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Chicken Noodle Soup, the recipe!

I love my Sister Crockpot.

I pull stuff from the freezer, toss it in while breakfast is being eaten, turn it to low, and out the door we go! Come home from the day and bam, done. Good smells, a dish and a spoon, some crackers on top, mmm. Hearty. Delicious. Satisfying. And there's extra! Spoon out the leftovers into a ziploc freezer bag and toss it in the freezer and you've got an even more delicious dinner some other night down the road. Just toss the frozen lump into the Sister, turn it to low, and out the door you go! You can't beat that.

Thank you, Sister Crockpot!

This is my favorite recipe. Henry love love loves this soup. Both he and I highly recommend a liberal serving of goldfish crackers and a tall glass of cold milk with this meal. And when you reheat it, don't be afraid to add water to soup it up.

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

You Will Need

1 package McCormick® Slow Cookers Chicken Noodle Soup Seasoning
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 3/4-inch cubes (I use frozen chicken tenderloins and either have giant pieces of tender chicken that melt in my mouth and cut with my soup spoon, or I fish some out and chop them up and add them back in.)
2 cups sliced carrots (I use frozen crinkle cut carrots. a delicious time saver.)
1 cup sliced celery (chop chop chop.)
1 cup chopped onion
5 cups water
1 cup uncooked medium egg noodles

PLACE chicken and vegetables in slow cooker.

MIX Seasoning and water until blended. Pour over chicken and vegetables. Cover.

COOK 8 hours on LOW. Stir in noodles. Cover. Cook 10 minutes longer on HIGH or until noodles are tender.

Makes 8 servings.

IMPORTANT: For best results, do not remove cover during cooking.

PRODUCT INGREDIENTS

SALT, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, HYDROLYZED CORN GLUTEN, SPICES (INCLUDING BLACK PEPPER, ROSEMARY, CELERY SEED, BAY LEAVES, AND THYME), MALTODEXTRIN, GUAR GUM, CALCIUM SILICATE (ADDED TO MAKE FREE FLOWING), CHICKEN FAT, VEGETABLE OIL (CANOLA, SUNFLOWER, AND SOYBEAN), CHICKEN BROTH, NATURAL FLAVORS, CITRIC ACID, EXTRACTIVES OF TURMERIC, LACTOSE (MILK), AUTOLYZED YEAST, AND SOY LECITHIN.

Things I have been wanting to tell you

OMG you guys, you should hear the birds. I am out on the porch at 7:20am, day two of a gorgeous warm weekend. This is the weekend it all kicked into high gear out here, that's for sure.

We have all been sick! We are all feeling much better, although this weekend Jeff has been taking it extra easy after feeling extra crummy these last couple days. Here's to your health!

Henry is leaving today to spend spring break at his Auntie's house in Maine! He is so happy to be going, so looking forward to it. We are going to miss him really terribly I fear!

I tell Maggie that she's going to see what it's like to be an only child for a week, and you can tell the very idea is intriguing enough to her that she's okay with what looks like it could be special treatment for her older brother. Jeff is planning to bring him up to Portland and meet Lanie for lunch and hand off. Thanks, family from Maine! Enjoy him, he's a great kid.

I have such a desire to tear up all the carpeting on my main floor. Jim is apparently in agreement, as he has begun to destroy a piece of the carpet in our music room/entry area. My sister Jocelyn apparently pulled up the carpets in her bedrooms, and was rewarded with beautiful hardwood floors. This would not be the case for us, we would have to put something else down.

We also really need a new roof, and landscaping, and the house needs to be stained or new siding or something. Oh, and the upstairs bathtub still has a big crack in it. Ack! Too stressful. I thought it would be fun to talk about it, but I was mistaken. Next topic.

I am learning a new skill! Jeff is teaching me Drupal, which is an open source web based content management system. It finally occurred to me, that's what we need at work. It's difficult to wrangle all this valuable knowledge and information, this, this 'content'. If only there was a way to ... to... 'manage' the content, a 'system'.... :- ) Anyway, Drupal is very interesting and easy to follow and a total own-self-do-y powerhouse for folks who want to build websites and organize, present and promote information and contents of all types! woot!

The birds out here in the trees are so totally busy! And the eves under the roof of our porch are ideal for safe cozy places to build a nest and start a family apparently. Lots of busy birds zipping back and forth from the trees to their nest right nearby. It would be interesting to record some of these bird calls and isolate them one by one, figuring out how many different kinds of birds there are out there right now.

Here is Henry's third grade Rainforest Animal report, which he is turning in today:

---

The Goliath Bird Eating Spider

by Henry K.
April 22, 2009


The Goliath Bird Eating Spider is the largest spider ever. It is 11 inches wide, 10 inches long. That's bigger than the piece of paper you're holding (if you're holding it)! This spider can weigh over 120 grams. Don't worry about finding a Goliath in your shoe because it wouldn't fit!

The Goliath was named by some dudes from the Victorian era who saw it eat a hummingbird and they brought back the story to the Western world. Gosh, imagine seeing something that big...something spidery.

Like all spiders, the Goliath is not an insect, it's an Arachnid. A big, black (or brown), hairy, creepy, fearsome looking Arachnid! They have thick strong legs. They are dark brown or black. Their fangs can be as big as this _________ (one inch long)! The Goliath has very poor eyesight and I'm pretty sure it uses it's sense of touch to know what's going on.

The Goliath lives in the Amazon Rainforest in countries like Brazil or Peru in South America. It lives on the forest floor and I think they climb to the understory. It is dark and rainy where they live. They live in burrows that they have either found or made.

Like other bird eating spiders, the Goliath (a carnivore) eats insects and small mammals by biting and paralyzing them. It makes a web barrier in case of interruptions while eating. Even though it's called a bird eating spider, it doesn't eat birds that much.

You just read about what the bird eater eats, now let's talk about what eats the bird eater! It is considered a delicacy in Venezuela. The ocelot is a predator to the Goliath. It digs it out of it's burrow and eats it.

Mrs. Hamilton, my teacher, has a tarantula named Buttercup. But I'm pretty sure she's not a Goliath, because Mrs. Ham would've said, "Don't do a report on Buttercup." Also she would know that Goliath spiders can make a loud hissing noise by rubbing the hairs on their legs together. I am glad Buttercup isn't a Goliath because if she was, she'd be very, very aggressive.

The Goliath bird eating spider defends itself by kicking hairs off it's back and those hairs can make your skin sore. If you breath in these hairs, you're toast (probably).

The Goliath's habitat is threatened by humans. They set fire to the brush and clear the land, and doing that destroys their burrows. You can help by adopting an acre of rain forest and say that no one can cut down trees or start any fires on that acre.

So if you can spare some money to save the rain forest, I'll buy you something nice! Maybe. Probably. Nah...

SOURCES

"Bird Eating Spiders" by Louise Martin.
Rourke Enterprises, Inc.


"Goliath Birdeater", Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath_birdeater


"Spiders''by Lionel Bender.
GLOUCESTER PRESS.


hk/slk

Now with TWICE the Maggie!

Liza Santerre

OH, where to begin.

My girlfriend Liza died last Friday. Only 48, isn't that rotten? Her husband Todd called me Saturday morning with the terrible news, and so my mind has been lizalizaliza.

I didn't cry about it all weekend, then on my way into work Monday, looking for a parking spot, it began to feel very real and sad. Monday night was uplifting because the wake they put together for her was like wading into a sea of her people.

Two of my friends from work went with me and we found ourselves laughing and crying and hugging Liza's brother, holding her baby nephew, trading stories with her family members - even meeting her mother! Looking into her brother's eyes was so powerful because they are Liza's eyes, you know? And her daughter and son were surrounded by thick crowds of caring friends, and her daughter wore a pink scarf and laughed and cried with her own circle. Oh, and the pictures!

There was a whole display of family photos and pictures from her whole life. VERY. TOUCHING. I grabbed a couple with my iPhone:

Look at those two pups! How sweet is that. Til death did they part.

Today, was her memorial service, which was short and sweet. Her dad was heart broken of course. Liza was not his first daughter to die too soon from cancer. He wept openly and spoke of his princess. A girlfriend of Liza's from way, way back got up and spoke very movingly. I got up, said a few words and recited a poem.

I told her dad that I would overhear her side of the phone call when he would call her each week, and how she would say into the phone, I love you too Dad. And that I knew a thing or two about good Dads and I would tell Liza how lucky she is to have her Dad around to talk to on the phone and that she knew it was true. He seemed to appreciate hearing that.

I read this poem, and folks seemed to like it. Another guy said sweet things quickly, and her husband Todd had some profoundly truthful and loving remarks about Liza that were so spot on. He was great, what a great guy.

After the service, me and three friends from work went over to have a couple of margaritas in Liza's name. That was really fun, and it felt good to laugh and toast to the old gal. Liza loved a good margarita.

And then I headed back towards home and stopped at their house for the friends and family thing. That was even more special. Everyone was so kind about my having spoken earlier, so welcoming and so at ease with each other in spite of the sadness of the facts. I felt comfortable and welcome. I especially enjoyed the private minutes with one of her sisters out in the driveway, and I was so happy to be able to take the first quilt Liza ever made, and will return it to them all finished. I will bring it in to work tomorrow and we will look it over and see what needs to be done. Her mom said she thinks it's just the binding. She sews, but she hates doing the binding. They were all really touched and happy to let me get it completed, it's a real honor. Luckily Kathy at work is going to help me out with it!

ANYWAY. I am exhausted. Like I said to my girlfriend Kristy, hug a sister! Liza was a surrogate sister to me, and I really loved her. One of the last messages she got to me was something on my Facebook page about how much I was going to love Dave Matthews in May. She loved her some DMB, and she had made me green with envy over her stories of concerts and live music she'd seen. So I'm glad she knew I get to go.

A real quick list of things that will make me think of Liza:

DMB
Margaritas
purple toenail polish
"Beyond Bizzah!"
the state of Maine
The Common Ground Fair
Jocelyn
Marcia
Dian

goodnight. peace, girl. r.i.p.

Recent pictures of the children

Chicken Noodle Soup

Quick and Delicious for Busy Moms on the Go!

This will be Chicken Noodle Soup. Frozen boneless chicken tenderloins, frozen crinkle cut carrots, 1/2 a yellow onion, several stalks of chopped up celery.

Then you pick up a thingie of McCormicks Chicken Noodle Soup mix (for Slow Cookers!) and mix that with 5 cups of water.

Pour that in, slip on the lid, set it to LOW and out the DOOR YOU GO!

When you get home from work, all you have to do is add some uncooked egg noodles and then go hang out or do other work for the next fifteen or whatever the second shift may entail for you that evening.

Serve this with goldfish crackers. And I like to use the tenderloins because they're a good size if you happen to have someone who wants at the protein without fishing through the soup (aka low carb).

Enjoy! I'll post an after, after!

8:02pm on Thursday evening

Jeff has been out of the house nearly every night this week! Meetings and whatnot. We are missing the beat he lays down for the rest of us merry music makers.

Uh... Maggie has a birthday party for a little classmate of hers on Saturday morning, and do you think we are ready for that? No we are not. I need to get my butt in gear on that front! I hear the siren song of errands at lunch time!

Oh! Actually, no errands at lunch time. I am meeting someone here at the house for an appointment. hmm... Well, perhaps Jeff can grab something on HIS lunch hour...

I am getting very very excited for DMB! Listening to his music, reading up over at antsmarching.org and etc etc etc! It is looking like we will get a hotel room for the four of us in the city that Saturday night. OOO!!! can't wait! can't wait! Very much looking forward.

There are a couple funny stories on my mind right now that I would tell if only they were my stories to share... waa-haa..

The birdies of springtime are coming to town, peep-peeping in that classic way that I love. Still no discernable buds on the trees, but here and there you see daff's popping through the grit and sand. Hardly any, any snow left. Today I saw a guy working one of those rotating brushes on the end of a weed wacker, busting up the packed dirt and sand from the edges of his lawn. That's a Yankee harbinger, for serious.

Oh, and I am loving Barack and Michele as they rock the U.K. Such a gorgeous sexy couple. Rar!

Vomit

that's sort of the word on my mind right now. ate too much, would like to....

ahem!

anyway!

This is going to be quick, because I have to haul the kids to bed and then maybe go to bed myself. Feeling very thirsty right now...

uh... Nothing much, just checking in. Let's see... hmm.. OH! Maggie had the last two of the shots she'll need, and tomorrow she is registered for Kindergarten! Can you believe that? How time flies.

Today we played 21 questions. I picked a person. Maggie worked her way through a series of questions until she was stuck. "So list out what you already know from the questions you asked..."

"okay... well... It's a person, with brown skin, who lives in a house...it has a vagina..."

"What are you if you have a vagina?" I asked.

"A girl!" she said. then, "Oh!!!! I know I know I know!!! Michelle Obama!"

"yep." I said. we laughed.

There is lots of talk about the graduation ceremony that takes place apparently... I've heard about Irish step dancing, I've witnessed painstaking sign language choreography, there is the Pledge of Allegiance, recited "Nice and proud" as Maggie says, clasping her hands behind her back. It sounds unbearably cute. She wants me to wear the dress I wore at The Vagina Monologues.

I think if you are within traveling distance of my us, you ought to consider coming along to see it in person. We'll video it and put it out on the internet of course, I'm just saying if you can be here in person, I think you'll be glad you were... Hit me up on my Facebook if you want me to let you know when the graduation is, it just might melt that stone cold heart of yours...

Stuff from Ann

My mom is all settled in at her new apartment! I am so happy for her! It sounds like the other ladies in the building were super welcoming, and she is off on a new adventure. You can read all about it here at her blog, Stuff from Ann.

My mom has been keeping a blog for a couple years now, right mom? it's good stuff, and she offers an interesting perspective on life. Check it out!

Yay Mom!

Memorial Blog Clouds

oh boy.

I spent some time yesterday going over my dad's blog, having wanted to re-read a poem I'd posted there some time ago. *gulp* got all choked up, but in a good way.

I heartily recommend a memorial blog when somebody great dies. It is a good way to put something out there in the world that is a little cloud of memory and photos and stories - like a time machine you can hop back and revisit... A very visceral experience if you happened to know the guy.

And if you didn't know him, well, my dad was pretty awesome. And we really loved him.


And we took good care of him. And it happens, losing people you care about. There's no way around it.

But, I'll tell you.

It's nice to be able to take a second between projects at work and spend a few minutes reading about that special time for our family when we helped Dad do his work.



Things that I am Thankful for (mom)
A Personal Heaven (dian)
Pool Halls in Heaven BEWARE! (steve)
Nurse Fritz (me)

In order to get Maggie registered for kindergarten, she needs to have a physical, with shots!

Her appointment is tomorrow. Jeff is going to take her. I called him up and confessed my anxiety about her getting a shot in the thigh, and how I'll never forget the look on Henry's face when it happened to him.

He'd been so brave and trusting, letting me and his dad talk in front of him about the possibility of a shot, but never speaking about it himself. And then when the nurse jabbed him in the thigh, it was like you could see a piece of his childhood being snatched from him! He aged!

I couldn't bear to live through that with Maggie, was getting stomach aches from the very idea! Me nervousing alongside her would not help matters!

"So you'd like to put that on me." He said.

"Yes."

"Okay."

phew!

Tuesday evening

OMG you guys, I'm finally going to see Dave Matthews!



With Willie Nelson!



At Fenway!

woot woot woot. Do you see me standing over there, next to me? That is because I am beside myself with anticipation! It's going to be me and Jeff and Lanie and Cassidy!!! My new girlfriend Sharon (VFF- vagina friends forever!) and a friend of hers bought the two seats next to us and we are going going gone!

Saturday, May 30. Jeff and Cassidy and Lanie will have just returned from a college sight seeing trip down to Washington D.C.. I need to find a situation for both kids to sleep overnight. There's plenty of time...plenty of time.

My coworker Donna hooked me up with the tickets, onaccounta she's a Red Sox season ticket holder type of person. Donna - I will never mock your devotion to the Red Sox again! You keep rocking the jersey and the hoodie and the jersey hoodie and the little baseball shaped earings and you fly that pennant - go get 'em girl!

Oh my goodness, I remember the first Dave Matthews song I ever heard. 'What Would You Say'. Whitefish, Montana. Jeff and I had arrived at a party and I heard it playing good and loud on the stereo. I was like, damn! Who is THAT?

But I didn't really get to know him until we started hanging out with a group of other young families and one of the guys loves him and would play him good and loud off their back deck. Pouring the 'ritas and rocking out to 'Dancing Nancies' or 'Tripping Billies', telling tales of top notch concerts and other related good times. That's when I knew I had to see this guy for myself.

And Jocelyn, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I'm right when I say that it was ME who turned YOU on to Dave. And yet it was YOU and BROOKE who got to see him in concert first! And you lucky gals saw him at the Gorge in George:


And they called me during my favorite part of "When the World Ends" and sent me a sticker in the mail for my van (which I promptly lost -sorry gals!). So I was there in spirit.

Now it's my turn!

Cassidy sings with her oo-koo-lay-lay

Maggie and Nora and NightNight

Your Weekly Address

March 7, 2009

Shame!

(At not posting in so long.)

That's all I have to say about that.

So much has transpired since I last wrote! Our daughter is now 5 years old. (Five.) Jeff and the kids went and had a great week visiting Grammi and Papa in Arizona. During this time, I went to Seattle for five fun filled days. And last night was the first of two performances of a local production of "The Vagina Monologues" that I am in!

My trip to Seattle was so great, I can't begin to tell you. As soon as I landed, Dian and Jocelyn picked me up:



And we sped off to the casino. I lost, but had a great time. I was just happy to be tagging along, bringing up the rear:


At one point I was up about five dollars, but promptly lost it. Marcia and Dian stayed overnight at Jocelyn's, and Marcia made us a delicious breakfast:


And then there was a little bit of beautifying going on, sorry girls:



And then several of us went to the thrift store, where I found a great fleece for $5. Yay!

And I got to see my mom's new apartment!!!!! The pictures of her new place are on my other camera, and I need to find the cord for transferring the pics over. But trust me when I tell you that Mom's new place is such an immense improvement over her current location, I couldn't get over it. There's a park, a river nearby, a wonderfully warm and welcoming lobby and common area. I am very, very happy for her.

Her actual apartment is pretty small, but perfectly acceptable. I think of it like a cabin on a cruise ship, or a giant apartment in Tokyo. You know? If you were living in Manhattan, for example, her new place would be huge. Ship shape.

We all had a great time while I was there. Delicious food, Guitar Hero, laughing, reality magazines, shopping with Brooke, more laughing. And I even got to meet the latest member of the family, baby Layla:


Layla belongs to my nephew Scott and his wife Leanna. And I met my brother Steve's new gal pal, and got to get to know Leanna better - it was terrific! There was a big snow storm the day before I flew home, and the long term parking situation I used even dug my van out of the snow for me! I had a wonderful time. Just love my family to pieces!!!!

This week has been so busy. The kind of busy where you come home for lunch because that's the best chance to finally run the vacuum before family arrives for the weekend. And making Henry stay up late to finish his homework because I absolutely had to run out and try to find something suitable to wear for the performance this weekend. I'm not complaining, as I sit here enjoying a relaxing Saturday with my family (including the gals from Maine!) I am inclined to stop here, and go laugh with Lanie about whatever. Because I can either write about life, or live life.

AND I WANT TO LIVE!!!!!!

"I want something to eat WHILE I wait for something to eat."

That's a direct quote from Maggie. She wants something to eat. Then she wants something to eat while she's waiting for something to eat. She doesn't know what she wants (except that whatever we have/suggest is immediately rejected), but she's hungry. She wants something to eat. Well, then, she wants something to eat while she's waiting for something to eat. She doesn't know what she wants (except that whatever we have/suggest is immediately rejected), but she's hungry.

It goes on in this fashion. Highly tiresome.

Big plans in the slow cooker department! The crock pot liners I bought came last week, and they are terrific. The 'Fix it and Forget it!' Slow Cooker recipe book came, too and I went food shopping after reviewing the book and taking notes!

I'd rather review the recipes, get a feel for some crock pot staples (cream of XYZ, carrots, potatoes, celery, stew meat - you get the idea) and then pick up what I am reminded of when I'm at the grocery. It was in this fashion that I can now tell you with some certainty that we will have meatloaf Monday, chicken Wednesday and probably beef stew on Friday. Leftovers on Tuesday and Thursday.

Henry is slinking around sighing heavily because he's so bored and he can't believe Dad shut off the TV, etc. Tell it to the judge!