Found in Fishers

My Pursuit of Happiness

What a great weekend! The weather was awesome and I relaxed just about all weekend long. It was great. Today was especially great. I started out my day by making zucchini bread. John was given some zucchinis from some folks at the Schneider church. For the life of me I could not find the blender to grate the zucchini. Instead I got a bit creative. I put them through our smoothie maker. It worked out great. I just kept the spout open with a measuring cup and kept adding zucchini until I got my 2 cups worth. While waiting for the bread to bake, I watched some TV.  What is very satisfying is the fact that both my picky kids love the bread. Liz is even taking some to her boyfriend who is in culinary school. I have enough zucchini for 2 more recipes.
When John work up, he made us all breakfast. Omelets and hash browns. Our weekend favorite.

After running some errands with my friend Katie, I did some work outside. I have been trying to spend a little time in my garden each day. Tuesday I planted some wild grasses around the utility box outside. I have been cleaning gardens each night as well starting to clean up the spent flowers.
One night Mark, John, and I spent the evening cleaning up the yard, edging and doing those once in a while yard jobs. The best part of it all has been my sunflowers. They make me smile.

Last May I planted two packets of sunflower seeds in the garden behind the deck fencing. I was hoping they would grow really tall. Not only did they do just that they also peak over the railing with over 50 flower heads blooming or just about ready to bloom. I love them. I see them from my kitchen window. I see it from the deck. I see them as I pass by the kitchen each day. I took a couple flowers to keep on my desk at work too.

These sunflowers remind me to take time and enjoy the little things in life. Just 3 months ago I was digging little holes in our clay soil and now I can sit outside and enjoy the beauty of nature.

A Second Day at the Fair

With Sarah, Mom, and Liam in town, it was time to hit the State Fair during its last weekend. Besides this time I had more people to share some food with. When we first got to the fair, we started by watching the dog agility tests. Liam was not too happy. I don't think it was because he was at the fair but more like he knew he had new Legos to build at my house.

We decided to see how long we could entertain ourselves in the Hoosier Lottery area. With just $10 we scratched dollar cards for almost a whole hour. Everytime we won money we traded it in for more tickets. We also got to spin the fun wheel landing us a beach mat, a beverage bag, a hat, and a t-shirt.

We started our food extravaganza with fried sauerkraut balls. Of course this was a repeat for me from the week before except I had two other people to eat them with me. Delicious. Mark and Liam took a pass.
Next up was the signature food of this year's fair, Fried Pizza. I really liked it. It was the dough of an elephant ear fried but with no sugar. A tomato sauce on top with Parmesan cheese. There were five people sharing but we each got a good size bite.

The weather was great. It was mostly cloud cover and it did rain for about 10 minutes but perfect weather for a fair. We went to the ride area so Liam could go on a few. We saw the logging show but it was at that point Liam realized there was a Legos area. He quickly made way to that area while my mom and I sat down to rest our feet. We tried to see the Peiking Acrobats but there was not a seat to be had. Instead we ended up walking back to the food area and snacked on fried cheese. Cheddar and Mozzarella. And for dessert, A funnel cake! After six hours it was time to hit the road. We had enough fried food and were ready for some real food.

A Royal Celebration

It was a Girl's Night Celebration at my place. How exciting for us! Sarah decided earlier in the week to drive to Indy for the last weekend of the Indiana State Fair. She asked Mom to come as well so we could have a girl's weekend. Passing Calumet Bakery in Lansing on her way home from work, she was enticed into the place for a cake. Not just any cake. An Anti-Pity Party Cake. A Calumet Bakery cake.

Let me explain. Many times when the girls get together we will have a pity party. Pity parties are our way to reduce stress and just relax. Often times, a pity party is held after a long stressful week. Every time it involves some kind of treat. Mostly some form of cake or cheesecake. Sarah sometimes has her own pity party with M & M's. Once we had a pity party with just the filling for key lime cheesecake and a glass of wine.

For the first time we decided to have an Anti-Pity Party in celebration of getting together and having a great week. We all had a lot to be happy about and we just wanted to celebrate each other's company. The cake was good, the time together was perfect. I cherish these moments and these memories. I am especially grateful that distance has not affected our time together.

My nephew Liam, Mark and Liz all start school tomorrow. Mark and Liz are both ready to start classes. Liam told me he wish he had a time machine to start summer again. He said he did not want to start 2nd grade because he did not want to learn cursive handwriting. It was pretty funny. Sarah said she would have a back to school celebration by making his favorite dinner Sunday night, lasagna. Hope it works to celebrate with. Hmmm... maybe she should try some cake too!

State Fair Food Fest

Went to the Indiana State Fair on Saturday. Only one reason, dinner! It is an annual tradition. This year with band over, Mark decided to join me. The evening started at the Indiana Lottery Booth. We each scratched several tickets winning a dollar or two here and there but using the proceeds to buy more tickets. We left empty handed. That is unless you count the black hat Mark won after spinning the lottery fun wheel.

We set out to find something for dinner. I made a big mistake before going to the fair. About 2 hours before arriving I had some Tijuana Flats chips and queso and was not very hungry. drats. Our first stop was to actually check out the farm animals. We went through some of the barns and then decided to get our first course, appetizers. So why not try something you cannot get anywhere else. We opted to take a risk and get chocolate covered bacon. It was a bit pricey. But hey, the fair is but once a year. Mark stood in quite a long line for his 5 strips of bacon. I tried one too. Weird. The chocolate was much like dipping chocolate found in the produce section of the grocery store. Not that great. The bacon was rubbery. Maybe it would have been better if it was milk chocolate and crunchy bacon. $5.00 over and out. It was not that it was horrible tasting but I would not buy it again.

The fair would not be the same for me if I did not pick up fried sauerkraut balls. I am not sure what is in the ball besides sauerkraut but they are yummy. Then again, isn't anything deep fried yummy? Mark had a pulled pork sandwich and fried mozzarella sticks. Before leaving we picked up a turkey leg for John and two ribeye steak sandwiches that we had a free coupon for. Those became breakfast today. In the end I did not really get past the appetizers. No main course for me. I was too full. I hope to get back again this week. I really want to try the deep fried pizza.

Catching up to do...

Sorry for the delay of late, I have been so busy. The school year started this week so you can imagine how busy my days and nights have been. Add to that, I have been a substitute principal this week opening the school year up at one of my elementary schools as the principal was out of town for a funeral. I have to say each night when I went home totally exhausted, it did make me miss my principal days. I really miss having my own staff. I enjoyed my 10 years as a principal working with teachers and support staff towards goals to make our school a great place for kids. I really miss the daily interaction with the staff. I miss the kids. Lunch time was my favorite time to talk with the kids.

I have the best stories from this week. A reminder of how much I really like that day to day interaction with the kids. This week was a hoot. One kid just got a new pet, a hissing cockroach. Well I got to hear how he was petting it on the way to school and it got out in the car. After day three they have still not found it as mom shared the story and made the sign of the cross before pulling away.   I had a first grader come up and tell me she could not find her school. She meant teacher not school. She just got turned around leaving the office as some classrooms were moved since last year. Great kid stories at lunch. Two girls today showed off their plastic tooth case along with a story about losing their first tooth at school.

The best was today. As I was walking back to my office next door to the school a student, probably first grade, was getting picked up from the Y-Care program after school. I was crossing in the parking lot when his car was pulling out. He was so excited to see me. He waved and yelling "have a good weekend substitute principal." It was so genuine. What an incredible way to start the weekend! All smiles here.

Tomato Mania coming to Indy

It is that time of year again! The Indiana State Fair. For me, this annual event has actually become a food tasting paradise. This year's food features a theme. Tomatoes. I don't recall a food theme in the past, but I'm game.

A few weeks back the top choices for the signature food of the fair were announced. In order to be considered a signature item, the food must contain tomatoes. The options that will be available but that did not win were a pizza cone (cone-shaped crust filled with cheese, meat, and tomato sauce), the Tomato Bob (shish kebob of veggies including a tomato), a sun-dried tomato pork burger, and tomato balls. The signature dish - Deep Fried Pizza! The way I understand it, only the dough is deep fried then the toppings applied.

The fair this year will be over three weekends starting on Friday. My friend Katie will take a sneak peak at the food this weekend when her sister is in town but I will be off camping at Brown County State Park. Needless to say, I will have many opportunities to get to the fair. Juan is trying to talk me into going on $2 Thursday or the free day. Uh...no thanks. Those are the days there are way too many people. Honestly, I go just to taste the highlighted foods. Ok, and look at the farm animals. But, I don't think it is fair to sell pulled pork outside the swine barn. There ought to be a law.

Of course there will be the usual fair food. I love the fried Wisconsin cheese, the strawberry shortcake, sauerkraut balls, grilled corn. I enjoy going with friends so we can share different foods. Katie is the best to go with because she is willing to try new things and share along the way. Another featured item this year will be chocolate covered bacon. Think I will skip that.

If you are in the area over the next three weeks, stop on by. We can go to dinner at the fair. We have a spare room for guests and it takes less than 30 minutes to get there from our house.

Office Upgrade

Earlier this week I found out that I was moving offices. My boss was moving up near the front of the building near the superintendent and I was going into her office in the curriculum department. With all the funding woes of late, there is no chance we will be getting a new office building anytime soon and we are definitely overcrowded. Five people moved last week. All but me moved into smaller offices. I sure got an upgrade. I added about 50% more space.

Originally I was in the hallway behind the board room. It was a great space but lonely in the summer when less people are around. There is only one other office in that hall but those two gals don't work in the summer. I have everything moved in now and decided I wanted to add curtains. Here was the challenge. I have federal blue chairs and olive colored carpet. After three stores this morning, I found the perfect fabric.

Good thing my mom helped me sew as a kid because I was able to whip out these curtains pretty darn fast. I picked a Paprika colored fabric with green, olive, blue and beige flowers with paisy swirls in the petals. I thought a little reddish orange would help the colors blend. It sure did.

I decided to take a few pictures. Besides it will never look this clean again. My American Girl collection fit just fine. I have had this collection for ten years now and did not buy a single doll myself. All gifts from John, the kids, and teachers at Ready. They sit on top of my shelves in the new office, much like in the old. The dolls also have their desks. After all they are suppose to be going to school. I only collect the historic dolls. I have all but the latest one that just came out. I am asking for her for Christmas. John does not really like the dolls in my office. He is afraid they make the office look less professional.

Having to move gave me the motivation to clean out my files and organize my books. I am relieved to be going to work Monday with everything organized. It will be a busy week. Teachers come back August 10th.