Welcome Back Cathy

I thought you'd be gone until tomorrow, though.

How was the trip?

Your Back!
Im Sooo Happy!!

Hi ya' all!

Brook and Janie thank you for the wonderful welcome home!

Yes we came home a day earlier than planned, there was some terrible weather that set in, and we just missed all the comforts of home so we "threw in the towel" and headed home!

My 8yr old loved the whole campground! Why with a petting zoo right next to our cabin [that had everything a little child loves to pet & feed] what kid wouldn't be in heaven! The fishing pond was full of fish and we caught and released some nice ones. There was even a "pet park" and our little dog got to play & run off his leash. And a pool, and an inflatable jumper "thingy" and putt-putt and all kinds of neat stuff. And for me a big Antique mall right down the highway! And a neat Pawn Shop where I got a fabulous pink tourmaline/diamond ring that I traded for and even got a beautiful ring for my 8yr. old and $6.80 change back to me I love trading with a guy like that, and since I am pretty knowledgeable on my gemstones and metals I know how to trade and get some sweet deals. I just love striking a deal!!! And on Wed, we went to the Chatanooga, TN zoo and it was $1.00 day so we spent a grand total of 3 bucks to tour a really neat little zoo!

I get these nausty weather related headaches and I had it all day yesterday until sometime late last night, I am so glad it is gone today!

Well tonight we are having stuffed baked sole and fresh green beans from the garden and fresh yellow squash and a Navy bean recipe from my Moroccan cookbook so I will get to fire up the tagine the bean recipe calls for stewed tomatoes and so yesterday I made up my tomatoes with fresh tomatoes from the garden, and it tasted wonderful.

Gosh it's good to be home. I am going to go read some threads now!

I missed ya' all & it is good to be back, Cathy

Hi Cathy-

And yes- welcome back! You've been missed here... We all hardly kept the place afloat w/ out'cha... Hee-Hee! Your trip sounds FUN... Your petting zoo and swap-shop coulda kept me occupied for days! When I was little we went to Chatanooga and I remember Look-Out Mountain and some caves & caverns- does that sound familiar or is my memory mistaken? And I have always loved camping and fishing too. What a trip- glad you enjoyed and glad you, Maddie and Eddie made it back home safely...

Just got home from the night shift at "The Farm" and am enjoying a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries and a drizzle of maple syrup- YUM! It's week #3 at the new job and all is going great!

Your stuffed sole sounds yummy. At the Alaskan work camps the guys weren't too into "fancy fish" they preferred it simply grilled. But now and then I'd throw together a stuffing made with cooked rice, frozen/drained spinach, canned cream of mushroom soup and shredded cheese. Would stuff a pair of extra-thin fillets and roll it all up- bake and sauce and the rough miners, oil-riggers and fisher-dudes enjoyed it. At the fancier resorts we often stuffed halibut fillets using basically a crab-cake recipe and rolled/cooked in a similar fashion. Your veggie-sides sound delish too- I envy the folks at your table tonight!

I've been eating a lot of extra-simple salads and Lean Cuisines lately. Working a sedentary job now, I'm realizing for the first time in my life how quickly the bigger, rich meals can add to one's girth if they aren't up on their feet moving several hours a day! So... lite cookin' and easy-store-boughts for me for a while- or maybe forever! Plus, I'm liking the controlled portions that the store-boughts provide- keeps me from over-doing it! All for now- glad you're back!

Hi Kevin,

You remember Chatanooga very well indeed! Look-Out mountain is spectacular, at the moment I am forgetting the caves name, but there are some nice ones in TN I just have not been in a while and so I forget. The best cave I ever went to was in Kentucky.

I am eo happy to hear that you're enjoying your job. I can relate on the whole sedentary job thing! I hate being desk bound, but the way I get around it is I run down the hall to send out-going mail several times per day, and up & down to fetch paper work for the boss, and then running back & forth to the kitchen to get water re-fills. So I try and get up alot and I have vaid reasons to do so. The phone will stay silent for a few moments, but get up to do something and every line lights up at once, Ha-Ha, sometimes I just jump up to get the darn thing to ring!

I think I need those controlled portion meals, but can not begin to even pretend to like those frozen meals! What I may resort to is making up my own frozen meals, that would be good and since I do own the Food Saver I could make my own frozen dinners quite easily, they would be a better quality and flavor than store bought, and I'd probably save a few $$ making my own too. But I am glad you are enjoying it none the less!

I feel like I have a hang-over this A.M. as I went to bed with a terrific headache last night and this morn. I feel so wierd and drained. I need to go fix myself another cup of coffee!

Just woke-up a wee bit early to a really happening thunderstorm, Cathy... Golly-Moses, the thunder is CRACKING somethin' terrible! My cats were flying across the bed and freakin' out!, so I had to get up for fear of being shredded to death by their claws- Ha! (and I'm still half out of it, so please forgive if my writing rambles or "sounds" like I'm tipsy!)

I think your practice of forcing yourself to stand-up and move around to do things at work- including l'il mini-hikes around the facility is a real good plan- I'll have to try that. I work at one of 5 HUGE buildings (16,000-17,000 staffers work at all 5 campuses, combined, so that gives you an idea of how humungous these buildings must be!).

Another reason why I am liking the Lean Cuisines (I also get another one that I think is called "Healthy Choice" or some such, which seems to have slightly larger portions.) is that cooking for one- I simply CANNOT cook just 1 or 2 portions, so whatever I do cook, I'm eating-on for days on end, which isn't always all-bad, but... not that I'm pretending the meals are as good as those we all would cook for ourselves... So buying these meals gives me variety. So far only a couple have sucked that I won't buy again. I like the pizzas- (they have a spinach pizza that I add canned mushrooms and sliced chicken breast to), the meat lasagne and zucchini lasagne, the sesame/ginger pork tenderloin which comes with rice and snow peas, the chicken-fettucine alfredo, and a few others... they just make really good, nutritious/lowcal/fat and easy-to-pack lunches for work.

I hope your headache and "hangover" have gone away by now! Speaking of which- I gotta crack-open a diet pepsi (which is my "coffee", since I don't drink the real stuff!).

Im so sorry the weather turned bad but I am glad your back.
Sounds like you guys had a great time until mother nature stepped in.

Your dinner sounds yummy.
Im cooking some fresh green beans from the garden right now but no tomatoes

Hey Janie,

I am so happy to be home, there really is no place like home!!! I wound up doing some fried green tomatoes with dinner tonight as well as a nice corn bread to boot! I love cooking and as I get into it my menu suddenly grows and I find myself flying around the kitchen like I'm on an Iron Chef episode or something hee-hee! I am sure you know the feeling.

OK fess up is that your neice on your new avatar? What a cute shot!

I love babies in bonnets, gets me all mushy inside and they are so darned cute there is really nothing more beautiful. Your neice has such a bright & happy smile too!

Well gotta go read everything!

Smiles to you, Cathy

That is my sister Cole's youngest Catherine. We call her Catie.
A friend made her that hat and she was modeling it for a pic to send back to them so they knew it fit. Something about the hat gave her the giggles lol.
It was kinda tough seeing Baron everytime I logged in so I changed it.

Hi Janie,

WOW my own name sake as your Avatar I feel so honored! Hee-hee What a cute snap-shot!!!

I sure understand what you mean about the feelings you must have felt seeing Baron's pic. everytime you logged on.

Well we finally got some rain yesterday here at home, and I hope we get more tonight and tomorrow too! It has rained all over the place except here and I have been using the hose to water the veggies. Yesterday I pulled up all my squash plants and am going to re=plant with all new seed, I took the carpet up and feel I will have a better crop of squash w/out the carpet covering the ground. I am planning on a fall garden anyway so they will be my very first plants for my fall garden!

Last Sun. Maddy and I went horse back riding and I asked the fellow working there if I could have some horse manure, he let me get all I wanted even gave me 50 lb. feed bags to shovel it into. So I wound up coming home with 3 bags 3/4 full of nice aged horse manure for the garden! I felt like a kid in a candy shop scooping that poop!!! Maddy thinks I am a crazy old Grandma!!! Kids are so funny, I always loved embarrassing mine. They would get themselves all into a fit when I would stop along side the road to check-out a rock out cropping and look for some kind of minerals or rocks or gemstones in the rough to collect, I loved it! Out in the middle of Idaho [near the Snake River] stopped and they had a fit yelling "someone might see us" and here we were a million miles form no-where and knew absolutely no one and they were worried about someone seeing us! LOL

Well anyhow I better get it in gear this morning, and fix something to eat!

Actually she is both our name sakes.
Her name is Catherine Jane.

That is way cool, your Sis must be psychic! LOL