Yes, I Still Have a Job

I just wanted to let everyone know that yes, Pike has filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy (voluntarily), and yes, I still have a job. We were told that our pay and benefits will not be affected. Thank you all for asking. Thank you all for your prayers. This drought affects all of us and we need to be in prayer for all the people that are affected by it. And, PRAY FOR RAIN!

Chicken Pot Pie-Super Easy!

Scott's sister Tracy gave me this recipe, sort of. She gave me a recipe that had a Bisquick biscuit dough crust and used frozen vegetables, but I love pie crust and I like the fact that Veg-all has less little green peas than frozen vegetables. So, here it is:

Chicken Pot Pie:

Frozen Pie Crust (double)

1 can Veg-all (drained)
1 13 oz. can of chicken

1 can cream of chicken soup

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Mix the last 3 ingredients together and pour into the bottom shell. Pull the edges off the second shell and flip it over onto the top. I like the crust, so I just put the edges on top. It doesn't look as pretty, but it's good. You'll want to poke a few holes in the top too. Bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven. You will want the top crust to be pretty crunchy and for the sauce inside to be bubbly. If you don't get the crust done enough, the leftovers might be a little soggy. Let it rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy! Let me know if you try this and if you like it!

Last Weekend

Last weekend was very busy for us. On Saturday, we went to visit our friends Jeff and Adriene who recently had twins and then we went to a shower for my friend Arlene, whom I have known since elementary school. Arlene got married this past Saturday and she lives in Maryland. So, she came down for a shower with her GA friends.

Jeff and Adriene's twins, Erin and Gracie, are too cute! At nine weeks old,they are just now getting to be the size of a newborn at about 8 lbs each. Erin looks a lot like Adriene and Gracie looks a lot like Jeff. They are too sweet. We really enjoyed our visit with the family. We even got to meet Adriene's parents.

Erin is on the left and Gracie is on the right.

Arlene's shower was given by another friend from high school, Jennifer, who we all called J.K. There weren't many of us there, but we enjoyed ourselves. We painted pottery at a place called Just Kiln Time in the Marietta square. I painted Arlene and Josh a plate with their wedding date on it. I was glad to meet Josh. He seemed like a really nice guy.

In order, Me, Arlene, and J.K.

Here is a picture of the whole group.

Nosey

They say curiosity killed the cat...well, it didn't in this situation, but it did give him spots in his eyes for a few minutes! Hee hee.

Lunch with Lindsey and Ruby

Last Wednesday, I met one of my best friends, Lindsey, and her daughter, Ruby, at Moe's close to my office for lunch. Ruby will be one year old this month! I can't believe she is already turning a year old. Ruby is one of the happiest babies ever! I walked into Moe's and Lindsey was holding Ruby wearing her cute Halloween t-shirt and I said hey to Ruby and she smiled and laughed and waved at me. So cute! I left my camera at my office, so Lindsey sent me some super cute pictures of Ruby in her Halloween costumes. Lindsey's mom had gotten Ruby a ladybug outfit, but Ruby wasn't a big fan of the wings hitting her arms, so they dressed her up as a dog. So cute! It was REALLY good to meet up with Lindsey for lunch. She lives in Canton, so we really don't see each other as often as we used to when we would hang out every week almost. Well, enjoy the fun pictures of Ruby!

Halloween at Pike

For Halloween, we got to dress up at work. I was meeting my friend Lindsey and her daughter Ruby for lunch (yep, I left my camera on my desk at work, so I didn't get any pictures, but I will post some picture of Ruby once Lindsey sends me some in her costume that night), so I didn't exactly want to dress up to go out to lunch. But, several people did and I got some good pictures.

This is my immediate supervisor, Chuck. He dressed up as a pirate and walked around all day saying "ARGH!" to people. He has four sons!

This is Sherri and Toni who, obviously, dressed up as cowgirls. Sherri does AR and I have to work closely with her. She is very nice and helpful. Toni is in charge of training all the store employees. So, she knows what they are talking about when they call and ask me questions about what they do in the software and I have no idea what they are talking about. She also knows a lot about gift cards, which have been a real pain for me thus far.

This is Kymm, who also does AR. She dressed up as Foxy Brown. I think that is a character from Austin Powers. She looked really good in this outfit! She is also very helpful to me, but fairly new to the company. She is really nice.

This is Jolie. She works in HR, but the funny thing is that she lives in Loganville and teaches kickboxing and step aerobics at the gym Scott and I used to be members of. I had her classes many times! It's a small world!

There are also 6 other people in the accounting department who didn't dress up and the VP of Finance and Accounting and our admin. So, it takes a lot of people to coordinate 29 stores! I am getting used to being at a new place. I am still getting used to the work. But, I know that in time I will settle in.

Fajitas

Scott and I had Fajitas on Friday night. I got this recipe from a friend of mine from T&U, Leslie. I hope that you try it out and enjoy! Let me know if you do.

Leslie says that she uses skirt steak, but that if she can't find it, she uses flank steak. Both of these are kind of expensive, but we have found that London Broil is much less expensive and works perfectly well if you cut it into small strips after you cook it.

Put the meat in a gallon ziploc bag with the following marinade overnight:

World Harbors Mexican Style Fajita Sauces & Marinade (at least half a bottle)

1 Lime, cut in half, squeeze the juice out and then throw the rind in there

Several drops a soy sauce (at least a good splash or two)

Some Orange Juice (maybe 1-2 tablespoons)

A couple of drops of liquid smoke

Grill the meat.

Slice up peppers and onions thinly and cook them on the stove over medium heat with olive oil.

Serve with flour tortillas, shredded cheese, and guacamole (we never use guacamole, but this is what Leslie suggested).

I recently discovered from one of my neighbors that Kroger sells a frozen 3 pepper and onion blend, which is usually on sale 4 for $5. This is a lot cheaper than paying for a green bell pepper, red bell pepper and an onion! I ususlly use two bags because they cook down and there is enough meat to go with two bags. This is what it looks like:

Church Membership

Sunday night, Scott and I and joined Christ Church of Metro Atlanta along with about 60 other founding members. We had a nice dinner and several people gave testimonies. It was a really great night. I know that our elders worked hard to plan the event an we appreciate it. Pictures from the night are in a slide show on the left.

Visiting Friends

Saturday Scott and I visited with our friends Eric and Kari. Eric and Kari have recently had their first child, Evan. He is just so cute! It was fun to hang out with Eric and Kari and I got to hold Evan a lot! He is a very good and content baby. The picture above is one of Evan when Kari was trying to wake him up so that she could feed him. She would tickle his lips and he would pucker them out like that. Too cute!

Harry Potter Cat

Shana sent me this picture in an email. It is really funny. That poor cat. I wonder how they got it to sit still. Maxwell would not have stood for that! I don't even know if Sampson would have! But, it is still cute.