Tasty Tuesday!

Ok so i like the blogs that have a theme day every week, so i'm jumping on the bandwagon! Sorry i'm a follower, not a leader. But since so many of you who read this have no time to cook/ i don't either i thought i would share a recipe a week.

now caution: i will probably not stick with tuesdays, i actually wanted to do munchie mondays, but then that sounded like only a snack food thing (any day/name suggestions are welcome). also i'll try to work some veggie ones in for blair and the lingenfelters, and others who do the vegetarian thing, but i'm not promising health food here. i'm really not going to stick with just stuff that's 'easy' because you and i need to step it up a notch every once in a while. Give me some feedback or ideas of how you made the recipe your own, i love new ideas too.

so without further delay: the recipe:

Baked Chicken and Rice


2 cups milk
2 cups uncooked rice
2 cans cream of chicken soup (or cream of mushroom, brocoli, asparagus, whatever!)
Chicken (either 2 cans, 3 chicken breasts, or tenders- uncooked and cut up)
Seasoning- salt, pepper, poultry seasoning
1 cup shredded cheddar Cheese- optional


• Mix milk, rice, and soup in a 9x 13 Pyrex dish, mix well.
• Lay chicken on top, and cover in aluminum foil
• Bake at 350 for 90 minutes, stirring every 30 minutes, removing foil for last 15 minutes (adding cheese if desired.)

ok so this recipe was given to me by my friend sarah, and i know that 1 1/2 hours is a long time, but it takes about 10 minutes to put it all together, and then you forget about it for an hour or so. it works with my schedule, or it's good for sunday/saturday nights when you want to stay in, but don't want to be stuck in the kitchen forever! it makes a great casserole to give to someone else too, because you can make it ahead of time, and they can just heat it up for a few minutes.

so give some feedback and enjoy the recipe! (for the record audie and i are having pancakes for dinner, because i don't have the time to make this tonight/inclination to go to the grocery store, so if you thought this was me bragging about my cooking skills you're wrong!)

TTFN-

Julia

wow what a week!

this week has really flown by! i'm not really sure why but i'm really surprised that friday came around so soon.

two afternoons this week i went to the gym on campus! so scary! well i guess what i mean by that is that i was/am very comfortable on Lagrange's campus, i didn't feel really awkward about going anywhere, except maybe the frat houses. but on Duke's campus, it's just so Large!! i mean the campus of lagrange could fit on one little academic quad on duke's campus. so i really don't venture to far out of my comfort zone around campus. i know how to get to student health, the div school, the chapel, the byran center(bookstore/fast food/offices commonly used by students) and the 'great hall' which is really like a food court of a mall. also can we talk about that i went for lunch with some friends and we went to the armadillo grill, which is kinda like moe's only it's on campus. i realized for the first time that it is a BAR! i mean in between classes you can go for a beer and after class go for shots/margaritas!! SO NOT lagrange!

so i digress, any way i ventured to the gym, not really knowing where i was going/what i would do when i got there. it was HUGE and lots of stuff going on, like thirty eliptical machines(whihc i like) and treadmills. a whole room of weight stuff, and a pool, diving area and lane swimming. a full basketball court, and roakclimbing wall, a juice bar, arobics rooms, raquet ball courts, spinclass room, and arobics/kickboxing/yoga room. by the way this is only one of two gyms on campus!!! such a different world!!

so yeah for the last two days i worked out! be proud, i am. i really enjoyed it too, it was fun to do something that doesn't really require a brain, to just run/jog for 30 minutes and just chill out with the Ipod. good stress relief,a nd lord do i need that! three friends and i have committed to meet on wednesday afternoons to go every week.

ok but my legs hurt like BAD, really sore muscles. I'm not realy sure what to do about that. is there like a magically remedy for sore muscles, if not you need to invent that 'cause i would pay a good amount of money not to have to deal with this.

so not much else going on!

ttfn
Julia

today!

was a bit tiring. i was up 'til 1 getting my midterm done, i know i know mom, no nagging! but then had a full day, and since the water heater wasn't worked on yesterday they came today. i could go into all the craziness of the day but i won't. one important thing did register and unrest me for the day.

someone took my seat in class today!! ok so audie thinks this is me being unreasonable and maybe it is, so if you agree with him feel free to say so in a comment. so i sit in the same sit, third row from the back, second seat in on the left side of the middle section of the big lecture hall. to my right is meredith, my left is sarah and her left is Danny. these are my cohorts, accomplises, and friends at the div school. we are pretty much inseperable within the walls of the school. we sit in these seats EVERY day! i have sat there since my beginning at the div school, and meredith, sarah and danny have all moved to be in my row( not because i insisted, but because they saw the merit in my seat, i am sure) well occasionally someone doesn't the the memo that these are our seats and infringes on our territory!! NOT COOL. it throws off my groove, it messes up my shakras, makes me feel guilty for surfing the web in class, etc. that happened today, and it bothers me yes, but i realize it is not very Christlike, nor socially acceptible to yell at someone who is in your seat, or ask them to move because 'it's not like your name is on it'.

what really got my goat this morning is that these particular people has infringed on my territory before. one is a guy, i will call him the sniffer. he is outspoken, morally superior, an uber democrat, a LOUD typer and a sniffer. i mean really bad. and he drinks this green tea CRAP out of a metal straining straw, every day! all of which really gets on MY NERVES.

the other is an eavesdropping and then butting into your conversation, superior because she is more involved on campus than me AND has children (so why don't i step up my game), and when (politely) asked to scoot over a seat so that we could all sit together- a few weeks ago- got all passive aggressive, but complied. when she realized what she had done today she offered to move, we said it's not a huge deal and she said 'of course, well i wouldn't want to break ya'll up' and moved over-in a VERY passive aggresive tone!

now i realize this is not the end of the world, nor is it a big deal at all to others, but why do people feel the need to move around the room, messing up my shakras!!! please if you are one of these people please explain.

So if you are a seat mover: please explain why you do this, is it just to annoy the rest of us?
and if you aren't: please tell me i'm not the only one who is bothered when others do this!

so sorry to verbally abuse my neighbors and collegues in classes online, but i have to vent somewhere- and this is as good a place as any!

love to all,

Julia

post 31

ok so that's not a huge accomplishment, but that's like a whole month of posts. well, they are spread out over two months or so, but whatev! i like having a milestone even it if is a small one. so i'm sitting in the refectory at school(that's like a cafeteria) and i'm supposed to be working on my midterm that is due tomorrow. i have class at 2:30 today.

so why am i up and at school when i could be still in my pajamas? well we got a note on saturday that said that the maintenience people were going to install a water meter on our hot water tank and to 'remove all personal items from the hot water heater closet' or pay $25. well audie and i had a decision to make- to move the washer and dryer or not?

so the pros/con to moving them:
pros:
possibly not paying $25. - we were a little unsure if the washer and dryer, which do belong to us are considered 'personal items' or if they just meant our iron and dustbuster that also live in the hot water heater closet.
cons-
those things are HEAVY!! and awkward. i mean it took audie, my mom and stepdad and me like an hour to figure out that they don't both fit! and then we wound up fitting them in later and then the dryer didn't work (loong story) and then we pulled it back out, bought a new(used from goodwill) dryer and moved it in (another long time of sweat, tears, a few drops of blood- and almost a divorce) and then hooked it up. then we had to move the old dryer to the dumpster which meant finding a friend with a truck!

the pros/cons of leaving them in:
pros- someone else will have to be the one to move them, and put them back!!
cons- we loose $25- but only if they have to be moved out.

needless to say audie and i decided to pay the 25 dollars rather than risk a divorce over moving the damn things back out and then back in!

so i'm hear while the people work- love to all!

julia

loving Saturday

yay! i love being at home with little to do on saturdays! sure i have a take-home midterm to finish, but i'm not so worried about it. My hubby and i get to spend the whole day together! his new work schedule(which he loves) means that he doesn't get home 'til 7 and with this new art project he's working on he is putting his nose to the grind when he gets home and then we don't really see each other until bed!

so it's nice that we get to spend the ay together. and we're going to a movie and dinner date on sunday! we were going to go last night, but he had to work on the drawings for the illustration cirriculum thing. so i went for a tipsy game night with my friends, SO fun! lots of apples to apples, Last Word(totally fun) and Scategories. and lots of Mike's Hards, a daqauri, and a few shots!! ach i know i flashed back to my college days, only not really 'cause i never did that in college, but apparrently seminary is my time to party!! haha, not really by anyone else's standards. others probably look at my 'parting' and thing i'm a goody two shoes or soemthing.

but it was fun. we had a great time and audie came and picked me up and took care of me when i got home.

ttfn- off to enjoy my saturday with the hubby!!

julia

i love Fall Break

Oh how i love thee!! I love sleeping in, i love not showering and staying in my PJs all day! i love procrastinating all the work i have to do!! oh i love it!!

well a few updates- Audie has a new schedule at work. his boss asked if anyone would be willing to switch to a 9:30-6:00 shift instead of his regular 8:30-5. and audie said yes, he called me at lunch yesterday to ask what i thought about it first, but i told him it was his job and he could do what he wanted. and he was like, well there are other people around here who have kids/parents to take care of and can't switch, and if i can then i will 'cause i would rather do it than them have to. that's the kind of guy that he is, he volunteers to do it just because he knows it would be harder for others to do it. well and it would make his commute easier! so he started his new schedule today, which meant an extra hour this morning with him, but he'll won't be home 'til 6:45 or so, boo hoo.

definitely on a better note, he met with a friend of his from SCAD last night. this guy is now a full time evangelist for some Pentacostal denomination- he didn't say and i didn't ask. but this guy wrote a cirriculum for thier organization to use for Sunday School material a few years back and Audie did the illustrations. (he got paid for the initial artwork, and now the pentacostal denomination is printing it internationally(ok well in Canada) and all over the US to use in their Sunday Schools, how cool is that?) anyway, the friend has a new project and Audie is doing the artwork for it as well. apparently it is a bible study for kids, called Kids Reaching Kids. It invovles a story that is told, one part each week for like 8 weeks, along with a poster size illustration (done by audie) and then after the story installment is read, they do a bible study on the major themes in the story. and this friend of Audie's is doing all the writing and then will hold the copyrights to it and everything. They are meeting again on Saturday to work out more details, and to determine pricing. pretty cool huh? well audie's excited!

since he's being doing the customer service thing at work, he hasn't had time to do much art, so he is definitely pumped to do something he is great at! also it gives him a ton of experience to add to the old resume! so maybe when we get back to GA he can do this sort of thing more full time!

well i'll catch ya'll later, i have to go do more lounging around and reading books that aren't for school!

julia

hi again

so i survived!! i survived my midterm, which consisted of two questions, both of which i rocked-hopefully. i also survived camping!!

so i got plenty of bug bites, and a few sore muscles from hiking on Saturday, and some really smelly smokey clothes. but our sunday school class had a great time. it was really nice to get away from it all for a few days, have a weekend outside our normal life together, and get to know these friends of ours more.

so then i got home, was thrown into reality, and had to finish a paper. it got done at 9:30 this morning, just in time to turn it in. and now i'm loving having a whole week to slowly but surely work on a large project that is due in Nov.

ok i guess that is the update on my life. not too interesting, but true.

ttfn,

Julia

midterms

they start tomorrow! ACH! ok so first some business:

forgive me blogging friends, for i have sinned, it has been (um i don't remember how long ) since i have last blogged!

ok now i will do my penance.

so i wish i could say that because i have midterms this week and next(during fall break!) that this is why i haven't blogged in forever, but that's not really true, so that would just keep the lies coming.

basically for the last two weeks i have gotten really stressed about school, and my reaction to that was to not really do anything at all, i.e. sit around the house reading harry potter instead of reading for class.

a few updates in my life:

so then this past weekend i got sick- i feel terrible, bad head cold and sore throat. but i am taking sudafed and advil every 4 hours and it makes me feel better, for about 3 and 1/2 hours. i have been taking the stuff since Sat. morning, still no better or worse.

audie and i cleaned out our closets and gave away 6 bags of clothes to a goodwill type organization- i challenge all of you to go through all those clothes in your closets and get rid of those things that you don't wear anymore, you know that skirt/dress you wore once to a wedding three years ago and is like 3 sizes too small, and you wouldn't even wear it if it fit (true story). Pass the love onto those in need! I wound up giving our to a great organization that takes ANYTHING! and they repurpose it and give it to other organizations or sell it themselves. they even take in dirty nasty rags and turn them into redyed potholders, rugs and wallhangings that get sold for charity- that is one AWESOME organization!

I can't come to Lagrange for homecoming, i was so looking foward to it, but the ride i was going to hitch isn't comign back to durham until tuesday, and i have midterm due that day, which means i have to work on it next weekend.

everything is all set to go camping this weekend!! i'm actually getting excited! i hope it's not too wet, cold, dirty, gross and or all of the above! but it will be a nice relaxing time before the rush of fall break begins.

Why do i say it like that? we that becasue i have a midterm due the tuesday we get back, a paper due on the monday after the camping trip, and a HUGE(like 20 pages) paper due at the first of November, all of which have to be started/completed while i am on Fall break. Officially it is called Fall Reading Period, and that is why. but i will be realaxing some of it, probably not showering, except for the afternoon that i go for a haircut - nothing drastic just a trim, and i'm phasing out my bangs, 'cause i have decided they don't look good on me!

so i feel really bad for leaving you all in the dust (or maybe no one cares that i have been gone for 1 and 1/2 weeks) but i still felt ok about myself 'casue amber hadn't blogged either, and now she beat me to it! so i'm the sucky one.

ok so that's a ton for now, i guess i had to get it all out because i hadn't blogged in a while.

-julia