Friday Five

1. So, there was an election this week. And, enough about that!

2. We had a hurricane a few weeks ago, and boy, were we lucky. Our area didn't end up getting hit very hard by it, and we only lost power for two hours.

3. Moving on to something fun... Gus! I meant to have a special post when Gus had been with us for one year...but was caught up in my overly busy life and didn't get around to it. Work was so busy for a few months that I barely managed to do anything at home except for the bare essentials. Since I'm sure your curious minds want to know, August 5th marked one full year of our amazing kitty, Gus, joining our little family. He really is a great cat. I'm so thankful that my dog-loving husband actually loves our cat. A lot. Woot!

4. I can't believe its November already. How did that happen? It seems like last week was only July. I guess time flies when you are super busy. At least that means the holidays are around the corner. Love Thanksgiving. Love Christmas. Sure, it can be stressful, but I love time with family, friends, and food.

5. Speaking of things that are just around the corner...our 10th wedding anniversary is less than two months away. Wow. It somehow feels longer than that and not that long all at the same time. Ten years. Amazing stuff!

Friday Five

I am going to Wegmans grocery store today, which is very exciting for me. Why do I love Wegmans? Let me count the ways...

1. There are multiple restaurants inside the grocery store - buffet, soup, salad, sandwiches, Asian, pizza, pasta, Mexican, seafood...options galore!

2. Speaking of options - there is a huge variety on meats, produce, desserts, cheese, specialty items, and everything else. There are so many things to look at it leaves me in quite a happy tizzy. Options, options, options!

3. The employees of Wegmans are super friendly and helpful. I've never felt any urge at all to work in a grocery store, but I do with Wegmans. Maybe when I retire?

4. As a general rule, I don't buy store brands. I'm really quite picky about my food. At Wegmans, however, I have found that I actually like the store brand. Very cool.

5. Basically, it's my favorite grocery store ever. I am exceedingly sad that the closest store is over an hour away. If Wegmans ever opened up a store within 30 minutes of me, I would probably weep with joy. I'm not kidding. As far as I'm concerned, Wegmans is the mecca of grocery stores. I heart it. A lot.

BONUS!

An open letter to Wegmans.

{ahem}

Dear Wegmans,

I'm very happy that you are opening up more and more stores in Maryland. If you could move south just a bit more, say to Waldorf, I would be eternally grateful. I would visit your gleaming and pristine store nearly every week. That's a promise!

Love and grocery wishes,
Rachel

Friday Five

1. The night before we left on vacation, there was a huge storm. Rusty was asleep and I was beginning to doze off when I began to hear the sounds of a storm. At first I dismissed it as a normal thunderstorm, but the howling wind kept getting louder and louder. I sat up in bed, unease giving way to worry. Rusty stirred and I asked him, "Do you hear that?" I got out of bed and grabbed my iPhone to look up local weather warnings as the wind continued to roar.

"Is that a tornado," Rusty wondered out loud? That's all I needed to hear. I speed walked to that bathroom, still fumbling with my iPhone in search of information. The wind raged as I sat shaking in the still damp tub with Rusty crouched beside me. I prayed for safety as branches and twigs hit the roof for what felt like an eternity. The power went out at some point. As the terrible wind finally died down, I had the presence of mind to find our local news station's website on my iPhone and touch Listen Live.

I used the light of my iPhone to find the camping light we had recently purchased on a whim (or what it?) which Rusty then used to find our big flashlight. He walked around our house, checking for damage and then shone the powerful flashlight out the front and rear doors. We had lost the top half of one of our 100' tall trees. Thank you, Lord, that the tree fell in the yard and not on our house. We shut the house up tight and let Gus out of his room, since we were now wide awake.

According to the news, there were no tornadoes, just a crazy storm with 80 mph straight winds. We got power back on late the next day (Saturday) before we had to leave on vacation (thank you, God). And the tree? It would have to wait until we got home from vacation in...

2. ...Virginia Beach! Ah, yes. I love getting away for a few days where the biggest decision is whether to start our day by floating in the pool or enjoying the beach. We all need that kind of relaxation every now and then, don't we?

3. The other important decisions while on vacation revolve around food. What should we do for lunch? PB&J in our room or eat out? Where should we go for dinner? Most of the places we went were successes. In fact, the only bomb was the Chinese place, where nearly everything was so overcooked it was nearly inedible. I still don't know what was in those deep-fried dumplings (they are supposed to be pan-fried, people, PAN-fried)! :shudder: (And no, I don't mean what kind of animal meat...they were meatless.)

All the other food we ate was fabulous - gyros and stuffed grape leaves at Ammos; topped crab flounder with a white wine lemon sauce at Il Giardino; steamed king crab legs at Captain George's, and table-side guacamole and fish tacos at the Side Street Cantina. Drool.

4. We came home on Thursday to a lonely 11-month old kitten, piles of laundry, and the tree in our front yard. On Saturday, Rusty and our brother-in-law, Barry, fired up chain saws while my father-in-law and I carried logs, limbs, and sticks. With their help, we got it completely cleaned up even though it was so hot I thought I was back in tropical Taiwan.

5. The only bad part about our vacation (beside the cost of it) is that Rusty ended up with swimmer's ear. Ouch! His right ear began hurting enough on Sunday to cause him to ask me to make him a doctor's appointment on Monday. That is saying something about the amount pain and irritation that Rusty felt, folks!

Friday Five

Today's Friday Five is in honor of a precious friend of mine, Thelma. She has had a super rough week, and by that I mean one of the worst weeks of her life. She heard that her mom's cancer is back. As if that wasn't challenging enough, she then found out that her precious, sweet, and beautiful kitty-boy is dying of Feline Infectious Peritonitis. Thelma and her husband have had Archie for less than a year (he only turned one in May). They will most likely be saying goodbye to him tomorrow morning. She is understandably heartbroken.

Archie has known such fierce love during his short life, and has given fierce love in return. He has never been one to shy away from an out-stretched hand or a free lap. He may not be the most playful kitty (due mostly to his illness, no doubt), but he more than makes up for it with his charm.

In honor of Thelma's sweet Archie, please join me and enjoy five of my favorite photos of this amazing cat (side bar: picking only five photos of this great looking boy was exceedingly hard).

1. I ♥ his coloring. Seriously, look at those stripes!

2. Passed out kitten adorableness.

3. Hilariously possessive about his stocking AND handsome. What a combination. ♥

4. Honestly with the cuteness! What's not to love?

5. He's such a beautiful boy!

Friday Five

1. We've decided to change up Gus' room. Yes, our cat has a room. What? Doesn't every cat? We are going to be getting rid of the single bed in that room. It's not usuable with Gus in there anyway, so it's just taking up space and being generally useless. We are getting a new piece of kitty furniture - a nice tall cat tree. I bought some new plastic tubs to better organize the stuff in there. Gus loves jumping up on them, so it will be fine if they sit out in the room. Gus isn't spoiled. Nope!

2. We received a package in the mail from my mom this week containing some Heralife products. I'm looking forward to mixing up a bunch of different yummy shakes.

3. I helped organize a cornhole tournament at work this week. We had 32 teams sign up! Good times.

4. I had a horrible migraine this week. It was bad on Tuesday and terrible on Wednesday. It was mostly gone on Thursday (finally). I haven't had a migraine that bad in quite a while.

5. We are going on vacation soon. I'm really looking forward to it. And by that I mean, I'm counting the days. Ah yes, the pool, beach, and relaxation. Fun dinners out with Rusty. It cannot come soon enough. We need some time off in a bad way.

Friday Five

1. I attempted making a Fresh Strawberry Pie by Weight Watchers last week. While the flavor was great, it didn't thicken up like it was supposed to. I went back and read a bunch of reviews and got a few ideas. I bought more strawberries this last weekend and tried it again. This time it turned out great!

2. We started back to the gym last week after an unintentional month long break. It's frustrating to feel like you are almost starting over again, but alas, it is what it is. All we can do is get back at it.

3. I sat outside while eating lunch one day last week and it was gorgeous! The sun was warm and the breeze was cool. The perfect day. The next day it got hot.

4. I went to a friend's house for crabs and shrimp Memorial Day weekend. We were afraid it was going to be really hot. While the day itself was very hot and humid, the evening ended up being beautiful. The food was good and the company was a lot of fun.

5. I hung up a new bird feeder on Monday, but have yet to see a single birdie eat from it. I guess it will be a while before they learn that they have a new restaurant in town. Epic fail?

Friday Five

1. So, sorry about disappearing...again. Whoops. Life has been so busy! Let's see, what have we done since I last blogged?

2. The biggest thing is that my parents came to visit us. We had a wonderful time together, but boy were we busy. Rusty can usually take off a day or two while my parents visit, but that wasn't the case this year.

3. This year my dad took on a very big project. Daddy built me a 7' x 40" bookcase for my kitchen. The weather was wet and cool, which made the process of staining long. See how beautiful it turned out?

4. Another big thing is that I took on the role of being Assistant Director of Hannah's Prayer Ministries. It is such an honor to serve the beautiful women of HP.

5. I attended the Chick-fil-A Leadercast that was simulcast at my church. It was a fantastic experience!

Friday Five

1. The Dixon family has had a rough couple weeks. One of Rusty’s cousins passed away on February 19th and an uncle passed away on the 21st. His cousin’s funeral was last Saturday and his uncle’s funeral was on Wednesday.

2. It rained cats and dogs and birds and hamsters on Wednesday during the funeral – puddles and mud abounded. Yuck. But the time spent with Rusty’s family was good, nonetheless.

3. I want to make this recipe for a whole chicken in a slow cooker tomorrow. After I remove all the meat, I want to make chicken broth in my slow cooker using a combination of these two recipes, #1 and #2. I found these three recipes on Pinterest!

4. We have been to they gym twice (TWICE!) so far this week, and we are planning on going again today. Go us! We may or may not be sore.

5. I can't believe I watched 6 hours of American Idol this week - 4 of those hours were live. I'm really glad that next week will be the normal length shows. LOL!

Friday Five

1. At Weight Watchers a few weeks ago a woman talked about eating apples with sugar-free caramel pudding. I was intrigued. I tried it this week and really enjoyed it! I ate it as my afternoon snack this week. It took me a while to finish and felt like I had eaten a lot. Great snack for only 2 points!

2. I was sad to hear the Whitney Houston passed away this week. It's very sad that she got caught up in addiction, causing her life and talent to be wasted. Sad.

3. I did pick up Gus a new jumbo litter box last Saturday. We haven't put litter in the box yet, and Gus has had fun playing in it. Yesterday he actually took a nap in there. LOL!

4. Are you excited that American Idol is back on? I'm not a fan of the first few weeks, but I enjoy it once they make it to Hollywood. I have a few favorites already.

5. Rusty had to work some nights this week. Night work is brutal on him, but it's work. And work is good.

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Feel free to join me and post your own Friday Five,
just add a link in the comments to your post.

Friday Five

1. Gus now weighs 8.6 pounds. When do cats stop growing? Wow – I’m going to have a giant snow tiger on my hands!

2. Speaking of my jumbo sized kitten, I’m going to have to pick up a jumbo sized litter box this weekend. Back when I was getting ready to look for a kitty, I bought a large litter box. I thought, “Surely I won’t need one of those gigundus litter boxes until my kitty is around a year old. They look huge! I just can’t see getting that right away.” And I thought I was right in my assessment after bringing Gus home. After all, he was only 2.5 pounds. Boy, was that a mistake. My kitten started outgrowing a large litter box before he was five months old! Now he just dwarfs the litter box. One jumbo size coming up!

3. We have been trying to use up items in our overly-packed freezer. I found a bunch of Mexican style chorizo sausage tucked away. I adore chorizo with its wonderful paprika flavor. I decided that having so much delectable sausage must mean that I should make my Chorizo Stuffed Peppers. Oh my. I love those peppers. The chorizo flavors the rice stuffing in an amazing way! So. Very. Tasty. You should try them.

4. I’m looking forward to a day at home today. I’m going to try my best to be motivated to get a bunch of big and little things done around the house. Maybe Gus will help me finish labeling my files?

5. I can't think of anything else to say. So. Um. Have a nice weekend!

Friday Five

1. I met up with two HP friends (Lizzie & Peggy) of mine up in Baltimore on Saturday. We had a great time! We ate at The Cheesecake Factory where we savored decadent avocado eggrolls, noshed on delicious chicken lettuce wraps, and finished up lunch with a light and sweet lemon raspberry cake. Sooooooo good! Then we went to the aquarium and marveled at many of God’s creations, our favorites of which included the octopus, puffins, and dolphins. After that we walked around and shopped/window-shopped and finished the day at Panera for dinner. All in all, it was a wonderful day.

2. I made a yummy crab stuffed flounder this week. The smell of the crab and fish drove Gus crazy! He jumped up on the trash can – something he hasn’t done in months. I realized that I had kind of set him up to fail by putting crab scented stuff in the trash. I should have put everything into a small bag and taken it out as soon as I was done. Good thing the trash bag was mostly full anyway, so we could just take it out. Poor Gus thought he was being tortured with yummy smells!

3. Speaking of Gus, he had his first adventure outdoors this week...on a harness and leash, that is. Rusty really wants to be able to take Gus out on a leash. Tuesday evening we slipped the harness on Gus easily, since he didn’t know what it was. He did not like it and was slinking around the house at first, like the harness was weighing him down and keeping him close to the ground. I got one of his favorite feather toys out and got him to play and realize that he could still jump, but Gus still kept licking at the harness. Wednesday evening we put the harness on again (without too much trouble), attached the leash, put him in his carrying kennel, and took him outside. (We used the kennel so he could feel safe and come out at his own little pace.) It took him a minute of hesitantly taking little steps, but he came out of the kennel and walked around with curiosity mixed with nervousness. He was sniffing everything, of course. We are looking forward to the next warm day when we can take him out again.

4. I made some delicious lettuce wraps this week. I looked up a bunch of recipes and went from there. They turned out great! Recipe coming soon...

5. We had some beautiful weather this week...in the 60s and sunny! Loved it. Loved. It.

Friday Five

1. We went to dinner and a movie last Saturday evening with friends. We had a great time...except for the part where I started coughing uncontrollably. Good grief! Luckily, my cough attack happened during the previews and I only missed the first few minutes of Mission Impossible 3.

2. I'm slowly getting over the cold I got last week. All that is really left is this cough. I'm really tired of coughing.

3. I went to a post-holiday lunch this week at work. We couldn't all make schedules work in December, so we decided to just make January work. I had a nice mixed greens salad with a yummy crab cake. Drool.

4. Gus lost a tooth this week. He was play attacking Rusty when he started acting weird. Rusty said that Gus just spit the tooth out and was licking his mouth like it felt really weird. Rusty saved the tooth so I could see it and I, like any good furmommy would, took a picture of it.

5. You would think that coming up with five things to talk about each week, but it can be surprisingly difficult. Or I just live a boring life. Ha!

Friday Five

1. Last weekend was wonderful and long (I had both Friday and Monday off).

2. Tuesday I was back at work, "enjoying" a crazy busy day. It was so cold in our building - it felt like the air conditioner was on! Then I got to stand outside in the cold rain when the fire alarm went off. Shiver! Good times.

3. Tuesday evening my throat started feeling irritated. Uh oh. Was a cold coming? Why, yes, it was a cold. Along with a serious case of the grouchies. Can you blame me? This cold is spreading around my office like wild fire!

4. I had great intentions to blog all this week, but the business and sickness got the best of me. I should be able to keep up better next week.

5. Oh, speaking of that. One of these days my Taiwanese Tuesday series will come back. Maybe in a week or two. I thought I had a couple posts figured out, but then my recipe didn't turn out like I wanted. Back to the drawing board! I would like to increase my Ingredients 101 and Technique 101 posts. Any requests for that? :)

Friday Five

1. Both Rusty and I had dentist appointments this week. Mine was for a new crown and Rusty's was for a tiny cavity. I would rather have had his appointment.

2. I have wanted a lable maker for years. I found one at Target last Saturday for $18! Yes! I'm so excited to label, well, everything! Hee hee. It will especially come in handy...

3. When I organize our new filing cabinet today. I hate filing, but I love organizing! And yes, there is a difference.

4. Project Runway All-stars started last week. Luckily, they replayed last week's episode tonight right before the new one. I love this show! :)

5. Last, but certainly not least, I have a sweet friend, Thelma, that is posting a series on her blog called The Gap about her journey (with her husband) through infertility to living joyfully as a complete family of two. It's amazing, just like her.

Friday Five

1. Wow. What a week! I blogged 5 times (including today). I know what you are thinking..."Pace yourself, Rachel!" I mean, it's not like I've been keeping up with my blogging in months. I'm going to try and blog more regularly. I promise. Not to mention...

2. ...I have quite a bit of new material in blogging about my migraines/headaches. Much, much, much more to come.

3. While we were off on Monday, we decided to tackle the mess that was our home office. We had to keep the door to that room closed at all times - it was not kitten friendly. We spent hours sorting, throwing away, cleaning, organizing, rearranging, and filing. It now looks like a completely different room. And we can leave the door open and let Gus roam around. It's wonderful! There are just a few more things to do and the room will be perfect. I really can't wait!

4. Gus has discovered our ceiling fans. He stares hard at them while pacing around. He seems to be trying to figure out:
a. what ceiling fans are,
b. if they are evil, and
c. how to get close enough to snif and paw at them.

5. Speaking of my kitten... Gus likes to sleep in the evening....at least until around 8:00 pm when he likes to run around like he has double-sided sticky tape on his tail. Did I ever tell you that story? Oh, it's a good one. I felt awful for the little kitty. He got some tape stuck to his tail and FREAKED out. He was hissing and growling like crazy! It took us a while to figure out what was wrong. He was scared and mad...at the tape that was obviously chasing him. We had to cover him with a blanket, Rusty held him down, and I ripped the tape off. Poor thing. Oh, so I guess he doesn't usually run around like he has double-sided sticky tape on his tail - just like a crazy kitty.

Friday Five

1. I have pretty much finished my Christmas shopping - except for a few things that I will have to get out in Kansas City. Woot! Now I just have to get wrapping. That is my task for the weekend.

2. We had a dessert party and an ugly/tacky holiday sweater contest at work this week. I stuffed my face with treats and won third place with my ugly sweater.

Polly says hi!

3. I put up my little tree Wednesday evening and Gus was only mildly interested. I will be putting ornaments on the tree tonight. We'll see how this goes.

4. What else? What else? I can't believe I'm blank. I feel like more has been going on. Oh well, I guess that means I'll end on this note...

5. I love my kitten. He is cute. Here is photographic proof.

Friday Five

1. I got a new iPhone this week. I ordered it online and Verizon said it would ship on December 9th. It shipped on Monday! Yay! I love it. It rocks my socks. And is very fast. And I love it already. A friend at work forwarded me an article on the 50 Best iPhone Apps 2011...and I've already downloaded a bunch of them.

2. I hope to be about 95% done with my Christmas shopping today. There are a few things I have to wait on, but I'm looking forward to being mostly done.

3. I meant to do some decorating last weekend, but just didn't have the energy when I had the time (story of my life). I need to just do it this weekend so we have plenty of time to enjoy all the prettiness.

4. We aren't getting a real tree this year since we will not be in town for Christmas. I bought a decorative wrought iron tree last year that I will try out. I hope I like the results! I'll post pictures later.

5. I am a little leery about how excited Gus will be by the decorations...specifically the tree and ornaments. LOL! I may put a few things out at a time...and I guess I need to make sure he has a chance to sniff things thoroughly.

Friday Five

1. Work has been painful this week. Painfully slow and boring!

2. Our little suburb went pretty suddenly from having zero Chinese restaurants to having three! 3! What on earth?! We've only tried one of them so far, and it was ok. Well, Rusty liked it, but I thought it was just ok. We plan on trying the other two and will hopefully find our favorite.

3. We also just recently got a Mexican restaurant...it was delicious!

4. Yes, sit-down eateries are a BIG dealio for us...before this sudden influx we only had one sit-down place.

5. I had to work today. Yuck. I would have much rather gone shopping. I don't do the crazy Black Friday shopping, but I do like to go and do some shopping.

Friday Five

1. You are looking at my department’s newest employee of the month! Yep. That’s me. The best part about it is getting a reserved parking spot. That’s a hot commodity here, people. HOT!

2. Seeing how today is Veteran’s Day, I need to pause and say a big thank you to the men and women that have served and currently serve in our military. Freedom is not free and I have each of you to thank for the freedom that I enjoy. Thank you!

3. We have some friends coming into town this weekend. Today the guys are all hanging out. I don’t know what they will end up doing. Us girls will be cooking a Thanksgiving feast to be enjoyed at dinner. Yummy! I am supplying the Green Bean Casserole (recipe to be shared later), Pumpkin Cake (also to be share later), and some other odds and ends.

4. Tomorrow the guys will be going to the Maryland vs Notre Dame football game. It’s a night game so they won’t be getting home until late. Very late.

5. And while the guys are doing manly football things, the girls will be going shopping! I really need to get cracking on my Christmas shopping.

Friday Five

1. I picked up a small vacuum last Saturday since we have to vacuum up kitty litter every few days due to an enthusiastic kitty. I got it home and excitedly took it out and put it together. It wasn't until I had everything out that I noticed that it was missing the charger. Great. A small cordless vacuum doesn't work well without being charged. Good news though - I was able to exchange the vacuum last night. And yes, I did check to make sure this one had a charger.

2. I am going to help my BFF tomorrow with a crafty project for her oldest daughter. We are decorating a paper turkey. Should be fun.

3. Have you started Christmas shopping yet? I have some things, and should probably pull it all out to make sure I remember everything I have. Shhhh, what I already have is classified TOP SECRET!

4. Rusty and I are going to a church barn bash tonight. Should be a great time - pig roast, desserts, bonfire, wheelbarrow joust, games, entertainment, and more! It's going to be in the 40s this evening, so I am going to be sure to bundle up. Brrr!

5. If you have a few moments, can you pray for my friend and founder of Hannah's Prayer Ministries, Jenni? She had a stroke on Tuesday which caused a seizure and left her unresponsive for a number of hours. She is still in ICU but hopes to be moved to a regular room in a few days. She is having some double vision in her left eye and a little paralysis on the left side of her face, but she is able to talk.