How to take care of the herd....Pour on.

An update on the pickup, Matt is still in love. He's working to get it registered and official but there is no buyer's remorse on his end. 

An update on the Pontiac. THEY have it LISTED for SALE on their SITE! AH! I wasn't prepared to see it up so quickly. The 350 isn't there yet, but the car is!

Anyway, back to the Remynse household...we helped out at the farm this past weekend with shots and such for the steers and then weighed heifers. Dad has some of his home raised steers in the bunch so it was fun to see them. There were a few in the group that are already over 1000 pounds. I think Dad has them for a short time until they go east and then he'll make room for the maternity ward. I did laugh at the kitten that stuck close to us all day, just watching and enjoying the show.  

The weather was beautiful this week, highs in the 50's. We couldn't have asked for a more wonderful week in January. We even found the yard under some of the snow and I'm a bit itchy for patio season.

Meal of the Week: we tried something a little different. We took our ground pork, seasoned it, pattied it, paired it with some ham (that came from Sunday's amazing lunch) and pineapple and had it as a burger.

ALR: We had a catastrophe tonight.
MJR: Why?
ALR: You left the grill cover off the grill and there was a bit of a wind.
(MJR looks at TonyDanza.)
ALR: Someone thinks the big brown blob is coming through the window to get him.
(TonyDanza looks down.)

How to pack your weekends.

Okay, so I’ve missed a few weekends. It’s been crazy around this house for the past couple weekends. Here’s a brief rundown: entertained friends, bought a pickup, saw some family, went to Sioux Falls, and have been busy with the legislature. 

We’ll start with Rick and Shantelle, who we took to the airport and picked up later the next week.

They went off to Mexico leaving us to struggle in the cold. We had them stay at our house but went out for pre-vacation drinks. Was fun to have them there…Matt and Rick can talk planes and airports and Shantelle and I can talk anything else! The next night we went out with some friends in town, Chris and Nicole. Enjoyed a meal at Peacock before watching the Sioux game at Blarney. The next morning, we had BettyJo and Darin over for brunch. I took on cinnamon roles from scratch, Matt did raise his eyes when he found that out as I’ve had issues in the past, but I was happy with how these turned out. Was so nice to catch up with them as well. The only thing that we miss about Dickinson is the people.

Last week was a three day weekend and we took advantage of it. Matt and I’ve been talking about becoming a two-car household and after a trip to Sioux Falls, we did it. Matt found a pick-up, an F150 that he fell in love with, and we drove down the night before and crashed at the Stoller hotel, where we enjoyed Hope, Mark, Claire, and Truman’s hospitality. Was nice for Matt to get to know my family a bit more and their location has bode well for Moser stays. We did some shopping in Sioux Falls, I tried to make it easy for Matt, we shopped at only one spot, World Market. The hard part was leaving the vehicles behind. Not to sound dramatic, I did tear up as we said good bye to both. The car I’ve had for 8 years and have had many memories over the 88,700 miles that are on it. The pick-up is another story as it’s the vehicle that Matt and I got engaged in…in a bumpy rocky field. I know this sounds absolutely ridiculous, but I was glad that they had each other at the dealership. It’s the end of an era.

This past week, Matt and I’ve both been preoccupied by the legislature. Matt’s had a few moments where he’s testified and I’ve been prepping a document that supports our bill. I got a very nice compliment from a senior staffer, which he had heard from a legislator that received my handout. He had said that what I’d created was one of the most helpful documents that he’d received on our bill and was planning to put it in the front pocket of his binder so he wouldn’t lose it as it will be a reference in the coming months. Matt has been very busy and has been wearing his suits. He even had an encounter with the Governor.

Meals of note: We ate at a re-made Taco Bell that is now called “Nick’s Gyros” and Nick made some dang good gyros. Made us irritated that Bismarck doesn’t have a Greek Restaurant.

Update on the cats:
Lola loves the pineapple box that I brought home, I don't know why they have toys.

Nike is still in love with her Matthew.

TonyDanza has been watching the birds out in the feeder. We even are keeping our eye on a pair of pheasant roosters that have been enjoying the feeders behind the house.

1:15PM
MJR: What were your plans today
ALR: Do you want to start up the fireplace and watch Gladiator?
MJR: TV. During the day. Before it's dark. Are you okay?
ALR: I'm cold...it's a hunkerdown day

How to stay in on a weekend....

TD and I's 1st pic of New Year.

First post of the new year….smells so fresh and timely. What you don’t smell is how dang cold it is. It’s so cold that I’m passing off athletic socks as dress socks and debating about wearing long underware under my dress clothes. It’s so cold that we are running the fireplace at night while we hunker down to relax. It’s so cold that I welcome the cats to sit with me, defiantly a two cat night, if I’m lucky. The temps are saying they’ll feel like they are between 30 and 50 below. Glad we are parking in the garage. 

Our first weekend, we weren’t too exciting. If I had my way, I wouldn’t have left the house. I had two goals: take down Christmas and take out tomatoes. We started the weekend off with a little tradition, Friday night pizza. First time in the new house. First time with the new mixer. We made 1 pizza and 2 calzones and had 0 complaints. 

We pulled the tree down, I got all the decorations corralled and put away. We put the totes (we even had to add one more to the Christmas stash) in storage, we vacuumed, I even played with my Christmas spot bot, which is really slick, even though it didn’t work like I thought. I carted it around the house looking for spots. The house began to have some semblance of normalcy for the new year. 

My other goal was to find a bit more of the freezer. We were blessed to be given tomatoes, which I will never turn down. I canned close to 50 pounds this weekend. That came down to 35 pints and 5 half pints. In it was two different types of spaghetti sauces and 2 different types of salsa. Matt hadn’t been impressed with my last batches of salsa. How dare I put corn in the salsa! Gasp. I know there are still a few tomatoes hanging around still frozen that will become something greater than just tomato. I do think that the only things I have left are deseeded and peeled, but I’m scared to get too excited until I’m sure! We did reach an interesting problem:

MJR: You brought me jelly jars to sterilize?

ALR: Yes. I know. We are out of pints. We have a couple options: 1. Can in jelly jars or quarts, 2. Start eating to free up our pints. 

MJR: I suppose those are good options.

The cats have survived New Years and are settling into 2015. Nike has been surprisingly good natured. Don’t think for a moment that her and I settle in with a cup of coco and she lets me braid her hair but she isn’t quiet as mouthy and fighty as normal. I say this and remember the two-sided argument a couple days ago about her being in the utility room. Lola enjoys the stools and I think I caught her watching her own version of reality tv.

Meal of Note: We had eggs in purgatory, Batch 1 Spaghetti sauce with capers with poached eggs with Parmesan cheese over a bed of noodles. Matt was super happy, which means that I was super happy! We'll have that again. 

ALR: Hurry up, we can watch the ball drop.

10, 9, 8,.....

ALR: Happy New Year.

MJR: It's not the new year.

ALR: Close enough for me.

Watching.....

ALR: Who's the guys in the yellow?

MJR: I don't know.

ALR: And that's how I know we are old.

MJR: What?

ALR: If they are there when the ball is dropping, they are a big deal. And we both have no clue.