McCain's Insurance Plan

I have been extremely confused about the talks about the two candidates' proposed health care plans lately. Scott found this article and I think it lays it out pretty well. I hope you will read it. Let me know what you think.

Randomness

This will be a random, quick post. I am babysitting the printer while our church financials print and poor Scott is in the kitchen doing the dishes. :0( It has been an ordeal to print these things. First, I thought we weren't going to have enough paper and that Scott was going to need to go out tomorrow to get some. Then, I realized I can print them front and back, so I think I'll be okay. (I have not actually counted the sheets). Then, our ink cartridge ran out of ink, so luckily we were stocked up on ink cartridges, but I still had to find them and change it. But, the good thing was that I found one kind of pushed to the back that I don't think we realized we had. So yay!

We had a lot of rain this week. It rained all day on Wed. and a good bit on Thursday. Scott checked our rain gauge last night and said that we had gotten 3.5 inches this week! Wow! I was afraid that the mums in my front garden weren't blooming because I was overwatering or they didn't like getting morning dew on them or something; but apparently they were thirsty because now they have started blooming. Yay!

I have a house plant called a Croton that I bought to sit in our cut-through window between the kitchen and the living room. I am apparently overwatering it or something. Does anyone know anything about these plants? I put rocks in the bottom of the pot, I think, before I put it in there.

We have carved out the second week of Nov. for a vacation. We are pretty sure we are going to go to Disney World. I have never been and Scott has been, but he doesn't really remember it. Scott has been talking to a guy at work that goes every year getting all the good deals and calling his travel agent. She gets really good deals. He also ordered us an informational DVD off of the Disney website and it came today in the mail with our name printed on the little "CD protector" thing it came in. Impressive.

Anywho, I guess that's about all. I just have a few more to print and I'll be done. Woohoo!

One Word Answers

My friend Erin tagged me in this one-word only meme - I have to answer each question with only one word. Then I pass it along to others to do the same. Here it goes! (Please realize that this is very difficult for me!)

1. Where is your cell phone?
purse

2. Where is your significant other?
chair

3. Your hair color?
brown

4. Your mother?
deceased

5. Your father?
53

6. Your favorite thing?
Church

7. Your dream last night?
strange

8. Your dream/goal?
Mom

9. The room you're in?
office

10. Your hobby?
scrapbooking

11. Your fear?
rejection

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years?
Home

13. Where were you last night?
Shadburns'

14. What you're not?
tall

15. One of your wish-list items?
CDs

16. Where you grew up?
Georgia

17. The last thing you did?
ate

18. What are you wearing?
sweats

19. Your TV?
baseball

20. Your pet?
furry

21. Your computer?
old

22. Your mood?
whatever

23. Missing someone?
Lisa

24. Your car?
Tacoma

25. Something you're not wearing?
hat

26. Favorite store?
Target

27. Your summer?
gardening

28. Love someone?
Much

29. Your favorite color?
red

30. When is the last time you laughed?
earlier

31. Last time you cried?
unsure

I'll tag 5 people to continue the game!

Shana
Maggie
Bethany
Carrie
Allison

Pigskin Pickem

Speaking of polls...

Our friends Josh and Shana have organized a league of Pigskin Pickem through ESPN for us and a bunch of our friends. It is one of those where you just pick who is going to win each NFL game each week. The first week, Scott went through and called out the games and I just randomly picked the winners...based on if I knew anything about the team, which team colors I liked best, or which mascot I like better, etc...you get the picture. Well, I have been 1st, 2nd, or tied for 1st for all 4 weeks so far! Scott is dead last. Actually, overall, the girls in the league are doing better than the guys. I find it quite funny as none of us really knows or cares that much about football. It is even funnier that I probably spend the least amount of time making my picks. All I can say is that there must have been a lot of upsets because Scott knows a LOT about football. He knows a lot about all sports, but especially football.

Did you know that in college he was an intramural flag football official? And, after college, for about 3 years, he was a high school football official.

What's my team name? It started out being "Marcy's Picks". What is it now? "Lady Luck." That's all there is to it!

I figure I should post this now while I am still ahead. Chris predicts that all the girls' luck will turn. He might be right. Andy said that they roped us in by purposefully doing bad the first few weeks so we get into it, then they're going to pound us. Whatever. :o)

Anyway, I love it irony of the whole thing!

I am sure that many of you are asking yourselves: "I wonder if she is actually watching these games to see who the winner is?"

My answer to you: "No!" I mean, it isn't worth all that! They will win or lose whether I watch it or not! And, Scott will inform me anyway.

Please realize that all of the above are merely statements. I am not "bragging" because I have used no skill in reaching the success I have, so I can't really take credit for it. My boss told me that there's a girl at work that won the basketball bracket thingy at work 2 out of three years and that last year, after she won, she said "We were talking about baseball for that thing, right?" Why do I find this so funny? I don't know! But, it does make me laugh every time I think about it...

Follow Up On Poll

I thought it was fun to have that poll over to the right. It looks like 23% of people (at least people who read my blog) clean out their fridge when they go to the store or when they need more room (which for some people can be one and the same) and 17% of people clean it out once a week, when something smells, or once a month.

Thanks to everyone who voted!

My answer was...when we need room! We are terrible about doing it. The worst part is that when we do clean it out, sometimes we stop once we have made enough room!

Heehee...

Fireproof

Scott and I went to see Fireproof the movie yesterday afternoon with several couples from our church. This movie is really awesome. I think that it would even benefit single people. I thought the acting was great. This movie really showed how important it is to keep our covenant with God that we make through marriage. This movie was made by the same people that made Facing the Giants and Flywheel. I have not seen either of them, but now I really want to.

Go see if yourself and let me know what you think.

Fall Planting

I have been doing some Fall Planting. Some of my spring/summer flowers were just looking so tired, so, a couple of Saturdays ago, Scott and I drove over to the Growers Outlet and picked out a "few" things. Well, maybe more than a few. I didn't know what they would have or really what I needed. I found some really cheap pots of caladiums, so I bought 4 of them (hey, they were $1 each and each of them had about 5 bulbs!). I split up and planted 2 of them and then I am just keeping the other 2 in the pots so that the bulbs can be planted next year in case the ones I planted don't come back. Also, in case (hopefully) we sell our house and have to start all over with our garden! They had Calla Lilies for $1 or $1.50 according to their size, so I got a few of those to fill in the place in my garden where only 2 of the 4 I planted last year came back. I got two different plants that said they could be annuals or houseplants. I can't remember the name of either of them, but I know the red one was nicknamed "chicken gizzard", which is kind of gross, but it was $ .50 and the purple one I got was only $1. Then, we spent most of our money on some mums. They have large ones 3 for $15 and medium sized ones 4 for $10. So, we got three large burgundy colored ones and 4 medium yellow ones. So, we came home with a truck load of plants for $40!

This was kind of a "spur of the moment" trip. I had gone out into the yard to dead head and water the pots to realize that everything looked so tired and I just couldn't stand it. Even my beloved hanging baskets out front kind of made me want to cry (see that picture to the left, isn't that sad?). But, they are better now, thankfully.

By the time we got back from the Growers' Outlet, we needed to eat lunch, so I kind of lost my steam. I went out there and pulled up all the zinnias (I will never get pink zinnias again BTW, I will only get the orange ones again) and chopped off all the gladiolus. I snipped and pinched everything I could that looked brown from my hanging baskets (I also swapped which side each was on and turned them around) and pulled all the weeds out of my garden areas. Then, I was kind of tired of being outside. So, I decided to "plan" my plantings and "sleep on it". Well, that was a good excuse to not have to dig any holes that day. I paid for this the next day, btw. The picture at the top is not the best picture of our house, but I had to use the "backlight" feature on my camera to be able to see the garden b/c the house was shading it. So, that's as good as it gets. To the left is the picture of the "planning" I did on Saturday. As you can see, I switched the location of the mums, but it is still the same idea. I actually ended up sticking with the original idea I had when I was at the Growers' Outlet.

Instead of planting stuff in the yard, I spruced up some of my already existing house plants by adding the purple thing to one (they had it labeled, but I just can't remember its name) and the red one (the chicken gizzard) to another one, which I had recently bought a new pot for and I repotted altogether. I also potted two of my calla lilies to add color to our basically green house plants, but they are by themselves. I love the way we have our garage set up with shelving and a peg board. My wheel barrow has become my "planting table" when I do a pot. I always keep my big bag of dirt, my small garden tools, my gloves, and my little shaker of fertilizer in there so that when I want to plant stuff in the yard, I can just put the plants in there and wheel everything around. Do you see that spot on the left front of the wheel barrow where my knee pads are? I just moved those and sat my pots in that spot to do my potted plants.

We had our fellowship lunch at church the next day, and I was planning to take a nap and then going out there and planting all that stuff once it cooled off. Well, on our way home, someone called wanting to come that evening and look at the house. This threw us into emergency action. Scott went in after we got home and picked up and vacuumed and put away the dishes while I got on my gardening gloves and planted five mums, two calla lilies, and, once I divided them, 10 caladiums! I was still so full and it was so hot. Oh, I felt so gross out there. I thought I might barf, or pass out, or possibly both. Oh, how glorious my shower felt when I was done. The picture is of the caladiums I planted. They were kind of sad and droopy when we got them home, but now they are pretty perky. I guess they needed some TLC.

Since then, all of our potted plants have perked up as well as my hanging baskets. So, we have two mums that we purchased to be potted plants. So we have LOTS of potted plants for all seasons :o).

Does anyone want a calla lily because I have an extra? Ours are doing great indoors. They like sun and for their soil to stay moist. The one directly in our window in the office keeps leaning towards the sun and I keep having to rotate it. Our mums and caladiums came in the fairly nice plastic pots that kind of look like terra cotta pots, so I'll put it in one of those if you want. You can see if in the picture below, but they didn't come with the saucer. I just happened to have that one already in my stash.

Okay, so this was a really long post about gardening. Sorry. But, I am not done.

I have been reading lately about fall gardening. Apparently this is the perfect time to do fall plantings, but things like mums (and I think bulbs) will only last until the first frost. But, for us, that's like January or something, right? Also, you really aren't supposed to plant pansies until after the first frost, but who can wait that long and who is still selling them by then? I figure that when our potted plants all die, I will replace them with bulbs and pansies (which will take care of winter and the first few weeks of spring). I have our bulbs in the refrigerator. Your bulbs are supposed to have several weeks of extreme cold before they can grow in the spring and since our winters are so short in the South, we have to help them out a little (or something like that, you can google it). I just love mums! I am excited that some of mine are already starting to open up! I also put down a fresh layer of pine straw AND put out Preen because apparently now is the time to prevent winter weeds from growing and both of those help. So, if you haven't done that, you should, for your own sanity, if you hate weeds like I do. (I think that was a run-on sentence or a comma splice, or possibly both; so I apologize for all you grammar freaks).

Nutty Chocolate Caramel Bars

Here is the anxiously awaited recipe for bars that I blogged about, begging for the recipe. The recipe was provided by Elsie Frick, who lives her son and DIL and their 5 beautiful children. Sherri, her DIL posted this on their blog.

Nutty Chocolate Caramel Bars

(makes about 2 1/2 dozen bars)
Prep time:15 minutes
Preheat oven to 350 f

2-1\3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, melted
2 cups (12 oz. pkg.) semi sweet chocolate chips
1-1/2 cups chopped walnuts
1 cup (12.25 oz. jar) caramel ice cream topping

Combine 2 cups flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add butter; stir until all ingredients are moistened. Reserve 1 cup crumb mixture; press remaining mixture into bottom of ungreased 13x9 baking pan.

Bake in preheated 350 F oven for 15 min. or until lightly browned. Remove from oven. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and walnuts. Combine caramel topping and remaining 1/3 cup flour in small bowl; drizzle over chocolate and walnuts. Sprinkle with remaining reserved crumb mixture. Return to oven; bake an additional 20 min. or until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Oh man, these are SO good. I am sure that I can never make them as well as Elsie does, I am can try! Practice makes perfect, right?

Sara Welborn's Chicken Casserole

This is the name of the famous chicken casserole that I had at church last Sunday. It was submitted by a lady named Florene Kay. Of course the one I had was made by Kelly and it was excellent!

3 1/2 lb chicken
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 soup can milk
1 box cornbread Stove Top stuffing
1 1/2 c. chicken broth
1 stick margarine, melted

Boil chicken until tender. Cool and remove meat from bones and chop. Place in greased casserole dish. Mix soups with milk well and pour over chicken. Mix stuffing (with 1/2 pkg of herbs enclosed) and mix with chicken broth and margarine. Spread over chicken and soup mixture. Bake at 375* for 40 minutes.

Labor Day

Our Labor Day was a lot of fun. We had our neighbors Nan and John over for grilled steaks, baked potatoes, and salads. Then, to top it all off, we had homemade oreo icecream. Yum-O. Then, of course, for dinner we all donned our college team shirts (GT for Scott and me and UK for Nan and John) and went over to Chick-fil-A for our free chicken strips. It was a great day to just sit around a relax.