My List

I have had a very, very rough few days. I was blind-sided by a turn of events both personal and work related and I have been in a serious, disbelieving funk because of the situation. Normally, I am laid back and keep on rolling when bad things happen. Not this time. Not this time...I contacted a sweet, fellow believer LATE last night and I believe her words of support and her prayer have helped pull me through enough to realize I am stronger than this situation (with God's help) and that I needed to let it go for now and enjoy my days off of work and time with my family.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have always LOVED Thanksgiving. I love the food of course, but I also love the relaxed atmosphere. I love eating comfort food with family surrounding me and then moving to the living room to watch the Dallas Cowboys! Of course making it through the entire game without falling asleep can be extremely challenging!

I wanted to create a list to demonstrate what I was thankful for this year that included both serious and whimsical things. My list is by no means exhaustive or complete. However, these are a few things in which I am grateful for this year.

1. My boys...they both drive me crazy at times since they are 3 and 15, but I sure do love 'em!
2. Indoor Plumbing (Yes, I'm serious. Think about it!)
3. When "In Your Eyes" comes up on my Ipod.
4. My job!!
5. My vacation to Cape Cod!
6. Philosophy Body Products (Try Amazing Grace or Smores!)
7. The extremely comfortable bed and bedding when I stay at Hampton Inn for business.
8. Landon receiving a new eye just in time for Thanksgiving. (It looks gorgeous!!!)
9. My loyal and truly caring friends. (K.R.S.-a surprise blessing in 2008! Elaine-THX for the visit!!!!)
10. Cathy staying in my life despite leaving my company. I've never met anyone like her!
11. The burn that happens in your throat from chugging a BOTTLED Coke on a hot day!
12. Catching up with former students on Facebook. LOVE IT!
13. Every time I type a message on my blackberry which has all the words, correct spelling, and reasonable grammar.
14. My house--it is in a great part of Nashville and it feels like home.
15. "Life on Mars" Jason O'Mara anyone???
16. Being a Native Texan!
17. A successful season for Texas Tech football.
18. Reconnecting with my former youth minister, Rick Brown. ( I didn't know how much I truly missed him.)
19. Moments when I have the clarity of thought to acknowledge that I can’t control what happens - only how I react.
20. Jill-my saving grace at work. What a trooper she has been with those blueprints, contracts, graphs, excel...etc.
21. John loving to make music again...the passion is back. Yeah!
22. My family...what would I do without them? (Don't ever want to find out!)
23. Everyday I have the opportunity to learn something new.
24. FAB (oh my gosh, how I love to catch their shows in Nashville!!)
25. The freedom to practice my faith as I see fit.
26. The movie "Cars" and "Scooby Doo"-toddler crack, let me tell ya!
27. OJ Simpson finally receiving justice.
28. That I am a female born in the United States of America.
29. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (It's just a flesh wound I tell you!)
30. Liam becoming potty trained this year. Whew...
31. The Cotter side of the family...for a bunch of Yankees...you all ROCK!
32. French Onion Soup at Bistro 215 and the 'people watching' that you get for free!
33. Gracepointe Church and the teachings of Stan Mitchell...wow
34. The entire frozen foods section at Trader Joe's.
35. Sarah Palin. She made SNL funny again.
36. Bridget-is there a better human being? Her parenting skills and devout faith are beyond admirable.
37. The "Rick and Bubba Show" every morning on WLAC.
38. That Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt Eloped! I am SO kidding!!! Are they real people???
39. The men and women in the military who give us the ability to go to bed at night and not worry. (Thanks, Keith!)
40. Gluten Free Bloggers...nice to know I am not alone on this journey.
41. That on Thanksgiving I am not a turkey.

Food for My Irish Hubby

My husband is an Irish Catholic boy from Brooklyn. I am a protestant girl from Texas. I am Scottish and Irish but did not grow up eating the traditional foods of my ancestry. What is ironic is that it IS my ancestry that contributed the most to me having my disease--celiac. Anyway, John loves Irish food and was raised eating it on a very regular basis. I am learning to cook the Irish foods he enjoys such as soda bread, corned beef, and Irish Stew. The Irish put a great emphasis on potatoes and butter-yummy! One of the dishes John especially likes is colcannon.

I have never been a fan of cabbage. Basically all colcannon is, is mashed potatoes with cabbage and lots of butter, lots of milk, lots of salt and pepper. Easy. And, if you have leftovers, you can make what's called bubble and squeak in England, apparently. Just fry the mixture until brown on one side, then flip, and eat. My husband would probably add a fried egg on top for himself.

Directions to make Colcannon:

If you're making corned beef by boiling the meat(which John prefers over the baked way), then add 1 head of cabbage, roughly chopped, and a few potatoes, roughly 4, peeled and cut into about 6 pieces in the last twenty minutes of cooking. Remove the meat when it's done, separate out the potatoes and mash them with a lot of butter (I used about a half a stick) and about a half cup of milk or half and half, and a good big pinch of salt and pepper. Stir in the cabbage, but first chop it up finer if you want. I wanted to because I wanted to pretend I wasn't eating cabbage. It should be good and fluffy.

If you're not making corned beef, boil a pot of salted water and add your potatoes and cabbage. I threw in half a rough chopped onion too. Cover and boil until everything is tender, about 15 minutes. Follow instructions above.

My Knight in Shining Armor

A little beyond Halloween, but who is counting?? My little man was so pumped about dressing up for Halloween. Liam initially wanted to be either (1) A Skunk or (2) a car that plays music! Considering I do NOT sew the skunk outfit was not a possibility. Liam decided the night before Halloween he wanted to be a car that plays music. We might have been able to semi pull off that outfit if we had been given more than a day's notice from His Majesty! Therefore I was able to talk Liam into visiting a store just to "browse" the costumes. He was doubtful that he would find an outfit and was not very enthused about this whole process. (Remember this child is 3!!!!!) After going through what seemed like 50 outfits and wading through the other 100 parents and kids who also waited till the last minute, Liam found his perfect costume.



Liam became a Knight in Shining Armor! He was thrilled with his choice!!!! Liam came home and immediately transformed into King Arthur and got busy "knighting" all the animals. On Halloween we went to the church "Trunk or Treat" and he had a ball. The cars were to decorate as a theme so it was really entertaining to me as well to see all of the effort the folks made to provide the kiddos a safe and fun alternative to knocking on doors!



Yes, for those of you who are wondering, Jonathan also dressed up for Halloween. He went as a Monk and the outfit rocked! However, Jonathan is NOT into pictures these days (in case you haven't noticed by the lack of pics of my 15 year old) and refused to let me snap photos of he and his friends before they went to terrorize Green Hills!!

The Facebook Experiment

I am terrible at maintaining anything on the Internet. I stink at it. Case in point-my last blog attempt had only a dozen or so entries and it was 11 months between posts. I started a MySpace with the help of my sister but it lasted maybe a week. I am on the computer sooo much for work that when I come home I shy away from the Mac. However, last weekend I was convinced to join Facebook. I was persuaded by the fact that it is more private then MySpace and more fun. Hmm...I'd have to think about that. Reluctantly,I put together a profile and uploaded some pics. I decided to look up a couple of former students and the rest is history as the saying goes.

Facebook has been a lot of fun. I am a bit overwhelmed at the moment due to the sheer number of former students I have added as friends. I intend to make contact with each one. It has been terrific to see where former students are in their lives. Some of my former students are now 30!!! Can you believe it??? Others are married with children and some are still trying to find their way in this world.

It has been a true blessing to catch up with former students. When I was teaching I would become so emotionally invested in some of their lives. Especially the Class of 2000 from Santa Fe High School. I taught some of those students 3 of their 4 years in high school. I saw them enter as 9th graders and cried with happiness for them when they graduated. When that Class of 2000 walked away from Santa Fe High School, I did as well. Going back to SFHS in the fall without them was not an option. I remain especially close to one-Jenn- who is my surrogate 3rd sibling my sister and I always wanted!

I no longer teach, but I am still an educator and I still care about my former students. I am glad they are letting me catch up with them and pleased that so many want to catch up with me! I have a blackberry and that enables me to write on their walls or send a quick message. Thankfully, because of the blackberry I don't have to be in front of the Mac every night to keep up with Facebook. Without the blackberry, I would imagine my Facebook experiment would not be working out so well. : )

My former students are grown up or growing up-just as it should be!