Pigs!

So it’s still cold.
So the wind is still blowing.
So I’m ready for winter to take a hike. The only nice thing going on is that it’s lighter when I leave work.

Last weekend, we were busy. Michele and Randy came on Thursday night to get involved in the hog butchering festivities of the weekend. We started at 5 on Friday night. I had to get tutorials as we went. Matt enjoyed it so much. He’s really gotten into the butchering aspect whether it be hogs, steers, whatever. He got right into the cutting of roasts and chops. The first day was breaking them down and the second day was stuffing and sausage. We were done by 5 on Saturday.

On Sunday morning, before Randy and Michele left, we even enjoyed breakfast sausage for breakfast. We probably should have put up a fight when they left as they only made it to Bismarck. Highway 83 was closed forcing them to stay the night at my parents. I was glad that it worked out and everyone was safe, not ideal conditions with the weather, but glad that my parents welcomed them into the house and they also felt comfortable enough to stay.

Michele and Randy learned that we don't leave bread out in our house.

We enjoyed another crock pot dinner last night, Italian Chicken. So far I’ve been impressed with these meals and the ease to drop in and walk away has been an advantage. And there’s always leftovers for lunch for me.

Best meal: fresh porkchops with apples and steamed vegetables. Matt panfried the chops and even though I’m not a fan of apples, I enjoyed how good it was!

ALR: So our parents had a discussion on butchering while they were together. Mom even got out the Betty with the meat pics so they could further discuss it.
MJR: Yeah, that's what my mom said too. Maybe next year, we'll plan to have our own pigs.
ALR: I wouldn't rule it out.
MJR: It's so nice that our families can butcher together.
ALR: You are so weird.
MJR: What?? What's wrong with that.
ALR: Do you hear yourself, "it's so nice that our families can BUTCHER together."
MJR: What??
ALR: People say, It's nice our families can boat together. Camp together. You know.
MJR: Well, they can't do those things together.
ALR: I think you are missing my point.  

Bowls and Bulls

You know those weeks where you don’t know where the time went? Yeah, that’s my week. Work has been crazy for me. I’ve been doing a ton of h2a inspections, but in true government form, it’s the paperwork that eats up a ton of my time. Couldn’t seem to get caught up until today! Good feeling.

We started last weekend off the right way on Friday night with the girls from the firehall! Last year, Rockpile Energy did a great fundraiser for the DRFD, a chili cook off. This year they wanted to up the ante and the Ladies Auxiliary played along. We wanted to get involved to support our guys and the cause. So there we were on Friday night, chopping onions, peppers, and browning meat. We put our new president, Lindsay, in charge of the culinary aspect as she does it best! The new secretary whined about the quality of knives and lack of kitchen gadgets at the firehall. Yes, that would make the new secretary me. Matt was able to come away from his elections without a captain’s chair but I wasn’t so lucky! Ha! It’s a great group of women and it’s fun for both of us to support the cause, so we’ll see what comes of the year.

Saturday was BUSY!! That morning we watched the bull parade and were proud Simmental promoters at bull days. Dad always enjoys the day and it’s obvious! He did walk away with 4 or the pen of 5 sold and the bulls looked so good, despite the mud that he found on them from 1983. He was also the FIRST one in the ring. Talk about top of the line!

Saturday night was the chili cook off. Good friend, Kay, was in charge of decorations. She came out with sparkly trees, which we had to remind her that Christmas was over. She defended her aesthetic vision up and down until Todd started wearing the trees in a fashion similar to Madonna.

Kay: Todd, YOU PUT DOWN MY CHRISTMAS TREES!
MJR: So, you admit they are Christmas trees!

That’s when the laughter began. I decided to go a bit more unique and rock the unicorn horn!

Our chili didn’t win but we had such a good time, laughing, dancing, and we got runner up for people’s choice…who can complain about that, especially when $63,000 was raised for the cause to be split between the Dickinson Rural and the South Heart Rural Fire Departments.

On Sunday, Matt had dive so the day was cleaning up and organizing. But Monday, I headed to Bismarck while Matt finished the backsplash. It looks so good. I was so happy with the look, the way it’s changed the kitchen, and the ability to finally have my kitchen back in one piece! Gives me a little confidence to try a few other similar projects in the future.

On Wednesday, Matt had another hockey game. Here’s how it went at 10:00 when he came home.

“Honey!!! Where are you?? You missed a great game!!! You should have been there! They called us overskaters! I made 2 goals and one was a penalty shot!!! Great game!! 9-1!” While I may witch on him a bit about the cost, I’m so glad he’s enjoying it and is able to play! It’s no secret that he’s loving it!

Finally, I’ve decided that 2014 is the year I start shaming the cats. It’s not like they do anything around the house, they won’t get jobs. Won’t even look, won’t even work on their resumes and if they wouldn’t there’s nothing to put on them! So may the pet shaming begin.

Best Meal: Despite my initial hesitations, the chili that we made with the corn bread was amazing. It had seasoning but didn’t have the kick I was anticipating. Add some cider and some girls and it was an experience!

ALR: All the leftover salmon is Amanda's...House rules.
MJR: House rules? Well, maybe Amanda should cook her own salmon.
ALR: No, Matt cooks the salmon. House rules.
MJR: Do I get to make any of these house rules?
ALR: I haven't decided yet.

 

Hockey and Herd Bulls

Well, we’ve snapped back a bit from subzero temperatures. We actually had a 29 above day. What a nice change. The wind was coming though to hit 40 miles per hour, but I guess you can’t always win. The one thing that we don’t like about our little condo on the hill is the driveway. It’s a steeper driveway into the garage and with it being north facing, it’s a bit harder than we expected for it to dry out. Don’t get me wrong, it’s better than our previous spots on the street, but I’m waiting for a good day to get out and do some scraping.

This past week wasn’t too eventful. We did make a quick trip back to the farm to help out a bit. Mom and I did the tough work and washed and cleaned the 5 bulls that are making the day trip out to Dickinson next Saturday. The boys worked and welded in the barn. They built a pen under the loft and then also put in Mom’s Christmas present of slam latches. Was nice to have some time to visit with Mom and get my “showing cattle” fix. I will admit, washing steers in the blocking chute in the middle of summer is better than bulls in the calving barn in the dead of winter!

 Matt’s team had a big week for hockey. He played 2 games this past weekend, one on Friday night and one on Sunday night. I went to the Friday night one, I knew it was a big deal to him as it’s the number 1 vs number 2 team. However, once I got there, I knew the outcome was going to be rough. Matt’s team had 5 guys and their goalie. The other team had 10 guys and their goalie. Not the best odds, but at the end of the 1st period, they were up! They didn’t get a single break for the whole game and they lost but that wasn’t the worst part. Matt broke his stick. We had to pick up a new one in Bis before heading out to the farm. He’s lucky we got it as he scored two goals on Sunday night to help his team win. Matt is #8.

 The big thing in my world is that we got the carpet cleaned on Friday. I love the set up of the living room but whoever puts white carpet in their house is CRAZY. We’ve had a few spots that I’ve been staring at with anger and frustration but they all came out in the wash. It looked SO good cleaned and fresh. It actually lead to my favorite part of the weekend. Laying in the middle of the floor, in the sun, reading the Sunday paper. We had the cats surrounding us.

Best meal: Matt pulled out the smoker again and we had salmon 2 ways. Way one was our traditional seasoning with salt, pepper, parsley, etc but way 2 was a new way, with brown sugar. They were both good and it was nice to compare the two. We ate healthy that night with steamed vegetables too!

MJR: yeah, right away when I broke the stick, I thought, SHIT, she’s watching.

ALR: yeah, I was afraid it would bother you, that’s why I texted you and said I’m not freaking out.

Had to share this pic...they actually tolerated each other enought to share the couch. They had a fight later on that night, but I'll take the small victory.

This pic was from our reveal. One of my favorite moments of the day.

Cold would be a Heatwave.

Polar Vortex, phrase of the week. It means that the cold that is coming so directly from Siberia or the Artic circle will make your car cry, your front door not shut…not because there is ice in the door but because the "hydraulic pump" must be froze. It means that I do not want to go anywhere – grocery store, out to eat, out to get the paper, NO where. To be honest, I don’t know how cold it actually got, I heard rumors of -50, but to be honest, once you get to zero, does it matter, it’s cold and yucky. We are hoping there is an eventual break but until then, we’ll continue to deal with the ice and fun.

MJR: I can tell it’s cold out, my hand stuck to the door handle.

This weekend was somewhat relaxing with a mix of productivity. The big highlights were that we got a bit more cleaned and organized and Matt decided to make the day by putting up my backsplash that we picked out last year. He preplanned on Saturday night and then got it going and complete with Stage 1 (of 3) that afternoon. It looks amazing. I know that he had doubts when we picked it out, but I wouldn’t change it at all. On Monday, we completed stage 2, which was harder than stage 1, grouting. But after grouting it looked even better. After letting it sit for a bit, we’ll finalize with grout sealer and then I can have my kitchen back to normal. I’ll admit, it’s worth it, but it’s been driving me crazy.

The cats weren’t extremely helpful with this project and all made their way through the kitchen at one point. The only interest was when we moved the oven away from the wall.

MJR: Nike, GET OUTTA THERE!

ALR: What was she doing?

MJR: Eating the stuff where the oven was.

We tried another freezer/crock pot meal, chicken fajitas. Not as good as salsa chicken, but we’ve decided we can make it again, it worked out exceptionally well as the stove has been unhooked.

Best meal: We got it out of the box, we seasoned it, and we ran its inaugural meal! We are talking about the smoker. RIBS!! That’s all we ate, two pounds of ribs, as a picnic watching “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”.

MJR: I was thinking we could have pizza for supper.

ALR: Okay.
MJR: You know, like go get it.
ALR: Tonight???
MJR: Well, we are going to have to eat tonight.
ALR: I was afraid you were going to say that. I don’t want to go anywhere.
MJR: Well, it’s hard to get pizza buffet ordered in.
ALR: I bet you haven’t even tried.
MJR: You are being difficult.
ALR: I don’t care. I don’t want to go out in the cold. Get Domino’s. It’s right down the hill. You could walk down and grab it.
MJR: You won’t get in the car to go get food, but you think I can walk and get it.
ALR: It was only a suggestion, now who is being difficult.

In honor of my father-in-law’s birthday, which is coming up this weekend,

here’s my favorite picture of him.

(For the record, Kevin DID NOT want me to post this picture.)

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2014. Have I got plans for you!

New year, new look. The last time I did a big change was New Year of 2012 and I felt that it was time again. I’m also hoping to change up and add more things to the blog. I will try to be better at pictures. I will try to remember conversations better. I will try to capture pieces of our daily lives a bit better. The blog has been this living diary of what’s been going on in my and now Matt’s life. It’s settled arguments and also reminded us of details both big and small. It’s been one of the few places that continues to allow me to work on my writing skills that I may be able to use when I write that great American novel. Who knows how it will continue to change but it really is a labor of love.

So on to the happenings in our house.

I’ve determined that I can’t be a doctor. A year or so ago, one of my best friends called. She said she had a huge pain in her side and didn’t know what to do. My advice, she just needed to go to the bathroom and take a nap. She called the next day and told me that she had an appendicitis and had emergency surgery the night before. Ooops. Example two, TonyDanza got into a scrap with one of the girls, who knows which one especially considering how he rough houses with Lola and how he slap fights with Nike, it really could have been either. Anyway, they give us eye drops as his eye got scratched. Well after 2 months of no change, I sat down with him one day and told him to toughen up. Enough of this. Matt took him into the Vet and he has rhinotricinois, which is a herpes that affects his sinuses and is caused by stress in their lives. Great! Concern number three, Matt has a bump on his neck right on the edge of his shaving line, two weeks ago I told him that it was an ingrown hair, it’s fine. Now, I’m doubting myself.

But back to TonyDanza, he was given a shot and we’ve had to add a supplement to the cats diet. It seems to be helping. I hope it’s calming him down a bit, I don’t know if the move is a stress, Nike, or what. You’d think with all the moving that he’s gone through, things would be a bit easier for him. We’ve had to give this supplement to them in wet food. Great. Now we have little monsters at 5 -5:30, sitting, begging, and screaming.

We didn’t do anything on New Year’s Eve. Matt ended up going in at 4am that morning to move snow and I knew that our plans suddenly changed. He was concerned he’d be going in again on the 1st at 4am, so there was no partying or drinking then either. That’s okay, we had pizza, we like pizza. 

 

New Year’s Day was a bit more exciting. We, and I mean I, took down all the holiday things, took the tree down, packed it all up, and stored it downstairs. I had a bit of help for awhile. At first I assumed it was because she wanted to spend time with me. Turns out I was in the way of the sunlight spot on the carpet. That night we started the year off right. We made our own gyros. Michele had picked us up lamb meat from the commissary on base and Matt seasoned it and made it into lamb meatloaf you could say.

I made the tzatziki sauce.

All ingredients went into a blender and then I chilled for a couple hours. Matt thought I should have cheese clothed the yogurt and cucumbers, but in the end I didn’t think it turned out too bad.

It was an amazing meal. I made sweet potato chips and peach cobbler. The chips turned out pretty good but the cobbler came out really dark, I’m wondering if I used too much cinnamon, which would explain the coloring, but you’ll notice a picture is missing.

Best meal of 2014 so far: Gyros!

MJR (using my 1980’s food processor and adding his gyro ingredients in)
ALR: I don’t know if that’s going to work.
MJR: I was thinking the same thing.
ALR: Is the motor actually slowing down?
MJR: yeah.
ALR: Is it smelling burnt?
MJR: I think so.
ALR: It didn’t do that with the pumpkin.

MJR: Too bad we didn’t have this happen before Christmas. Maybe I would have suggested this to be on your list.

Because we have such beautiful pictures, I've decided that until my first anniversary, I'm going to post one with each blog entry. This maybe my attempt to prolong the day a bit more, but it's also the best way to share the images.