Venison Chili

The hubs and I have some venison in our freezer. Some of it in steak form, some of it in ground venison form.

Tonight, we experiment with venison chili. He was pushing for venison chili, so he's the master chef tonight.

What you need:

• 1 pound venison
• 2 cans chili-ready beans
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• half of an onion, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons steak sauce
• 1 tablespoon Cholula sauce
• 1 jar of salsa (chunky)
• 1 can southwestern style diced tomatoes

What you do:

• Brown the venison and chop your onion and pepper (we have a handy-dandy veggie chopper aka time saver).
• Throw everything in a stock pot (or crock pot) and give it a stir. Bring it to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes, or until veggies are tender-crisp (5 to 6 hours in the slow cooker, on low).
• Top with your choice of chili toppings. I go for cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. Hubs does cheese and sour cream.

Pretty tasty meal. And! I didn't have to cook OR clean! Win-win in my book!

Baby!

I recently brought my beloved husband into our local baby store. All baby stuff.

These types of stores aren't really my cup of tea, as prices are usually marked up. I think they're going for the convenience factor of being able to get everything for baby in one place. There are pet stores that are the same. I don't spend much time in these stores for a couple of reasons.

1. The prices are high.
2. They sell quite a few unnecessary items.

The only child I have right now is a mere 16 weeks along, so I am no expert when it comes to babies. At all. Who really is an expert, anyway? I did; however, work in a daycare that had babies as little as 6 weeks old. Even as a 22 year old, I was saddened by how quickly parents were called back to work at babies were sent off to some form of daycare.

That said, I know a little bit about babies. I know a bit about the stuff that goes along with a baby. And, holy cow, it is a LOT of stuff.

My husband, on the other hand, wasn't as aware.

And it freaked him out.

Of course, he has now realized how awesome of a shopper I am. Upon leaving the store he said, "Thank God you found a dresser slash changing table for $35."

I smiled. Planted a kiss on him, too.

Oh, and. Craigslist has become my new best friend.

Adios, Raja

My beautiful Rust Bucket. The wonderful Mitsubishi Mirage. She's been a gem. A joy. Her radio crapped out a few months ago. She's louder than ever. If you lift the hood, pieces of it fall to the ground. She's that rusty. She and I don't go anywhere without the jumper cables (even though I've never had a problem).

The time has come, though. The time to say goodbye. I find myself a little bit sad...but mostly super excited!

You see, my mother-in-law just bought herself a new car. And her old car is coming to us. She just gave us her Explorer. It's hard to believe. But it's true. We get her on Saturday.

I find myself happy, though, because this came at the perfect time. My brother drove his car into the ground. His car won't start. It won't budge. No sound of an engine even turning over. D-E-A-D, dead. While the Rust Bucket has a few quirks...don't close the gas door, it won't open again...she runs. She'll get you from A to B and then back to A or maybe off to C. She needs new tires, but she has a brand new battery.

I think, come Saturday, the Rust Bucket will be moving downtown. What a wonderful car she has been. And she's made it through the whole family: my sister bought it, I've had it, and now the little brother will have it. It just seems fitting.

Another One of Those Posts

I know, I know, I know. In the last couple of months my posts have all mentioned how tired I've been. How when I get home from work, all I want to do is chill on the couch and veg out. How I haven't felt that great. How I've been a little bit stressed out. All of which is no fun to read.

And because of that, I've been rather distant. I have just "stayed away."

But there's a reason. A pretty good reason. A reason that takes 9 months to "cook." A reason that is a third of the way there.

You've guessed by now, I'm sure. And you are right:

I'm pregnant!

The hubs and I are expecting little nugget #1 in May, and we couldn't be more excited!  And now, I apologize for being so distant. Every post that I have started has ended up with a pregnancy note, and we just weren't ready to share the news until now. Of course, we're not sharing with everyone quite yet. Our families know. Our closest of close friends know. Now, my sort-of-anonymous blog knows. My personal Facebook? The husband's personal Facebook? Still in the dark. And that's how we want it for now...

There are so many things that can go awry. So, so many things. And for us, it is best to keep it a little bit on the quiet side.

Quite frankly, though, I was missin' my blog and itchin' to write!

Tuesday Love

Tuesday may be one of my favorite nights of the week. Not days, but nights. Tuesday daytime is okay... Monday is over, it's almost Wednesday. But it's still Tuesday. And sometimes? Sometimes I think Tuesday is harder on a five year old than Monday is.

But, Tuesday night? Tuesday night is so wonderfully amazing! I see my girls. There are seven of us from high school that hang out on a weekly basis. We rotate homes and take turns making dinner for each other. Does everyone make it? No. In fact, I missed the last 2 Tuesdays. And sometimes the gathering is really small. There were three of us tonight.

I made spaghetti with homemade sauce with an Italian Balsamic grape seed salad. One friend brought the red wine, another the bread. We dined and discussed life.

We talked about husbands and significant others. We talked about the upcoming elections. We talked about work. We touched on important topics, we chatted about the unimportant. But the topic of conversation isn't what matters.

No, what matters is that I still see these beautiful women quite frequently. These women that I met years years ago (I met one of them 21 years ago!). These women that are six of the most important women in my life.

And when there is a lull in conversation, as there often is among close friends, a certain puppy-boy entertained us by bringing all of the pillows out to the living room.

Big, Gaping Hole

When we bought our house, the previous owners had taken and/or sold everything. Including the kitchen sink. There was no microwave, no fridge, no range. No dishwasher (although there was a space for it, thank God!). No water softener, no washer, no dryer. Shower heads were missing. And the kitchen sink really was gone, too. It's like that old phrase, "everything but the kitchen sink," only opposite: "everything including the kitchen sink."

Right before closing, an oven/stove and double sink were purchased and installed for us. We lucked out, too, with other appliances. An uncle got a new washer and dryer, we got their old ones. My parents had a fridge in their basement for us to take. We got a dishwasher for Christmas. We spent a whopping $150 on appliance, so we could have a microwave. But there was still a gaping hole between the fridge space and the range. It was as though someone had taken a piece of the countertop and base cabinet. Unless the previous owners had a beautifully large range.

But, for over a year, we lived with the empty space. First, we used it as a storage space for pop and water. Then, we moved the garbage can and recycling bin to that area. We had hoped, someday, to find a base cabinet that would fit so we could better conceal our garbage bin.

Well, my friends. That day was today. In all of our trips to the Home Depot since we've been homeowners, we finally decided to wander down the cabinetry aisle today and were shocked at the price of a single base cabinet. Hubs and I were expecting to drop a couple hundred dollars on one cabinet at some point. Today was not going to be that day; there are other things that are a bit higher on the list of priorities.

The prices shocked us. Under $100 for a 15 inch base cabinet? Are you kidding me!? Sold. Right then and there.

We bought that cabinet right up and brought it home. It's currently resting between the oven and the fridge, without a countertop. It doesn't match the rest of our cabinets (they were custom cabinets), and quite frankly, I do not care. That space is filled. We no longer look at the garbage can and recycling bin. And it is white (the future color of all of our cabinetry in the kitchen). And, we're getting a piece of butcher block for the countertop in the next couple of days.

I am one happy chica.

Weddings

Today, as I get ready to attend two weddings, I am constantly reminded about how wonderful my husband is. He really is a gem.

He puts up with my tears (there have been quite a few of those, lately). He puts up with my exhaustion. He puts up with my love/hate relationship with our house.

I dislike the hole in the floor and the unfinished wall from our Wall Demolition. I love the fact that the wall is gone, creating an open floor plan on our main level.

I don't really enjoy the fact that we live in a cookie-cutter neighborhood. It just isn't my style. I love and adore the fact that we're on the outside of said neighborhood, with a large lot and privacy. With room enough for 4 raised garden beds, maple trees to tap and an Earth-friendly compost bin tucked away from the house.

I despised the color of our house, for it reminded me of old parmesan cheese that had gone bad. But the wonderful husband and I tackled that project this summer.

I get irritated with our lack of kitchen storage, but am so thankful that my husband just laughs and shakes his head after I reorganize and he can't find anything. Funny story. He was just out of town with our brother-in-law. He made a comment along the lines of upon his return home, he'll have to learn a new organizational system, because it most likely has been changed (it was).

Do I hate my house? No, not at all. Do I get irritated with it? Of course! But am I so thankful for having these four walls and a roof? I sure am.

And really, I don't love my husband and think he is a gem just because I puts up with me and my thoughts of the house. But, this post would never end if I gave you all of the reasons I love my husband.