Friday Five!

No, I'm a real home-body, and not much of a celebrator, either.  I am unlikely to leave the flat at all between now and when I go back to work!

I see nothing wrong with that plan!  Have a great long weekend! 

A day late:

1.  Flew to Belgium on Wednesday.  Promptly left my phone on the plane...   . But both kids, husband, and the old people (my parents) had everything.  I forgot to take care of my own stuff!

2.  Phone has been found now!  I’ll pick it up on Monday when I take the old people to the airport.  Yeah honest people!

3.  Okay, gushy brag.  My husband is NOT romantic or a planner.  He knew I was bummed that I couldn’t do a normal advent calendar.  He got me a wooden box with 24 drawers.  Each day had a riddle I had to solve to find a dairy free/soya free cupcake he ordered from a bakery that were soooo good.  On Christmas Day I had one last riddle that led to a beautiful pair of earrings.  Seriously, just the cupcakes and riddles made me feel so incredibly loved and honoured.  The earrings are the icing.  He’s never done anything like this before and may never again - but I won’t forget this.  I’m humbled that he’s my husband.

4.  I’m tying from the bathroom while the boy is splashing in the bath tugging on his willy.  Men start young!   

5.  Have really enjoyed my parents visit but hoping my mom builds some strength back up.  She seems much older than her years.   

KFDancer, that is just so amazing. Your hubby is a keeper!

Follow-up ...

2.  The only plan we have for meals is we moved Mexican Platter to tonight, rather than Saturday, because we like to watch cooking shows on Saturday morning and then my husband feels inspired to get creative in the kitchen.  But if we're only having Mexican Platter, there's little room for creativity.  So now we have no plan for Saturday night (or Monday night, but hopefully that will be pizza)!  But we have lots of ingredients, so hopefully inspiration will strike and we will have what we need to achieve it.

Friday night's Mexican Platter was delicious.  Problem is, my husband then didn't want the taco salad on Saturday while we were watching all those inspirational cooking shows, either. So I ended up making fried potatoes with chorizo and red pepper, and topped with a couple of fried eggs.  It was tasty.  And we had the leftovers from Mexican Platter on Sunday, as usual (only we made breakfast burritos from them, with refried beans on the side).

But...!  Saturday night, for our inspired dish, we made pasta!  We've never done this before.  We made a raviolo for each of us, filled with creamy tarragon chicken, and served on a bed of Brussels sprouts and with a rich tomato sauce.  We have some work to do on our pasta-shaping, but the flavours and textures were amazing!

Obligatory food photo...

3.  Okay, gushy brag.  My husband is NOT romantic or a planner.  He knew I was bummed that I couldn’t do a normal advent calendar.  He got me a wooden box with 24 drawers.  Each day had a riddle I had to solve to find a dairy free/soya free cupcake he ordered from a bakery that were soooo good.  On Christmas Day I had one last riddle that led to a beautiful pair of earrings.  Seriously, just the cupcakes and riddles made me feel so incredibly loved and honoured.  The earrings are the icing.  He’s never done anything like this before and may never again - but I won’t forget this.  I’m humbled that he’s my husband.

This is so lovely!  Do you think your anniversary gift to him had some influence?  Maybe he got really thoughtful when you reminded him of all your happy times together as a couple/family.

5.  Have really enjoyed my parents visit but hoping my mom builds some strength back up.  She seems much older than her years.   

I hated the changes I saw in my parents, especially my dad, after being away for extended periods.  It seemed they didn't age at all for most of my life, then in the last 10 years, suddenly it all caught up to them.  I hope your bounces back quickly from whatever she needs to rebuild her strength from.

1.  TODAY IS THE DAY I BECOME BRITISH!!!!!!!  Ceremony is at 2:30 and then we are going for a nice early dinner to celebrate.

2.  Have had a million and a half rounds of interviews for a job that I'm really hoping I get.  I should hear on Tuesday!!  Final round of interviews will be a week in the USA but that will be after a provisional offer - hoping I get it.

3.  The three year old is upset that the cat's tail is laying across her lap right now.  "Mommy, Sobe keeps putting his tail on me!"

4.  Only small plans for this weekend.

5.  I really really need to make an effort to lose the baby weight (and now Christmas weight) once and for all.  Been slowly dropping but definitely gained over Christmas!  I'm a bit of a stuffed sausage in my clothes.

4. 

1.  TODAY IS THE DAY I BECOME BRITISH!!!!!!!  Ceremony is at 2:30 and then we are going for a nice early dinner to celebrate.

Congratulations!!!!!!
I know some people have had mixed experiences with their ceremonies, so I hope you have a great one.

Spoiler: show

I had a brilliant one with only a few of us, in a gorgeous historic building, Provost of the 'city' did the ceremony, got a beautiful map as a gift, afternoon tea laid out for us. It was awesome.

 

Happy Friday

1.) Only a 3 day work week and yet it feels like the longest.week.ever.

2.) Trying to plan some employment related goals. I'm feeling a bit lost at work at the moment, so trying to kick myself into action. 

3.) Nothing really planned for the weekend. If the weather is okay (it's dreich right now), hopefully going for a few walks.

4.) J and I will be going through seed catalogs and planning what to plant this year. We really want to maximise our growing, because food isn't going to get any cheaper with Brexit.

5.) I'm a bit behind on Rick Stein's road to Mexico, but we've been catching up on it and man, oh man, I am spending every episode drooling. I think I need to order some Mexican ingredients for delivery.  (Not planning on being near Edinburgh or Glasgow anytime soon, otherwise, I'd hit up Lupe Pintos.)

Eeeeeeeeeeee!  I'm so excited for you, KF!  In two hours, you'll be a British citizen!

PB, I feel you.  My husband had a 4-day work week (last week was 3-day)... it's felt so long after the holidays.  But...


1.  My husband comes home tonight!

2.  Mexican Platter for dinner tonight, complete with margaritas because I remembered to buy limes, and I replenished the tequila before the old bottle ran out.  I am starting to think I have a problem... (not really).

3.  My husband just emailed me and said "I was going to buy a cheap pasta press, but I wanted to check in case you had already got one?"  This tells me we may need to communicate our Amazon Prime impulses better, but it also tells me we're going to make better pasta!  (I had not already got one, but he's ready to take our pasta-making to the next level... I thought we'd just roll it out by hand again, but he's serious about this!)

4.  Our menu for tomorrow night will be ravioli filled with a mushroom Duxelles, with creamy alfredo and served on a bed of sauteed fresh spinach (French-Italian fusion?).

5.  This just happened (addressed to my husband):  "You were previously placed on a reserve list for the position listed above. The vacancy holder has found a role and would like to offer you the position. This offer is provisional because it is subject to the satisfactory completion of pre-employment checks.  If the outcome of these checks is satisfactory, we will agree a start date with you."  I'm glad I bought that tequila!  Celebrations!

5.  This just happened (addressed to my husband):  "You were previously placed on a reserve list for the position listed above. The vacancy holder has found a role and would like to offer you the position. This offer is provisional because it is subject to the satisfactory completion of pre-employment checks.  If the outcome of these checks is satisfactory, we will agree a start date with you."  I'm glad I bought that tequila!  Celebrations!

SQUEALLLLLLL!!!!!

Hehehe jfkimberly, we got into making ravioli after being inspired by MasterChef. We'd previously made fresh pasta bowties and things, but not ravioli.  Now it's all I'm craving. Hubby really is good at rolling it out in the machine to get it really thin.

5.  This just happened (addressed to my husband):  "You were previously placed on a reserve list for the position listed above. The vacancy holder has found a role and would like to offer you the position. This offer is provisional because it is subject to the satisfactory completion of pre-employment checks.  If the outcome of these checks is satisfactory, we will agree a start date with you."  I'm glad I bought that tequila!  Celebrations!

Wow, that's awesome. Is this the one with a shorter commute? That's incredible! Congrats!

1.  TODAY IS THE DAY I BECOME BRITISH!!!!!!!  Ceremony is at 2:30 and then we are going for a nice early dinner to celebrate.

2.  Have had a million and a half rounds of interviews for a job that I'm really hoping I get.  I should hear on Tuesday!!  Final round of interviews will be a week in the USA but that will be after a provisional offer - hoping I get it.

3.  The three year old is upset that the cat's tail is laying across her lap right now.  "Mommy, Sobe keeps putting his tail on me!"

4.  Only small plans for this weekend.

5.  I really really need to make an effort to lose the baby weight (and now Christmas weight) once and for all.  Been slowly dropping but definitely gained over Christmas!  I'm a bit of a stuffed sausage in my clothes.

4.

Oh wow. Does that mean ya'all are moving across the pond if you get it?

SQUEALLLLLLL!!!!!

Shouldn't you be on your way to a ceremony?!  But, yay!  Thanks for the shared excitement.  It's a great day all around!

Hehehe jfkimberly, we got into making ravioli after being inspired by MasterChef. We'd previously made fresh pasta bowties and things, but not ravioli.  Now it's all I'm craving. Hubby really is good at rolling it out in the machine to get it really thin.

We have only done it once, rolling the pasta by hand, so it wasn't uniform and it was a bit on the thick side.  But it was delicious!  MasterChef... man, I love that show!  That's the sort of programme that always makes us wish we had ingredients at the ready.

Wow, that's awesome. Is this the one with a shorter commute? That's incredible! Congrats!

Yes!  It's the one that lets him be home every night.  It's only about 20 minutes commute, I think (as opposed to 3.5 hours each way, currently).  So while it pays slightly less than he makes now, we'll save about £8k (a conservative estimate) on commuting expenses... money which can go toward fixing our house (I see a kitchen in our future!).  He'll have more time, more money, less stress... this is everything!

Now we wait for the provisional offer to wind its way into eventually becoming a start date... *grin*

Yes!  It's the one that lets him be home every night.  It's only about 20 minutes commute, I think (as opposed to 3.5 hours each way, currently).  So while it pays slightly less than he makes now, we'll save about £8k (a conservative estimate) on commuting expenses... money which can go toward fixing our house (I see a kitchen in our future!).  He'll have more time, more money, less stress... this is everything!

Now we wait for the provisional offer to wind its way into eventually becoming a start date... *grin*

Hoorah!

It's done - I'm legit.

Lyonaria, no plans to move.  Maybe someday but nothing in our several year plan!