Helloooo 2011!

Today is New Year's Eve, which is always a great time to reflect on the year and see how to improve the upcoming year.

Here's how it went:

I turned 27.

We bought a house.

I got a new job.

Kaitlyn turned 12 and Owen turned 1.

All in all, it was a fantastic year.  Lots of ups and downs but thankfully, more ups than downs.

2011...

I'm hoping 2011 will be a year filled with health conscience choices (I hate the word DIET) and that the time spent with the family is more thoughful and quality.  I also want to do stuff like save more money, cook more, blah, blah blah, but personally, I want to take more pictures, I want to blog more.

So, for 2011, I vow this: Project 365.

I know you've all seen something similiar before, but here's what I'm going to do.  For 365 days, I will take a picture, post it on the blog and write something.  Sometimes it'll be quality, but I'm betting a lot of time, it won't.  I guess that'll be half the fun. 

Happy 2011 everyone!

This is how you start off a 5 day weekend

I powered through a 10 hour work day yesterday only for the sheer pleasure of knowing that starting today, Wednesday, November 24, 2010, I would begin a 5 day weekend.

I planned on cleaning and cooking and baking.  Oh, the baking I would do.

But nothing really ever goes as planned, as I quickly learned today.

Got a call at 8am from work, saying the 2 Thanksgiving dinners I ordered for the officers was only recorded as one and it was too late to get a second dinner.  What?  I know I ordered 2.  I remember the guy writing 2 dinners.  Anyway, I ask the lady at work to try and figure something out because Owen had a dr. appointment and I just couldn't deal with it at that time.

So, had to take the munchkin to the doctor.  Apparently, his weight is low and the doctors don't believe I feed him.  So we go in, and of course he gains like .08 pounds, but grows half an inch, yet still his weight is too low.  I get a 20 minute lecture on how to feed my son and what to feed him.  Then out of the blue, she says:

"any reason you didn't get all the shots when you were here last month?"

me: "huh?"

dr.: "he was supposed to get 7 shots last time, but only got three.  did you plan that?  ask for it to be broken up?"

me: "i don't know, my husband came last time."

dr.: "oh"

me: "uhm, yeah, so, what now?"

dr.: "well, we can give him all the shots and do all the bloodwork that was ordered at the last appointment"

me: "ok" :::grumble something about husband's worth, blah, blah, blah:::

We then wait 20 minutes, Owen gets 4 shots.  He's not happy.  We leave.  He thinks we're good and then we go to draw blood where he's held down and poked again and he loses it.  Poor guy.

So now that a 20 minutes appointment has turned into an hour and 15 minute appointment, I can return all the calls I missed and what have you.

Back to problem 1, the store said I only ordered one but we got lucky that there was a cancellation and we could get a second.  Ordinarily, no big deal, except this really bothered me for some reason.  I had to reassure myself that I wasn't crazy.  So of course, like any rational person, I go to the store to get everything sorted out.

Store

me: "hi, need to verify what i ordered last week."

her: "what did you order?"
me: "2 thanksgiving dinners, order #86"

her: looking at order 68, "no, you ordered one."

me: "you're looking at 68, I'm #86"

her: flipping pages, "didn't i talk to you this morning? you only ordered one."

me: "no you didn't.  I originally ordered, but what to verify what is being picked up tomorrow, because of this confusion."

her: "well it says you ordered one, because you only have one order number.  if you would have ordered 2, they would have given you two numbers."

me: "well, right there in your notebook, it says 2 dinners.  maybe the guy who was here that day didn't know to give me 2 order numbers but it clearly states there 2"

her: "well we counted it as one.  i told the lady this morning we had a cancellation so we added it to your order."

me: "so had we not called to pick up earlier, you would have only given us one dinner?"

her: "yes"

me: "even though it says 2?"

her: "yes"

me: "not sure i understand that.  anyway, we have two for tomorrow...right?"

her: "yes."

me: "thanks."

Now, seriously, what are the odds that we're actually going to have two dinners tomorrow?

So, I left the house at 8:45 AM, and didn't get home until 12:30 PM.

It feels like I'm not going to get much done today.  New plans include: picking up my paycheck, picking up my catalog order from JC Penney, making dinner, potentially baking and debating on Black Friday shopping. 

Hope your long weekend's are starting off better than mine!

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween...

Ok, so my son looks like a drunken superman.

Our household doesn't usually go too far out for Halloween.  We buy the kids costumes, we buy candy for trick-or-treators, and there's the pumpkins.

Last year, the hubby found out that he had a knack for carving pumpkins.  A talent I guess you never really know you have until you, well, until you carve a pumpkin.

It all started with:

Check out the Boorack Obama Pumpkin.  Not bad, eh?  You can also check out the adorable days old baby who these days looks like a drunken superman.

Anyway, I got distracted.

Pumpkin.

So this year, it was on again.  We needed a pumpkin, some tools (the hubby even bought something that required batteries) and a template or idea.

We were pumped.  Went out, bought everything, but were underwhelmed with ideas on what to do, not to mention, the pumpkin we got was ginormous.  I'm almost positive that's a real word.

So, here's how it went down:

 

Tools, check.

 

Pumpkin, check.



Carving, check.

Gut scooper outer, check.  (Doesn't it look like she's enjoying herself?)

 And a finished product, check.

With Halloween coming near, I only know a few things for sure:

1. The kids are dressing up
2. Another pumpkin will be sliced and diced in our home.



Realizations

As I sat here, thinking of something witty to write about, I came across a variety of realizations:

I have way more white hair than I care to talk about.

A 9 PM bedtime isn't only desired but usually the norm.

Food tastes better when the hubby makes it.

Tuesdays are supermarket ad days.  I love Tuesdays.

I keep a stack of papers on my desk in case someone walks by so that I can look busy at a moment's notice.

I think I'm losing my shopping mojo.  I blame Nick.

I absolutely NEED more  black shoes for work.

And a manicure.  Sometimes I sit at my desk and look down at my hands and feel very unprofessional.

I might just paint my nails right now, even though it is past my bedtime.

I think I may have this job thing down.  It's getting better, tons better.

I'm still too new at my job to know everything, as evidence by the conversation that stopped when I walked into the room earlier today.

Thinks it's horrible that I want to browse facebook at work, but I'm just waiting until my probation period is over.

I totally overplanned Owen's party.  Or maybe the weather kept people at home.  Either way, all I know is I ended up with way too much food.  Thank Jebus we didn't hire that taco guy.

Thinks the issues with my phone reception may have to do with the sim card.  Of course I won't do anything about it, but as long as I think I know what the issue is, I'm fine with it.

Had I not applied and got my new job, I would have more than likely been laid off and my last day of work would be November 30.

I'm blessed.

My New Job

I've been so busy lately with my new job that I haven't had a chance to update this thing.  Since for some god awful reason I'm wide awake at 5 am and the whole house is sound asleep, even the dog, I decided I would take this time to write about my new job.

So, I worked for LA Unified.  Clerical job.  Love the people and the job itself wasn't so bad.  Like everywhere else, they're hurting financially so the girls and I started looking for jobs during our breaks at work.  Ok, so I know that sounds bad.  Looking for new jobs while at work, but it's a necessary evil.  Anyway, I saw a job opening for a Secretary job.  Specifically, Secretary to the Chief of Police.  It sounded fancy and a long shot, so I did what any sane person does, I applied.

Found the job listing on Wednesday and filled it out that night.  It was due Friday.  Thursday after her lunch, Yolie comes in and tells me that I wouldn't believe what she just saw.  Thinking she witnessed an accident or saw a celebrity or something I was listening intently.  Turns out that her favorite soap opera, the one she goes home to watch during her lunch, had a scene about the Police Commissioner interviewing a new secretary.  He finds one he likes and lo and behold, her name is Inez.  Funny, right?  In typical Yolie style, she then said, I DVR'ed it in case you didn't believe me :)

So here comes Friday.  Nick was off that day and offered to submit my application for me.  I leave the application for him and go on my way.  I get a call around 11, from Nick saying I needed a typing test certificate and the guy where he turned it in at said there was a same day place in Burbank, clear across town.  At that point, I gave up and said it wasn't meant to be.  I hadn't even signed the application!  I learned that then too. But Nick, being Nick, said I'm picking you up and taking you to this place to take this test. So he did. Ended up taking an hour and a half for lunch and didn't eat.

I get a call on Monday to take a test on Wednesday.  I go and take the most ridiculous test ever, convinced that I completely failed.  Surprisingly, I get a call on Thursday to interview the following week on Wednesday.  This interview was ridiculous too.  A 3 person panel, 2 of whom were police officers.  They interview people for a living.  It was intimidating and scary.  Somehow I managed to say things like "streamlined the office to make it more technologically efficient." <-- Where I pulled that one from, no clue.  It was my only shining moment in that interview.  Knowing that they interviewed about 9 people, I didn't have much hope.

Until I got a call the next day for a second interview with the man himself.  I get there, we chit chat for a long while.  It felt like a personality test.  I answered all questions, managed to ask questions (what kind of boss are you?  what would be expected of me?) - - I tell ya, I had a couple of rare moments of genius.

2 days later, I was offered the job.

I think I cried. 

I almost did a cartwheel.

Then they told me it was pending a physical.  Which was interesting.  I always like peeing in a cup while a bug burly gangbanger looking guy is standing right outside who had told me not to flush so he could see if I threw anything in the bowl.  My main physical consisted of a dr. asking if I had any serious medical conditions, asked me to flex all joints (raise arms, bend arms, raise legs, bend legs, you get the picture) and then sending me off my merry way.

My pee was clean and I got the job, officially.

I was given about 3 weeks to give notice and I started my new job on Monday, October 4.

So far, it's been a mixture of overwhelming, excited, and interesting.  In two weeks, I've already done 4+ hours of overtime.  Plus, I get every other Friday off, which is awesome!

Cons: my boss calls me all the time and anyone that knows me, knows I rarely answer my phone.  I just don't hear it.  It's bad when you don't answer the Chief's call.

Pros: too many to post on a public blog.

Given the nature of my work, this is probably the most information you guys will get, but I wanted to share  the craziest two weeks in getting the job.

My Green Thumb

The hubby and I aren't the best at yard work.  We've lived in our home for a little over 6 months and for about 4.5 of those months, we diligently mowed the lawn, cut the flowers, etc. every weekend.  Then we got tired and things got a little messy.  Then every weekend turned into every other weekend.  Then the weekend we would even think about yard work, it was only to mow the lawn and not take care of the overgrown weeds in the rose bed.  So, we hired a gardener.  It's what every person would do, right?

I mean, for a minute, I felt like it was a waste of money.  That a little elbow grease would fix the problem.  I mean, instead of spending quality time with the family, I should be outside, pulling weeds....right?  But now I get to enjoy this:

and this:

and this:

Look at those colors!

And this:

We think that's a peach tree?  We don't know much about these things.

I mean it's awesome to not have to do anything and have an awesome looking yard.  There's nothing expected of us, but the hubby and I aren't completely useless.  We planted these:

Sorry for the weird angle.  These are hibiscus shrubs, intended to grow over the horrible pipes in the front of the house.  I understand the functionality of water pipes.  I for one, love indoor plumbing, but who in their right mind ever thought, "hey, let's put these pipes right in front of the house, so everyone can see them!"?  And you know the kicker, despite having pipes there, there's no sprinkler system in that bed.  Bizarre, right?

Anyway, despite not having the patience or magic touch for yard work, we're pretty good at growing stuff.  In our previous home, we had great tomato plants, until our dog ate them.  Even the strawberries were growing well, until the dog ate those too.  So, fool me twice, dumb dog.  We learned to plant everything far, far away from the dog.  Here's what we're growing now, to start:

Basil, Cilantro, Flat Leaf Parsley

This is tons more basil outside.  The stuff grows faster than we can use it.  Anyone want basil?

We're also growing jalapenos.  Hot, make your eyes water, hurt your bowels hot jalapenos:

I've noticed lately that there are holes on the leaves.  Something I attributed to maybe small bugs or the type of soil we've used or the heat....and then the hubby informed me that the section of the flower bed where this plant is (near the peach? tree) that there are tons of snails. :::shudder:::: That's a story for another day.

And, my proudest achievement:

My money tree.  Not the big huge one.  The little one in front.  I've had it at least 3 years, and it's still kicking.  Thought I lost it last year when I stupidly left it outside in the sun on a really windy day.  But it came back. 

So now that the beds are clean and pretty.  I want to plant more.  See more grow.  Tomatoes grow well out here and I've successfully grown them before, so that's a good place to start I guess.

Man, I wish I liked tomatoes.

Adventures in Breadmaking

First and foremost, yeast smells terribly bad.  I mean, really, really bad.  Worse than I remember.  I decided to make squaw bread today, mainly because I promised coworkers on Friday that I would bring them some on Monday.  Ordinarily I would have pretended that I forgot, but that only works for 4 weekends in a row, I think the 5th time, they'd think I was a flake with false promises.

So, onto bread.  You need a ton of ingredients and a great helper.  I had both.

Ingredients:

 

Helper:

So, I used a recipe for squaw bread from a cookbook given to me by my friend Sylvia, simply entitled Create.  She gave it to me because it has no photos.  From step one, I wish it had.

Here is the progression of things:
Yeast (gross)
Combine: molasses, melted butter, water, yeast mixture, brown sugar.
Combine (in a different bowl): 2 kinds of flour, corn meal, dry milk, salt

Combine those two bowls into one.  Mix well.  Set aside to proof:



This is the same dough, an hour later.

Then the recipe said to punch the dough, form into a loaf and let sit another 45 minutes.

This is my sad looking loaf:

After it sat for about 30 minutes, I realized it didn't look loaf-like.  At that point, I thought it might be too late to mess with it.  Maybe I thought touching it would make it deflate?  I don't know.  All I know is at that point, after the horrible smelling yeast, the 5-8 minutes of kneading and waiting over an hour and a half of it just sitting there, there was no turning back.

So I baked it.  This pile of non loaf-looking dough.

Here's the end result:

It didn't look that pretty but it tasted pretty good.

Tips for next time:

Make sure doors and windows are open.  Yeast is stinky.

Helpers, while useful, make a huge mess.

When making a loaf of bread, make sure the shape of the dough is an actual loaf.

Know that your husband will clean everything, so don't get anxiety over the mess you're making.

When taking pictures of whatever you're making, a clean kitchen is a must!

Completely Distracted

So, I started this blog, gung ho to post about anything and everything that I love, that's important to me on a near daily basis.

I lost the internet for a whopping 5 days and I've been side-tracked.  I began writing a post about how Ina Garten, yes that Ina Garten of Foodnetwork fame, lied to me.  I never finished it and I certainly never published it.  It might be a story for another day.

So, as far as today goes...my son began walking.  3 days before being 11 months.  I think I might cry.  I am in no way prepared or house baby proofed for him to walk everywhere.  He has us all on our toes around here.

I took tons of pictures of our garden and plants which will be posted hopefully tomorrow, along with pictures of bread that I'll be making.  I'm nervous...I've never made bread before.  Tonight, we're having steak and twice baked potatoes.  I'm loving twice baked potatoes lately, mainly because of how easy they are to  make.

Basic Twice Baked Potato Recipe:

Bake your potato.  (Because it's easier, I put my potatoes on a plate, poke them with holes from a fork and nuke them in the microwave.  My microwave has a handy baked potato setting, so my involvement is minimal.)

Pre-heat oven to 400.

Once soft in the middle, let cool.
Cut in half length-wise.
Scoop out soft middle with a spoon into medium size mixing bowl. Try not to tear skins, keep skins, place to the side.
Once done (I usually do three potatoes for our family) prepare potato in bowl like mashed potatoes.
I add: butter, heavy cream, salt and pepper.
Scoop mashed potato mixture into your potato skin halves.
Top with cheese and bacon.  (This is totally optional, but really, add cheese and bacon.)
Put halves on a cookie sheet that's been lined with foil.
Bake in 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Pictures to follow.

Oh Internet, how I've missed you

So of course, the day after I start a blog, the internet at my house is down.  Inexplicably down, nothing we can do to remedy it on our end.  Of course, this happens on Friday and the soonest Time Warner could come out and fix it was today, Tuesday. 

Nearly 5 days lost.

5 days worth of blog ideas, lost.  I should have written them down.

Anyway, for now, I've come to say, my internet is back and so am I.

Welcome to the Blog

Hi.

My name is Inez.

I decided to start a blog to talk about all the things I love in my life: my kids, cooking, baking, taking pictures and being crafty.  I called this blog "Inspired Creations" because I might not use original recipes or ideas, but I'm amazing at following directions!

I imagine this blog will mainly be me, rambling to the 10s of people that might actually read this.  I'll post things I make (from various recipes), pictures and things that happen in my life.

Hope you enjoy it.