tell God spared me (and my wonderful amazing Hubby) from my neurotic psychoticness and sold our house to the first people that saw it! OR maybe just maybe it was my psycho cleaning that sold the house??? I really would like to ask them..................

Movin along quickly.........

So Steve has been insanely busy at work lately and I thank GOODNESS (after lots of prayers on whither or not to find a new job. Seriously) got internet usage back at work so your stuck with me blogging for a little while! Hopefully Steve will be un-busy at work soon though, I sure miss his emails :( Anyways! We're about 991/2% sure we sold the house. The "buyers" did the Home Inspection Monday and also had a Radon Test (do NOT ask me about this, very touchy subject) done which got picked up yesterday and the results were low! A high reading and we would have had to spend about $800-$1000 to have a filter put in our house. Praise God! I guess the inspection came back with very minor things, some exposed wire in an unfinished storage (duh), and some drywall repair stuff. Nothing major so as far as we know they don't want anything fixed!!! We're just waiting to hear from our realtor sometime today that everything is a go. This is amazing and our realtor said this is a first time she has sold a house so quickly, to the first and ONLY person to see it, and still ask for not 1 thing to be fixed on an inspection report. I think somebody is on our side ;)
So on TOP of all the stress of a home inspection and wondering what will be found and stuff, Friday right before leaving work there were 90-110 mile an hour winds whipping through Omaha. Not a Tornado (as in no funnel clouds), just extremely high winds. Luckily I got put on lock down at work (the roof was blowing off our building), and I called Steve and made him pull off the road! He found a church and took shelter with a VERY nice family. My normal 10-15 minute drive home took over 30 minutes due to almost every traffic light either being out (still lots in Omaha have no power!) or dangling from strings almost to the pavement! Made for an exciting ride. I sat for so long in one spot in my car I was clicking pictures of down trees with my cell phone. lol. So I am scared to death of what I will find when I get home. I swear an Angel or something put a bubble over our house as it was almost untouched. 4 or 5 neighbors to the left of our house lost their fences, ours is still standing. The neighborhood across the main street from us almost everybody lost shingles from their roof (so did walmart), ours is untouched. Kinda eerie! We lost the screen from our bedroom window is all the damage we had, a trip to lowes for supplies of like $10 and 5 minutes of Becky sitting on the floor (Steve is so handy lol ;) ) and everything was fixed! We are so blessed! So needless to say we were scared of what we would find on the inspection after that, and still not a thing! God answers prayer! Hopefully we are done with storm season in Omaha, I am sick of hearing Tornado sirens! A lady at work said every single time a rain drop comes down her Grandson asks his Mom if they have to go to the basement. lol seems almost true!
So we will be packing up and moving in less then 3 weeks, assuming the SOLD sign goes in our yard today! How exciting! I feel such a load taken off my shoulders now. It's been such a journey and honestly we never ever thought we would sell, build, everything in such a short amount of time and be this blessed! I am so excited to embark on this journey with Steve and our families help, and start OUR lives together in a gorgeous home we built TOGETHER! YAY!!!! :) Love to you all, have a safe and happy 4th I'll make sure to post some pictures from our BBQ soon!