Menu Plan Monday!

Woo hoo! I am actually managing to post this on a Monday. I think I deserve a prize for that. Or a pat on the back. Or a virtual high five. Or something... Anyway, here ya have it.

Monday: Balsamic chicken and cous cous (held over from last week)

Tuesday: hot dogs, mac and cheese, sugar beans

Wed: pork chops, apple sauce, green beans, potatoes

Thursday: chicken cacciatore in crock pot, salad

Friday: homemade pizza

Saturday: steak, shrimp, salad, baked potatoes(held over from last week)

Sunday: Tastefully simple party so some sort of chicken in the crock pot. Not sure what yet.

Water

Check out this video. It is an amazing fountain in Japan that is a referred to as a smart fountain. I would have to say I agree. Check it out, it is way cool!

Menu Plan Monday....er Tuesday...

Once again I neglected to post this on a Monday but oh well. What the heck. Better late than never.

Monday: Homemade spaghetti and meatballs (prepared in crock pot) and zucchini
Tuesday: Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, green beans
Wed: Pioneer woman enchiladas and red beans and rice
Thursday: pretzel sandwiches from school fundraiser, soup
Friday: homemade pizza
Saturday: steak n shrimp, baked potatoes and salad
Sunday: balsamic chicken, cous cous, spinach

Letter to Barbara Walters

Dear Barbara,

I am so very disappointed with you, Barbara, for your recent behavior on the view. In particular, the way you hammered on John McCain as if you absolutely HATE him. What is up with that? You are supposed to be a seasoned, professional journalist. Not another Joy. I mean, from people like Joy and Rosie, we expect this sort of unprofessional behavior but from you? I will not be watching the View any more. I really think you all need to take a step back and reevaluate how you are acting. Whether you are for McCain or not, you are not supposed to be so unprofessional that you treat him with such disdain. I can only imagine the uproar that would be caused if you would have treated Obama that way. Which, of course you did not. You all practically got down on your hands and knees in praise of him. And by the way, I thought Elisabeth as usual showed great professionalism as did Sherri. You could learn a thing or two from them.


If you missed the View that day (lucky you), here is the segment I am referring to.


Now whether you like McCain or not, you have to admit they were pretty unprofessional. Barbara couldn't even bring herself to LOOK at him!

Ok, so in contrast, here is how Obama was treated on the View. Intersting isn't it?



I seriously doubt that I will get a response from anyone at the View, but if I do, I will be sure to post it here.

Menu Plan Monday!

I know, I know...It has been awhile since I posted my menu. Not because I have not been making a menu. Yea, I have to make one or else I totally will end up serving hot dogs every night or will order out. Seriously. I have to have a menu to stay on track. But lately it has been just boring. Well, it is always somewhat boring. I am quite frankly, sick of cooking, sick of planning meals. In fact, nothing really tastes very good to me. But of course I still manage to eat just fine thankyouverymuch. So anyway, here ya go. In all its glory!



Monday: Crock pot chicken, corn, potatoes, green beans

Tuesday: chicken soup(from leftover chicken) and grilled cheese (unless it is freaking hot, then, I don't know)

Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner-french toast, bacon-peaches

Thursday: teriyaki chicken, rice, salad

Friday: homemade pizza

Heard around the dinner table...

OK, so we are eating a nice dinner. Just Mike and I and the boys. Caitey is at a friends. Lucky her. So we are watching the National Geographic channel about time travel. Nice and educational so we allowed them to keep the TV on while eating. So, the nice educational show about time travel ends and some show called Taboo comes on. The show today(this is the first time I have actually watched this) was about strange food people eat. So what is the strangest food you can imagine eating? Well, imagine you are in China, (I know, those Chinese eat anything) What would be the strangest thing you could imagine to eat? If you said cat, well you would be wrong. No, these crazy Chinese eat none other than penis! Yes, penis. Dog, sheep, even, well, I don't even want to think about all the different penises they were serving up(none human thank you very much!) but they did show how they skin them and burn the hair off. Eek!

So you are wondering what was said while watching this? Well, I will tell you. My son asks,in all seriousness, "I wonder in what part of the world they eat vagina's?" Ack! lol

Yup, dinner at the Rogers. Always interesting conversation.

How many books have you read?

Found this awesome meme on Growing Up Mo

How many have you read?? I have read 42 and tried a couple more but couldn't get into them.

Apparently, the National Endowment for the Arts believes that the average American has read only 6 of the books on the list below. I find that hard to believe!


1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.

2) Italicize those you intend to read.

3) Underline (or mark in a different color) the books you LOVE

4) Reprint this list in your blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve read 6 and force books upon them


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien -I tried to like this book but couldn't finish it.

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4. Harry Potter series-I read the first two and lost interest after that.

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger-I have this one in my pile of to be read books.

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams-another book in my pile to be read

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma - Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert-I may have read this but cant remember...

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Give a little, get a lot

It is interesting how a little idea can grow into something really huge. It is also wonderful how a small donation, can change or even save a life. Check out this group. It is really something else and it is a place where you can truly make a difference. And the best part is, it wont hurt a bit. Just cut out those expensive starbucks this month. That's it. Easy!

I am happy to say my kids have all decided that since they don't have September birthday's, we will just take $33.00 that we would have spent on their gift, and donate it instead. I think they came up with a pretty great idea.







The September Campaign Trailer - www.borninseptember.org from charity: water on Vimeo.

Remembering...

Remembering what happened on 9/11/2001 is not something any of us really wants to do. It is way too sad and terrifying to think about for long. But remember we should because it happened once, it could happen again. Luckily we live in a place that takes these threats seriously and we have armed forces, police and firemen; friends and neighbors, sons and daughters, who are willing to lay down their lives to protect us and our families. So lets not forget what happened those short years ago and let us remember to thank the soldiers and public servants who risk their lives for ours, on a daily basis.

A good day

Yesterday, my family and I had the great fortune to attend the McCain-Palin meeting in Lancaster, PA. I was very happy to have been able to snag tickets, especially after I got there and saw hundreds?? of people standing in line hoping that they would be able to get in

(they were not lucky enough to get tickets). It was standing room only, which pretty much sucked as we were standing for hours, squashed together like sardines. Think mosh pit without the music. But it was all worth it in the end.

We were a few people back from the front and we were positioned front and center of the podium. So we had a great spot. But Brooks being short, couldn't see a thing. So I told him to just crawl between people's legs until he got to the front. Because he is so little, he wasn't blocking anyones view and a nice lady took him under her wing and let him stand in front of her. Which was wonderful because he was able to not only shake the hands of John McCain, Sarah Palin and Todd Palin, he also got his picture taken by a photographer and Sarah told him he was a little sweetheart. Which was very sweet of her.

The meeting itself was more of a rally so it was not exactly what I was expecting(it was supposed to be a Town Hall Meeting which is much better) but it was still exciting and great to hear them in person once again.

OK so I am not going to expound on the message of the meeting, you all have heard it before. Nah, I am going to keep it light.

First, Sarah Palin is beautiful. I thought she was attractive on TV but in person, she is a real knock out.

Todd on the other hand is a hottie. Really. She is very lucky to have such a handsome man by her side.

John, well lets face it, he is an older man and I wouldn't necessarily say he was hot anymore, very distinguished maybe, but not a hottie. I do however, think looking at the pictures of his youth, that he was a very handsome man.

I was incredibly impressed by the fact that John McCain reached back 4 or 5 people deep to make some sort of contact with people in the crowd. Now for anyone, that is a very nice thing. And I have no doubt that all politicians would try to do the same thing. But the fact that he can not lift his arms up easily makes me wonder if all of that reaching into the crowd with crazy people grabbing at him, isn't somewhat painful. Or at the very least a little bit scary. But he did his best to make eye contact with everyone and show his appreciation for their support.

After the meeting/rally, the kids were full of excitement over the experience and they were quite thrilled to be able to say that they have met George W. Bush, John McCain and Sarah Palin. Pretty cool!

Oh and we were also interviewed by a reporter for Fox Philadelphia. If you fast forward to the end, you will see yours truly.

Here are a few pictures Brooks took.

Brooks self portrait.

Pride

I have not kept secret the fact that I am a conservative and that I am a McCain/Palin supporter. In fact, it is no secret that I really do not care for Obama at all. Well, maybe I think he is a smart guy. And I agree that he is probably a good person that wants his view of what is best for the country. I also know that many people are supporting him simply because he is a democrat-because many people will not cross party lines, no matter what. I have in the past so I do not fall in that category-I know, hard to believe. I also believe that many are voting for him simply because he is black. I mean, I heard one poll was that he has like 90 something approval ratings from black Americans. So that right there must tell you they are voting for him because he is black.

Yesterday, I worked for a friend. It was at a community fair for Labor Day. They have a concession trailer and I often help out. At this fair, which was held in the city, there were a lot of Oboma supporters. In fact, they were there registering voters. One thing that struck me as I observed them is they are proud. They gladly put Obama stickers on their toddlers t-shirts. I saw that they were happy. They were excited. And that, believe it or not, made me happy for them. I really am glad to see that black Americans have a black man running for president. It is a huge thing for them. They have a really good, positive role model, that isn't a sports hero, for their children to look up to. So it made me really happy to see so much excitement about this election. So many people handing out stickers and fliers to support their man. Now don't misunderstand, I still do not feel he is the best man for the job, I wont be crossing party lines for this election. But I am happy that we can say that there really is no racism in this country. Sure you have your pockets of idiots but if a black man can be nominated to hold the highest office in the country (world), then how can it be said that white Americans are racist?