Betty Freakin' Homemaker

Yep, that's me while I am unemployed. Out of sheer boredom I created a dinner menu* for the rest of the week...

Tonight:
Baked salmon (Costco sells WILD salmon in their freezer section--we won't eat any of that crap farm raised stuff and yes, I am being snobby about it).
Salad
Bread

Thursday:
Cranberry apple pork loin roast (crockpot baby!)
Rice
Salad or veggies

Friday:
Going out to dinner (what? You didn't really think I would cook ALL week)!
There is an Italian restaurant that my friend Tracy keeps telling me is good and we have some friends coming into town next month, so we must preview it.

Saturday:
Swiss Steak served over egg noodles and actually Alan is going to make that--it's very yummy!
Salad or veggies
Rolls


*subject to change depending on the mood of the cook.
 
Hmmmm....what will I come up with next week.

Back from Seattle

I went back to Seattle last weekend for my Grandma Lorraine's memorial service. Grandma died in November, but the family decided to wait until after the holidays to hold the service. I last saw her at my brother's wedding in August. I realized when I went to post a picture of her I didn't have any on my computer. I stole this one from my sis-in-law's Facebook page. I am trying to get my brother to send me the really good one of her.

Grandma was a avid quilter/seamstress and had explicit instructions for the way her service was to be carried out.  She wanted it to be more like a celebration. There were many samples of her quilting work, the fun crazy dolls she used to make, lots of articles on her grocery store she ran in the 60's and 70's (one of the first women to run a grocery story by herself) and tons of people there.  I think she had 14 grandchildren (I saw so many of my cousins I hadn't seen in YEARS), and about 19 great-grandchildren.

I arrived in town on a Friday morning.  I tell you flying out first thing has its advantages.  There was a total of 20 passengers on the plane, so I was able to have a whole row to myself. My aunt Becky picked me up and we hung out with her and my uncle Dale.  Always a good time with them and my aunt Kathy came over for dinner.  The next day they took me to meet up with Katy. We had plans for a night out with friends, and had previously decided on Billy McHales, it turned out to be a very fun, very loud evening. 

BFF - Shelly & Danielle

More BFF's - Robin & Katy

Erin, Sandra, Dianne

Allison

Stepdaughter and Stepmonster drinking together--shocker!

Levitta, Dave and a really yummy margarita

Shelly & Robin sitting in the bar after dinner.

I saw several friends that night that I haven't seen in years.  I wish I would have had more time to visit, but it was already so cold in Seattle that I didn't want to extend my stay even though I am now jobless.  Speaking of cold, imagine our surprise when we walked out of the restaurant and it was freakin' snowing!!  I do believe several cuss words were uttered by several members of our party.  Of course, where Katy lives always seems to get way more snow than anywhere else, so the next morning I had to snap some photos for proof!

I sure as hell wasn't sorry to leave that winter wonderland, and Katy was kind enough to drive me to my brother's house in Seattle where they had NO snow. My mom, sister, brother, and sister-in-law had plans to go out to brunch before we headed over to my grandma's service.  We decided to splurge and go to Saltys on Alki. If you have never been there you need to go. It was expensive but well worth it. It's all you can eat and while they have all the traditional breakfast items they also have a huge variety of seafood. Some of you know how much I LOVE crab and don't eat it here in Vegas. I didn't waste any time on crap like bacon (sorry Aimee), but went straight for the crab legs, clams and shrimp.  My mouth just waters looking at the picture of my plate (I think I had 3 plates of crab).

We got a great table and had this view of downtown Seattle

My mother

My sister

My sis-in-law posing for the picture (no really, she was)

My brother showing off his plate of crab goodness. I think he likes crab as much as I do. He didn't waste his time on much else.

And finally (I know you are saying, "thank god", that is if are still reading), no blog posting would be complete without a picture or two of DOGS! Here is Gordo and Jelly Bean. They are James and Aimee's dogs and I wish they lived closer so I could babysit (notice how I said THEY can live closer to me not the other way around--yeah there is a reason for that and it's called SNOW, GRAY, RAIN and GLOOM)!!

May I whine for a moment?

I love living in Las Vegas, I really do. I love the sun, the warmth, the new friends we have made, all the restaurants (but not the weight I have gained), the fact that we can be in California, Utah, or Arizona in no time at all, the sparkling lights from the strip, the red rocks--you get the picture. The downside, and it has been a big one, is my inability to keep a job longer than 10 months! Seriously, we have lived here 2 years and 1 month and I just got laid off from my 3rd, yes 3rd job!! Now, I realize it's a sign of the times with the shaky economy, and the industries I have worked in (real estate, development, and construction) have been hit hard, but it's still damn discouraging. This will be my 3rd February in a row without work. I'm concerned about how spotty my resume is starting to look. I'm not a job hopper, really! Anyone that knows me can attest to that! In fact, I even had one job for 13 years. Sigh.

Well, on the bright side, Alan's job is pretty secure (thank God), and having some time off will allow me to play housewife and also work on losing some weight. I am hoping to be called back to my old place of employment if things pick up, but I need to be prepared for the possiblity that I won't be. I guess it's time to try and figure out what I want to do with my life.

Grandma...

That's me, Grandma Shelly, and for those of you that say "you are FAR to young to be a Grandma"...well you are correct. However, I did marry an older man with an adult daughter. She was pregnant with the first kid on our wedding day (14 loooong years ago). Anyway, one of the kids, (she calls him Thing 2 on her blog) and my 93 year old mother-in-law came for a visit this weekend. It was decided that on Saturday, Alan would take Nannie on a long drive to Lake Havasu, and Thing 2 and I would go down to the strip. Alan had previously won two tickets during Monday night football at the local casino to the "Bodies" exhibit at the Luxor, and he had no interest in seeing it so Thing 2 and I went. We both found it to be very fascinating, and I would recommend it. I had to laugh when we were walking through the casino because Thing 2 wanted nothing to do with the cigarette smoke and had his shirt covering his mouth the whole time, there was no way he was going back into a casino because of the smoke. Fine by me, so we walked down to M&M World and checked out all four (yes four) levels. Anything that you could possibly want they have, you could seriously furnish your house with all things M&M. Thing 2 wanted some peanut M&M's (go figure), so they managed to part him from $16 of his own money for a pound and a half of bright blue and red ones (what a racket). We are still enjoying the rest of our visit with them, and Thing 2 spent the better part of Sunday in our little poverty pool, while Nannie soaked up some rays!

Getting in touch with her inner wolf...

Lola

Tagged

I was tagged by Vegas Dad for an easy meme. Here are the rules:

1. Go to your documents  
2. Go to your 6th file.  
3. Go to your 6th picture.  
4. Blog about it.  
5. Tag 6 friends to do the same.

I had to improvise a bit on my folders, so I went to the year 2008 and picked the 6th picture.  This is what I came up with:

 How freakin' cute is the burro???!!  On our way back from the Red Rock Canyon we came upon a herd of these wild burros.  Alan wanted to take one home as a pet.  I didn't disagree although the landlord would have probably frowned upon it.  For real though you can adopt one.
 

Now I get to pick six bloggers to tag. I don't normally tag people but this one is fun and easy and I love looking at pictures...

 

1. Whatever, Katy

2. Write on, Yo

3. Heavy on the Caffeine

4. Constantly Relocating

5. Nannette Steve and the Creatures

 

And crap, I can only think of 5 people, but there ya go!

Happy New Year!

Time sure does go by quickly! I realized that I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, and even worse, I haven't taken many pictures. I have no new Christmas pictures, but really, how many do you need to see of me and Alan? It was just the two of us here for the holidays and we had a blast. We started the celebration off by going to the Ruskinski's Christmas Eve party. It was an evening of eating and drinking, and laughing our butts off. There is also a "white elephant" gift exchange and that was competitive as usual. Christmas day we went and saw the movie, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". The movie was long but really good. We went out to dinner after that and had filet mignon. Damn good day.

Monday after Christmas my brother, his wife, and kids came to our house on the way to Disneyland. We had an awesome dinner of salmon (thanks Jeanne), and the kids opened their gifts from us. We got them educational loud musical instruments, cuz we are the loving Aunt and Uncle. Their Puggle, Chase is here with us for the week until they come back. I feel sorry for Chase because none of our dogs will play with him. Here is a picture of Jake and Rikki. She is due in about four months.

Jaxon and Tug

Lileigh with her new tamborine

New Year's Eve we went to Chuck's house. Even though he wasn't having an "official" party it was still quite a party. At midnight we went to his neighbor's house and watched the strip fireworks on one side and Lake Las Vegas fireworks on the other. Pretty cool and I was NOT happy that I didn't have my camera! Today I spent "recovering".
Wishing all of my friends and family a happy 2009. Going to be quite a ride this year with all the economic and political changes.