A Week In The Life: Day 3, Tuesday

Tuesday, May 4th

Another day at the office! I did get the thrill of following a very handsome man for most of my drive time though!

I wasn't at the office long before I had to head out for a quick errand to Office Depot.
We needed a CD Player in order to load all the software and drivers onto the new Service Department laptop.
The majority of my day was spent on this project.
Laptops and software and printers and scanners and mobile air cards...oh, my! Next time I will just go ahead and pay Geek Squad to do the whole thing. I didn't think it was going to be difficult (and with the exception of the laptop not having a CD-Rom, it wasn't), but it was time consuming.
I did have a nice break for lunch, though.
I met my friend, Miranda, and her brand new 7 week old twins for lunch at Chili's! Good food, good friends and baby snuggling: What could be better than that?
Maybe this!
When I returned from lunch, I found that we had visitors. Meagan and Davin had stopped by to see us for a short visit while they were out running errands.
Here is a picture of Pappaw tickling Davin with the electric eraser.
On the way home, it was time to feed the old iron horse!
I had worked late getting ready for an early morning meeting...so I picked up Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner.
When I got home, My Hero and Will were working on the fence at the back of the property again. Jim called me just as I walked in the house to tell me where they were. Next thing I knew, I had a driver picking me up to take me back to see the progress.
After the day's work was completed, I got to drive the tractor back to the house. It was the first time I was allowed to drive it! I didn't even know what all the controls were for. But it arrived safely back at the garage. (In an effort to keep this honest, I didn't have to drive it through the gate due to some freshly poured concrete...so, there really was no chance of me running over anything other than a tree or five hundred!)
After sitting down to our Kentucky Fried Chicken (in a pink "Buckets For The Cure"), I made a quick run to the Shell station for some taco shells so that Will could get his Spanish project for Cinco de Mayo ready.
Here he is making tacos. Jim made him do it all himself!
Finally, around 8:30 we were able to sit down and watch The Biggest Loser. Thank goodness for DVR's! That two hour program feels like it is 3 and half hours long when you watch it without a DVR. I am sorry, but they could cut 30 minutes to an hour off if they would just go ahead and show us the weigh-ins without cutting to commercial and playing the same scene through AGAIN! Of course, now they have just moved three to four commercials into the actual show. (What was last night's? Multi-grain Cheerios, the Jacob's Ladder and at least one more item that escapes my memory right now!)
I managed to read a little (a very little) before falling asleep.

A Week In The Life: Day 2, Monday

Monday mornings mean back to school and back to work for the Goode household. I couldn't enjoy my morning cup of coffee on Monday because when I went to the refrigerator to grab my container of creamer...there wasn't one. I am sorry, but if my coffee is not blond...I am not drinking coffee. (And I don't like the powdered stuff either. I know, I am high maintenance in the area of coffee.) So, instead my breakfast came in a bowl - Honey Nut Cheerios to be exact.
This is a familiar sight during my daily commute. But also notice the beautiful,blue the sky.

On the way into the office, I had to make a pit stop at Best Buy. On the agenda was the items needed to set up a mobile office for our Service Department Technician. He is so busy these days that we needed a time-saving way to communicate with him. I thought of a Smartphone, but that didn't solve the need we had for getting information from him...so mobile office it is.

After Best Buy, I stopped in at Office Depot for the portable printer and scanner as BB doesn't carry that sort of thing in the store.

It was nearly lunch so I stopped at my favorite fast food place to pick up something to eat at my desk.

Monday's are payroll day...so with that and the gathering of items for the mobile office, I had a very full day. As I was driving home around 5:30, I noticed the temperature gauge in my truck.

I think Spring is making her exit and Summer is getting ready to saunter down the runway. (92 degrees!)

When I got home, I found My Hero very busy building another fence. He is trying to get the property cross fenced so that they can move the cows back and forth between pastures.

While Jim was setting t-posts, Will was making sure that everything stayed level.

Look at those mud boots and basketball shorts. Now that is a daring fashion statement if I ever saw one.

I headed inside to throw some laundry in the machines and start dinner. What a surprise was waiting for me!

When I opened the back door, Pib ran outside quickly...now I know why!

After cleaning up the trash and myself, I pulled out my ingredients for dinner. It was a new recipe that I received from All Recipes - Shrimp and Asparagus Fettuccine (except I used angel hair past instead of fettuccine.)

And this is how it turned out.

Believe me when I tell you that there is alot of pasta in this pasta bowl! Jim, Will and I all ate, but it didn't look like we had put a dent in it when I cleared the table!

We ate late due to the guys working on the fence...so once dinner was consumed, we watched a couple of our Monday night shows that we DVR. Rules of Engagement - Jim's favorite; and Big Bang Theory - my favorite.

Then it was time for beddy-bye! It had been a long day!

Shrimp & Asparagus Pasta

(Fonda's Version)

1 bunch fresh asparagus, trimmed and snapped into 1" pieces

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 teaspoons of minced garlic

salt and pepper, to taste

1 pound dry angel hair pasta
2 teaspoons olive oil

1 pound uncooked shrimp, peeled, deveined and tails removed

1 1/2 teaspoons Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning

1 cup freshly shredded Parmesan cheese

Separate asparagus tips from rest of 1" pieces and set tips aside. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Stir in the garlic until it begins to turn brown (about 5 minutes). Stir in the stalk pieces of asparagus, cook until tender but still bright green (about 5 minutes). Add aparagus tips and cook for 5 more minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

While the asparagus is cooking, fill large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a boil. cook the pasta, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is cooked through but still firm to the bite (about 8 minutes). Drain, return to pot and drizzle with 2 teaspoons olive oil. Toss.

Remove the asparagus from skillet with slotted spoon, reserving oil in skillet. Set aside. Drain shrimp on paper towels to remove excess moisture. Place shrimp in hot skillet over medium high heat. Sprinkler Cajun seasoning over shrimp and cook until pink. Return the asparagus to skillet and het thoroughly (2 to 3 minutes).

Stir the shrimp and aparagus into the cooked pasta and toss with shredded Parmesan cheese. The olive oil serves as the sauce, so add more as needed to generously coat the past, shrimp and asparagus.

Prep time: 25 minutes (Much less if you buy peeled, deveined shrimp.)

Cook time: 25 minutes

Serves: 8

380 calories a serving.

We had Garlic Toast and Salad with ours.

A Week In The Life: Day 1, Sunday

A couple of my friends, namely Robin and August, both began a Project 365 in 2010. I have enjoyed following along with their daily activities by way of posting one picture a day of something going on in their life. A few weeks back, Robin suggested that I should start one since I was so diligent about keeping up with hers and I was carrying a camera around with me everywhere these days anyway. I joked back that if I kept a Project 365 it would be made up of pictures of 290 (the highway of my workday commute) and my computer screen. In other words, I live a boring life most days.

Then last week, I was reading a blog that I visit regularly and really enjoyed that day's guest post. I clicked over to her regular blog and found the idea for "A Week In The Life". The idea is to record in picture and journal format an account of an ordinary week in the life of your family. While this is to result in an actual album of some sort, I thought I would also post a few of the details here on the blog.

I decided to begin on a Sunday for two reasons: I tend to fail to follow through with things on the weekend, so this gives me a free day on each weekend involved & because our weekends tend to be feast or famine when it comes to activity. One weekend may find us doing absolutely nothing and the next we are barely able to catch our breath. This past weekend I knew we were having company in town...next weekend, nothing!

So, here goes...A Week In The Life Of The Goodes: Day 1, Sunday

I started off my Sunday morning with a big cup of cream and coffee. I love my new coffee cups. I picked these up at Ross a few weeks back just because they make me smile. (I also picked up two breakfast plates that match. I wish I could find some more pieces!)
As you can see, I really mean that I have coffee with my cream. It is so 'blond' that you can barely see it against the yellow interior of that cup! (And I love the term 'blond' for my coffee. I picked that up from a friend this weekend!)
After coffee, I started on Sunday dinner preparations. Championship Bar-b-que Ribs, YUMMM! They take hours to cook, but are sooooo worth it.
While I was busy in the kitchen, we had a visitor arrive at our back door. Stacy, Albert and Charley came by to pick up a saw for their revitalization of the back yard project. You know how the saying goes, "Back door friends are best"!
One of Jim's closest friends, Barry, was in town for a golf weekend. He wanted to get on the road before dinner was ready for his drive back to the Dallas area...but we were able to visit in the kitchen for a little bit before he left.

Brian spent a few days with us over the weekend. Meagan, Derrick and Davin came over for dinner too. We missed seeing Kelli, Matt and the kiddoes...but Matt's work schedule got changed around so they were unable to make it over.

After lunch, we headed outside to the patio to sit and talk awhile. At one point, Davin came walking out of the house with a clothes basket in which to trap "Pibbys", as Davin calls Pib.

Around dark, we headed into the house to watch Brian Regan's 'The Epitome of Hyperbole' on the DVR. Meagan and Derrick had not seen it yet. We took the family to see him in person last year at Verizon Wireless theatre and everyone kept going on about how much Derrick looks like Brian Regan.

Derrick says he can't see it. Can you?

Well, Davin had not had a nap since they arrived and he was wired for sound. He got bored with he comedy show pretty quickly (he wanted to watch Scooby Doo), so he and I headed for the new sitting room where he quickly converted our new settee into an 'old Jeep'. He 'drove' while I had to sit in the back seat in my car seat. We must have made a half dozen trips to the store for toys!

Brian and the Rodgers Crew left around 9 and most of the rest of us headed off to bed.

See what exciting days we have? Just wait until tomorrow's post!