Hello All,
I wish yesterday was Monday for the simple fact that I could chalk it up to a case of the Mondays. But unfortunately it was not and I couldn't really say "oh well, its because it had a case of the Tuesdays". That's not a thing. So anyways, I'm minding my own business, walking to my apartment after getting home from work yesterday. I put the key in the door and........"nothing". No unlocking occurred. I jiggled the door, the key and tried to use more muscle strength and........."nothing". I mean really, I'm locked out of my apartment. And G's still at work so he couldn't have locked the top lock. And when I say "nothing" I mean nothing was happening- you couldn't hear a lock moving at all. So I called the leasing office. Who first thought it was the key but I was like, "I think maintenance needs to come because the lock has been acting strange lately". So the maintenance guy comes with the master key (like thats going to help but thanks for trying). Again, "nothing". He tries lodging a screw driver in the door to help and still nada. At this point, G left work a few minutes early and comes strolling up and is all "let me try". Sure go ahead and use your muscly strength and open the door because the maintenance guy couldn't even open it using tools. So he tried. I'm not sure what he was expecting to happen but what I expected did happen- nothing.
At this point, I've been home for like 45 minutes with no end in sight. The mainentance supervisor comes over with a ladder. They decide to unlock the balcony door. BUT there is a privacy lock on that one too and of course we keep that locked when we are out. Who doesn't? Yes I know we live on the 2nd floor but still, if there is an extra lock of security, we use it. They ask for the screwdriver so G throws it up. And about 5-10 minutes later, they BREAK INTO OUR APARTMENT. Seriously, they had to practically bust open the balcony door to get in. And the only way the could let us in was by completely removing the lock on the front door.
I couldn't make this up even if I tried. Seriously, our apartment complex had to break into our apartment to let us in. Naturally, they replaced the lock on our main door and promised to return to fix the balcony door. We wanted to make sure that didn't come back on us when we decide to move out. The maintenance guy assured us it would not as they are the ones to do the walk through. Ok sure buddy. Now that I think about it, I should have gotten that in writing.
Oh well, at least its kind of a funny story to tell about how G and I were locked out of our apartment and had to break into it to get in.
Ahh life.
Until next time,
Christina
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Cooking Disaster Part 2
Hello All,
I've decided I should probably break up with cooking. Cooking and I have an extremely love hate relationship right now. More towards the hate portion but whatever. Maybe I'll love it again soon. Anyways, so after my oh so delicious garlic-brown suger chicken (oh wait, nope it wasn't "oh so delicious, now was it?!) debacle, I thought I would try round 2 of recipe following. I tried Orange Chicken in the crockpot (the recipe can be found here). Where to begin- it tasted like orange juice with a little bit of chicken. Maybe I put to much OJ concentrate in but it tasted like FREAKING OJ (HOT OJ no less) with a little bit of chicken. Don't even get me started about the peppers and carrots I cut up and put it in there. I think I almost gagged.
In any event, there was a stop at McDonalds afterwards. Comfort food was definitely needed. I'm just so thankful that he attempted to eat it - more than me thats for sure. And pointed out the positives (the chicken was juicy and tender).
But I think its high time I get cooking lessons. Otherwise we'll just have to live at McDonalds. Or Wendy's, Taco Bell... well you get the picture.
Who want's to give me cooking lessons? Need a christmas idea for me- COOKING LESSONS!!! Otherwise, we will be 400 pounds living off of fast food.
Because this cook in training wants to give up. In better news, Stouffer's Family Entrees are on sale at Publix today and Publix has a coupon to go with it. Lasagna or Chicken/Broccoli Bake is on the menu for tonight. I can't screw up a box meal, am I right? Right?
I hope to have just 1 successful cooking post in my future. I await your cooking recommendations/offer of cooking lessons/gift certificates for cooking classes. I'm not picky.
Until next time,
I've decided I should probably break up with cooking. Cooking and I have an extremely love hate relationship right now. More towards the hate portion but whatever. Maybe I'll love it again soon. Anyways, so after my oh so delicious garlic-brown suger chicken (oh wait, nope it wasn't "oh so delicious, now was it?!) debacle, I thought I would try round 2 of recipe following. I tried Orange Chicken in the crockpot (the recipe can be found here). Where to begin- it tasted like orange juice with a little bit of chicken. Maybe I put to much OJ concentrate in but it tasted like FREAKING OJ (HOT OJ no less) with a little bit of chicken. Don't even get me started about the peppers and carrots I cut up and put it in there. I think I almost gagged.
In any event, there was a stop at McDonalds afterwards. Comfort food was definitely needed. I'm just so thankful that he attempted to eat it - more than me thats for sure. And pointed out the positives (the chicken was juicy and tender).
But I think its high time I get cooking lessons. Otherwise we'll just have to live at McDonalds. Or Wendy's, Taco Bell... well you get the picture.
Who want's to give me cooking lessons? Need a christmas idea for me- COOKING LESSONS!!! Otherwise, we will be 400 pounds living off of fast food.
Because this cook in training wants to give up. In better news, Stouffer's Family Entrees are on sale at Publix today and Publix has a coupon to go with it. Lasagna or Chicken/Broccoli Bake is on the menu for tonight. I can't screw up a box meal, am I right? Right?
I hope to have just 1 successful cooking post in my future. I await your cooking recommendations/offer of cooking lessons/gift certificates for cooking classes. I'm not picky.
Until next time,
Christina
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
I Warned Him I wasn't a Chef
Hello All,
I had a pretty memorable experience in the kitchen last Friday night in my attempt to be Suzy Homemaker for the boy. When I say memorable, I mean memorable in a bad way. He was so nice in saying it wasn't so bad but that he was just going to make some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because he was still hungry. Our apartment smelled like garlic for a few days.
Anyways, lets start from the beginning. I joined Pinterest a few months ago and at first wasn't impressed. Then work got slow so I started poking around and got hooked. I want to write a whole Pinterest post about the different crafts I want to try so this is my Pinterest cooking post. A side note, my work decided to block Pinterest this week so I can't link to my Pinterest so I'll be linking to original blog posts/sources for recipes.
So a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon this blog titled Life in Yellow which you can see here. She has this Menu Planner sheet (found here) which allows you to write down a few recipes to take to the grocery store. So I implemented it. I like it for its simplicity and ease of use.
What did I do next, I scoured Pinterest for different recipes I pinned. Which led me to this Easy Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken (found here) and Zucchini boats (found here at another interesting blog you should check out here especially if you want healthier meal options). The chicken had very little ingredients which is what I like about cooking and it stated it wouldn't take that long to prep or cook. Sold. Or so I thought. Has anyone minced garlic before? Well I sure haven't. It was a mess. Between the chicken and the zucchini boats, I was mincing 6 cloves of garlic. 6?!?!?! I learned for the last 2 to just throw them in the Magic Bullet. But still, I will not use 4 cloves of garlic again on this chicken. Nor will I cook it at 500 degrees which it calls for. My bad for not reading through more of the comments to learn this little nugget of information until afterwards. Because when the chicken came out the brown suger had burnt and wasn't as sweet as I wanted. The chicken was cooked which was good but the seasoning/marinade (whatever you want to call the garlic and brown suger) was yuck. And after so much garlic, the zucchini boats felt like they were swimming in garlic.
All in all, I dont think I'll try the chicken again. I'll look for another brown sugar recipe because I did like the hint of sugar taste (surprisingly). I will try the zucchini boats again for sure but without any garlic at all. I'm not a huge garlic fan to begin with but I want to try recipes as close to the original post as possible when first testing them. So here's to a crash and burn on a Friday night of cooking.
Hey, at least I warned the boy in the beginning that I wasn't a cook. And at least I'm trying. An A for effort.
Tonight is Slow Cooker Phillys (again found on Pinterest originally but originally posted on 5 dinners 1 hour found here). We've already tried this blogs Chili Cheese Coneys (found here) and they were successful (except for a request of no relish next time). Seriously if you have any free time and like easy cooking, check this blog out (5 dinners 1 hour). You can subscribe to her menu plan (which I don't yet) or you can just check out all the easy recipes she posts to her blog for free (definitely for me).
Wish me luck on the Phillys (they are slowly cooking as we speak)....
Until next time,
Christina
I had a pretty memorable experience in the kitchen last Friday night in my attempt to be Suzy Homemaker for the boy. When I say memorable, I mean memorable in a bad way. He was so nice in saying it wasn't so bad but that he was just going to make some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because he was still hungry. Our apartment smelled like garlic for a few days.
Anyways, lets start from the beginning. I joined Pinterest a few months ago and at first wasn't impressed. Then work got slow so I started poking around and got hooked. I want to write a whole Pinterest post about the different crafts I want to try so this is my Pinterest cooking post. A side note, my work decided to block Pinterest this week so I can't link to my Pinterest so I'll be linking to original blog posts/sources for recipes.
So a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon this blog titled Life in Yellow which you can see here. She has this Menu Planner sheet (found here) which allows you to write down a few recipes to take to the grocery store. So I implemented it. I like it for its simplicity and ease of use.
What did I do next, I scoured Pinterest for different recipes I pinned. Which led me to this Easy Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken (found here) and Zucchini boats (found here at another interesting blog you should check out here especially if you want healthier meal options). The chicken had very little ingredients which is what I like about cooking and it stated it wouldn't take that long to prep or cook. Sold. Or so I thought. Has anyone minced garlic before? Well I sure haven't. It was a mess. Between the chicken and the zucchini boats, I was mincing 6 cloves of garlic. 6?!?!?! I learned for the last 2 to just throw them in the Magic Bullet. But still, I will not use 4 cloves of garlic again on this chicken. Nor will I cook it at 500 degrees which it calls for. My bad for not reading through more of the comments to learn this little nugget of information until afterwards. Because when the chicken came out the brown suger had burnt and wasn't as sweet as I wanted. The chicken was cooked which was good but the seasoning/marinade (whatever you want to call the garlic and brown suger) was yuck. And after so much garlic, the zucchini boats felt like they were swimming in garlic.
All in all, I dont think I'll try the chicken again. I'll look for another brown sugar recipe because I did like the hint of sugar taste (surprisingly). I will try the zucchini boats again for sure but without any garlic at all. I'm not a huge garlic fan to begin with but I want to try recipes as close to the original post as possible when first testing them. So here's to a crash and burn on a Friday night of cooking.
Hey, at least I warned the boy in the beginning that I wasn't a cook. And at least I'm trying. An A for effort.
Tonight is Slow Cooker Phillys (again found on Pinterest originally but originally posted on 5 dinners 1 hour found here). We've already tried this blogs Chili Cheese Coneys (found here) and they were successful (except for a request of no relish next time). Seriously if you have any free time and like easy cooking, check this blog out (5 dinners 1 hour). You can subscribe to her menu plan (which I don't yet) or you can just check out all the easy recipes she posts to her blog for free (definitely for me).
Wish me luck on the Phillys (they are slowly cooking as we speak)....
Until next time,
Christina
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Ramblings- Or the Jumbled Thoughts of Christina
Hello All,
Its another day in the life of Christina over here. Can you believe its already August? Jeez, the time is flying. Anyways, its been busy over here in Christina land. A trip to Orlando (Disney World and Universal) over July 4 with Grant, Preston and Lauren. Let me tell you- two Mintz brothers and 1 vacation... Lauren and I deserve medals I tell you. It was a blast and I plan on posting a whole blog with pictures (there's a few on facebook now I think). Highlight of the trip - HARRY POTTER WORLD! Yes, I finally made it to Harry Potter World. If I could live there I would, it was that awesome.
In other news, my mother is doing much better. She moved up to Virginia Beach to be closer to relatives (both her brother and sister live up there still with there respective families). There have been no more side effects lately or emergency trips to the hospital. Thankfully. Grant and I were able to get up to Virginia Beach a few weekends ago to visit her and to make sure she was all settled in. It was really good to see her.
Speaking of Virginia Beach, Grant finally made it there for a trip. 3 years later! Ha. We had a very quick trip as we drove and didn't have any time off around the weekend. Our primary agenda was to visit with my mom, reconnect with her side of the family and meet baby Callie. To put it mildly, we were exhausted by the time we got home. But it was worth every minute. We were able to visit with my grandma and have lunch with her and we were able to have lunch with the Smeads before we left too. It was so much fun and I got to hold Callie over and over again. As well as hand her off to her daddy when she needed a diaper change (Aunt Chrissy is still not on diaper duty). Mackenzie taught Grant how to play field hockey in the living room (I think Katy was too tired to fight that fight- the whole sports in the house thing). They didn't break a thing and Grant learned that you can't win against an 8 year old because the rules always change to her liking- haha.
And finally to round up this rambling post, our cats had a wellness visit as soon as we got back from Va Beach. It was supposed to be the day before we left but lets just say my car decided to crap out on me and request its very own new battery (thank you goes to the Ford Motor Company though who sent someone to my house to jump start my car for free so I could get to work). Thanks also go to Advanced Auto Parts for testing my battery and replacing it in the blazing hot summer heat. And I guess I should thank my car for crapping out the day before vacation instead of ON vacation. That was lucky.
Anyways, back to the cats. Where to begin. We thought it was a good idea to get two cats so they always have a friend to keep them company. But did you know if you have a sick cat, you have to treat BOTH cats (especially kittens) all the time. Yeah, didn't see that one coming. We noticed Pickles had been sneezing a lot (we thought maybe allergies) but the Vet decided to treat him for a cold (gave him an antibiotic at the office) and gave us a gel to put on their noses. Penny loves this medicine and comes back for more while Pickles cowers in a corner. On top of the cold, they found Pickles has a parasite. So we got the pleasure of trying to hold two kittens down for 6 days trying to give them this oral medicine (a little vial you squirt in their mouth). Yep that happened. And it made a mess a lot of the times. Until we employed the "wrap the kitten up in a towel" method that is. That at least minimized the mess. Oh did I forget to mention that it doesn't end here. Yep no dice. We noticed a small rough patch next to Pickles eye before the vet visit so we figured we should mention it to the Vet. It could be a variety of things but they wanted to test for Ringworm just to be safe. Lets just say we knew it was that before the results even came back because another spot showed up on his leg. Yes Pickles not only still has a cold, just got off a parasite (I hope) and now we are dealing with Ringworm. Which is apparently a 30 day vial treatment program for BOTH CATS. I mean really, we barely survived 6 days of a vial treatment. Now we have a 30 day medicine. Still waiting for that to arrive so I'll let you know how it goes. However, throughout all of this everything has been covered by the Humane Society or that 30 day pet insurance that is complimentary. One of the two. We have been very lucky that the costs have been zero so far. I just hope they get healthy because this mama is miserable seeing two unhappy cats because they have to be quarantined (in the bathroom) until the medicine comes in.
See what I mean, ramblings I tell you. I think I just had one of those mind dump things. I feel better. How about you? Next time I'll tell you about some of the lovely ideas I have gotten from Pinterest and have actually attempted to implement. I'm addicted to that site right now. Addicted I tell you.
That's all for now, I promise.
Until next time,
Christina
Its another day in the life of Christina over here. Can you believe its already August? Jeez, the time is flying. Anyways, its been busy over here in Christina land. A trip to Orlando (Disney World and Universal) over July 4 with Grant, Preston and Lauren. Let me tell you- two Mintz brothers and 1 vacation... Lauren and I deserve medals I tell you. It was a blast and I plan on posting a whole blog with pictures (there's a few on facebook now I think). Highlight of the trip - HARRY POTTER WORLD! Yes, I finally made it to Harry Potter World. If I could live there I would, it was that awesome.
In other news, my mother is doing much better. She moved up to Virginia Beach to be closer to relatives (both her brother and sister live up there still with there respective families). There have been no more side effects lately or emergency trips to the hospital. Thankfully. Grant and I were able to get up to Virginia Beach a few weekends ago to visit her and to make sure she was all settled in. It was really good to see her.
Speaking of Virginia Beach, Grant finally made it there for a trip. 3 years later! Ha. We had a very quick trip as we drove and didn't have any time off around the weekend. Our primary agenda was to visit with my mom, reconnect with her side of the family and meet baby Callie. To put it mildly, we were exhausted by the time we got home. But it was worth every minute. We were able to visit with my grandma and have lunch with her and we were able to have lunch with the Smeads before we left too. It was so much fun and I got to hold Callie over and over again. As well as hand her off to her daddy when she needed a diaper change (Aunt Chrissy is still not on diaper duty). Mackenzie taught Grant how to play field hockey in the living room (I think Katy was too tired to fight that fight- the whole sports in the house thing). They didn't break a thing and Grant learned that you can't win against an 8 year old because the rules always change to her liking- haha.
And finally to round up this rambling post, our cats had a wellness visit as soon as we got back from Va Beach. It was supposed to be the day before we left but lets just say my car decided to crap out on me and request its very own new battery (thank you goes to the Ford Motor Company though who sent someone to my house to jump start my car for free so I could get to work). Thanks also go to Advanced Auto Parts for testing my battery and replacing it in the blazing hot summer heat. And I guess I should thank my car for crapping out the day before vacation instead of ON vacation. That was lucky.
Anyways, back to the cats. Where to begin. We thought it was a good idea to get two cats so they always have a friend to keep them company. But did you know if you have a sick cat, you have to treat BOTH cats (especially kittens) all the time. Yeah, didn't see that one coming. We noticed Pickles had been sneezing a lot (we thought maybe allergies) but the Vet decided to treat him for a cold (gave him an antibiotic at the office) and gave us a gel to put on their noses. Penny loves this medicine and comes back for more while Pickles cowers in a corner. On top of the cold, they found Pickles has a parasite. So we got the pleasure of trying to hold two kittens down for 6 days trying to give them this oral medicine (a little vial you squirt in their mouth). Yep that happened. And it made a mess a lot of the times. Until we employed the "wrap the kitten up in a towel" method that is. That at least minimized the mess. Oh did I forget to mention that it doesn't end here. Yep no dice. We noticed a small rough patch next to Pickles eye before the vet visit so we figured we should mention it to the Vet. It could be a variety of things but they wanted to test for Ringworm just to be safe. Lets just say we knew it was that before the results even came back because another spot showed up on his leg. Yes Pickles not only still has a cold, just got off a parasite (I hope) and now we are dealing with Ringworm. Which is apparently a 30 day vial treatment program for BOTH CATS. I mean really, we barely survived 6 days of a vial treatment. Now we have a 30 day medicine. Still waiting for that to arrive so I'll let you know how it goes. However, throughout all of this everything has been covered by the Humane Society or that 30 day pet insurance that is complimentary. One of the two. We have been very lucky that the costs have been zero so far. I just hope they get healthy because this mama is miserable seeing two unhappy cats because they have to be quarantined (in the bathroom) until the medicine comes in.
See what I mean, ramblings I tell you. I think I just had one of those mind dump things. I feel better. How about you? Next time I'll tell you about some of the lovely ideas I have gotten from Pinterest and have actually attempted to implement. I'm addicted to that site right now. Addicted I tell you.
That's all for now, I promise.
Until next time,
Christina
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