Family – Page 3 – kristilynk

Kooking with Kristi

If the family would let me..I would eat seafood EVERY SINGLE DAY. Last night I made an amazing clam chowder soup with bread bowl and the time before that was calamari tacos. The man of house, AKA the Jason, told me that although the last few dishes have been spot on…”I need MEAT, not poultry, not fish…MEAT”.

Sometimes we just have to compromise, eh? OK, OK…tonight..it is Hamburger steak with a sweet-onion mushroom gravy concoction.

I found this simple recipe online and manipulated it to my liking. http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/hamburger-steak-with-sweet-onion-mushroom-gravy-10000001723326/

In the large mixing bowl I dropped 1lb of angus ground beef, 1/2 cup of Panko bread crumbs, 1 egg, as much salt as I wanted, as much pepper as I wanted and I think I squished up 4 large garlic cloves…I love the garlic!

I used a broiling pan and put tin foil on it ahead of time..I have been known to just start making patties and have no where to put them 🙂

Wedding rings and fashion rings off, washed the hands and dove in to mix it up!

NOTE! If you want left overs…seriously..you need to double up on the meat I only bought 1lb and it made only three burgers!

After I made the meat stuff into patties, I set them on the broil pan and left them alone while I went on to step two.

Cutting up one medium white onion and slicing of the 8oz fresh mushrooms. You can, of course, buy the pre sliced but my disappointing grocer (as of late) only had whole mushrooms.

In a frying pan, I melted as much butter as I wanted to – probably around 1/2 a stick and then I threw in the onions and mushrooms.

While those were browning, I started a sauce pan for the gravy..yep…I cheated and bought a packaged brown gravy and just followed the directions..after about five minutes I added the gravy to the mushrooms and onions and just let that simmer for a bit.

Turn the broiler on and put the patties on the top rack – cook them for 3 minutes on each side…I wondered off and let the man tend to the broil…I should have stayed..they were cooked a little bit longer than they should have been. Oh well, they were still REALLY good and moist!

and here is the end result! I will NEVER admit to what the side dish is, by the way. 🙂

Just imagine it to be something yummy that goes well with the patties!

Feeling Pretty Fortunate….

Last I wrote, I had big plans to win the lottery. That didn’t pan out so back to drawing board. Maybe next time, eh?

In the meantime, I am enjoying the life I have.

After an excruciating day at the office, I drove to my Aunts house to celebrate my grandmas 91st birthday.

Now over the years I have not proven to be the best granddaughter, it is most certainly not because I don’t love her or think about her on a daily basis. There are a few reasons – or excuses – whatever you want to call them..I call them unacceptable but they are what they are right?

I am going to take you into the way back machine for a few…

My dad was a military man – he served 20 years in the US Navy, which for our family of four (mom, dad, sister and me) meant living in San Diego for the first decade and a half of my life. The rest of our family (grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins) all lived in Arizona and we only were able to visit with them maybe once a year? Thinking about it now, I realize, growing up without extended family in my life from a very young age into teenage years is a sad thing. In the younger years, you really don’t understand the value of family and by the time you reach your teenage years…let’s face it..who really wants to hang out with the extended family when you could be hanging out with your friends?

I do have to say…I was never bored at Grandmas house, or my Aunts for that matter. There was always something to do..weather it be playing with Grandmas elaborate Barbie collection or smelling her vast collection of perfume bottles or playing with the neighborhood kids at the Aunts house. Ok, I am going to retract my statement…I loved going to Grandmas house…

It was only until my dad lost his harsh battle with lung cancer that I distanced myself again from Grandma. To be honest, I couldn’t bear to look into her eyes..all I saw was my dad. It was YEARS…about five years and a half years to be more precise…before I finally told myself..”enough is enough!! Call your Grandma…call your Aunt”! And I did. I invited them over for Christmas Eve and it was tough but I am so glad I did. We all enjoyed ourselves – catching up and eating and just being together..I felt good.

As glad as I was to have reconnected..over the years it still proves difficult but not because I am reminded of dad but more so because I just get caught up in MY daily life, you know…working and traveling and relaxing when I’m not running around.

I’m not sure what the right words are..becoming complacent? Maybe taking for granted the fact that I think they will always be there no matter what? Anyway, you get the idea…I am trying to be better. I am trying to keep the connection and I will continue to try!

This brings me to current day 🙂

Today…is my Grandmas 91st birthday. I am feeling so fortunate to have been able to have celebrated this amazing milestone with her. Not many people can say they were able to sit and have pizza, hot wings and cake with their Grandma on her NINETY FIRST BIRTHDAY.

Another bonus? My nineteen year old daughter met me there! Really? On a Friday evening..my thoughtful daughter chose to spend time with her great Grandma, her mom, her great Aunt and her second cousin.

I’ll say it again…I am feeling pretty fortunate tonight. 😀

A step away from reality…

I am going to step away from reality for a few. Bear with me because I am typing these thoughts and ideas as they come along – with the exception of a few ideas I have had in mind for many years.

Tonight is the night someone in the United States will become FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE MILLION DOLLARS richer…

I don’t typically play the lottery but let me tell you..I did a little homework yesterday and this afternoon and my goal was to pick those winning numbers!

I got online and asked Uncle Google what my lucky numbers (astrologically) are for the month of August. Of course I didn;t trust just one website so I perused through three of them – wrote down an ample amount of numbers I felt good with and moved on to the next plan of action….

To find out which zip codes around my town had sold the most winning numbers. At lunch time I stopped at a store in one of the three zip codes I jotted down and used some of the numbers astrology tells me are lucky this month. On my way home I stopped at another store in one of the zip codes, used more of the “lucky” numbers and started my drive to the last lottery retailer on my list.

Then it occurred to me…DUH… I picked all of these zip codes in which winning numbers were prevalent and chose my own numbers?? I think I was supposed to let the machine pick the numbers..I laughed at myself and continued on my way. 🙂

The last stop was at the grocery store right across the street from my home – I bought one ticket with numbers the stars chose for me and I let the computer pick the other numbers…

It takes me a little bit in life but I eventually catch on to things 😀

So, here I sit..planning my day tomorrow. I will wake up, have a cup of coffee look at the numbers from tonights drawing and call in to work to let them know I will not be coming to work…forever.

I will contact the Lottery and let them no, “I’m the lucky winner”! I’m not sure what happens next or how long it will take to receive my lump sum of doe – ray – me but what I will do with it as soon as I can is as follows:

I have a co-worker who is going through chemo and I would like to figure out how to, anonymously, deposit as much cash into her account as I can without her getting hit too hard with taxes so she doesn’t have to worry about bills while she is going through her own personal hell. Next on the list is my mom, I would pay her house off so she doesn’t have to work any more and put enough money in her account so she is more than comfortable. I’d like to see her be able to do whatever in the world she has always wanted to do.

Next up..all of our debt, which is actually not as much as a typical American but we have the typical stuff – mortgage would be the first to be gone!

The parent in-laws would be next in line and then the siblings, you know…gotta take care of those who have taken care of us!

After everyone has been taken care of…it’s time to plan an extensive tour of this glorious earth…In this moment I honestly don’t know where I would go first – I have so many destinations in mind. The logical thing to do may be to start here in the US – I have been to more places outside of the states than I have here and I do have a little list of places I need to experience right here in the good ole U S of A.

My ideas above are just the beginning…I see a lot of travel, volunteer work and taking care of society in my future being a multimillionaire. 😉

What would you do with your millions? I wanna know!

It’s My Birthday…con’t :)

This past Friday made for a long long day! After getting to sleep late Thursday night and getting up early to see Jason off to the airport Friday morning, 03:15 to be more precise. I did get a little nap in before I had to be to leave for work at seven A.M..don’t worry, I stopped off at the local convenience store to pick up a GIANT Red Bull so I made it through the work day.

Being excited to go on a road trip to visit my friends the Snyders with my friends Amy, Danny and Brian also helped get me through the day!

After picking Danny up and dropping him off at Brians, I went home to shower and throw a few things in a bag and waited for Amy – poor girl had to work until four.

The drive from Weedville, AZ to San Diego, CA was pretty uneventful and not nearly fast enough, we rolled into town around ten P.M ~ we had to make a quick stop at the 7-Eleven though because Danny had to go to the bathroom so bad, especially after Brian and I busted out in our best Kareoke version of “Love Shack” by the B-52’s – he was laughing so hard he almost peed himself. 🙂 WIN!

Onward, I dropped Amy and Danny off at their friend Tracys house and off to Shane and Kims we went to start our fun-filled weekend!

Thankfully, Shane and Kim were both still awake 🙂

We hung out and talked for a while with some drinks and called it a night, the little one was sure to wake up early and we wanted to get a good start to the day anyway so all was good.

Sure enough! It was about five-thirty in the morning and I hear the lil one talking away, ready to get out and play. Thank goodness she wakes up in such a happy mood, her big smile makes the lack of sleep not seem so bad 🙂

Shane made us all coffee and Kim made us a delicious egg breakfast with toast covered in avocado. Talking and playing and relaxing before we left Shane with Kaili while Brian, Kim and I drove to Campland on the Bay for a little stand up paddle board action!

Brian went along for the ride and was nice enough to get some pictures of us on our adventure – thankfully we did not fall in! I was more than a little nervous getting in – I thought I was going to fall and crack my head open on the pier..that didn’t happen. 🙂

I did what exactly what the man told me to do, sit on the pier while he held the board and climb onto the board – hands and knees. Slowly got up and all is good, about five minutes go by and I was a little board of it – mostly because I was afraid and not really sure what to do but I was ready to go back. I hear Kim off in the distance say, ” Wow look at all the jelly fish”!!

I hadnt seen them and finally..OH MY GOODNESS..now I was really ready to go back..If I fall in on top of a jelly fish??? That would ruin a day.. Kim convinced me to stay out and I am so glad she did because once you get paddling at a faster pace…S.U.P is F.UN!!!

We ventured off to a little inlet in the bay away from the general population and it was so pretty. A couple of bridges off in the distance, big trees with roots exposed due to weather and water erosion, weathered white boat docks and river rocks with a small beach area. Next time I do this I am definitely bringing a small water proof pouch or something to take a camera. I am sad I did not get evidence!

A watch will be another item I put in the water proof pouch because we had no idea what time it was, we only rented for an hour and we ended up getting back too early. We lost twenty minutes of play time! Oh well..lessons learned and it was still a great time!

Here we are! Photograph courtesy of Brian Warner

Docking these boards was NOT easy! We both crashed and almost fell in and cracked out heads open..Almost…but we didn’t 🙂

Back to the house we went but on the way had to stop at Vons for wine, champagne and Bud Light (for Brian, smh, haha)

Enroute, we saw a mariachi band playing in front of a Del Taco, what? Yes, a mariachi band..playing..in front of a Del Taco..

It was at Vons, two miles from the house, Kim realized the guy at Campland forgot to give her ID back! Good thing Campland really wasn’t that far away AND on the way back Brian would be prepared and be able to take a better picture of the mariachi band – see everything does happen for a reason 🙂

Didn’t happen…mariachi band was on break by the time we rolled back around…boo!

Kaili was still napping when we returned, the grown ups had a DELICIOUS Vanilla/Coconut cake (that was HOMEMADE courtesy of Kim – she wasn’t impressed with herself but I..loved it! And with champagne..mmm mm delightful!

Mid bite of my delicious slice I realized…OH NO…we were supposed to wait for Kaili, she was so excited about the cake I wanted her to be there when we cut it but…oops! I made up for it by getting her out when she woke up from her nap and PROMPTLY…sat her down in front of a glass of milk and a slice of cake..who wouldn’t be happy to have a wake up like that?? 🙂

Soon thereafter, we all went to the train station into downtown San Diego…

I brought my camera BUT forgot to put the battery in it – I was more than a little disappointed. At least I had my phone to document some of this day.

When we stepped off the train there were so many people! Apparently Comic Con is a big deal – later we found out the event was sold out and they sold over 181,000 tickets! Carazy!

I would like to get tickets to next years – we could have sat there all day and walked around and people watched in awe..

We walked a ways, were all hungry so we went to Hodads..I had never been to the downtown Hodads – only in Ocean Beach in the past – this one is off the beaten path (perfect because anywhere else and we would have never been able to eat…sooooo many people) and we only had to wait five minutes! Score! AND I ran into more friends – unexpected, welcome surprise as our friend Martin usually works at the OB location.

There was a mini protest march regarding the Zimmerman trial that put me in a bad place for a minute or so but I won’t get into that for two reasons. 1) I am TIRED of hearing about this trial and 2) That issue is a WHOLE other blog..

All I need to tell you is the food was great, the service was great and we all enjoyed ourselves. OH, and Kim and I got Hodad tank tops (of which I either left at the wine bar, on the train or at the Snyders house…boo00…)

On the way back to the train Kim wanted to take us to a wine bar she likes but it was closed for a private event — we wondered if Alexander Skaarsgaard (sigghhhh) was in there!!

En route to the Fallbrook Winery, which most likely was the better spot anyway (so many crazies to watch!!) we found the Ghostbusters mobile!!

Next door to the winery..there was a whole set up for Sega mega nerds — it was awesome – the people playing looked like they were in HEAVEN!

I think we all pretty much agreed that we should buy tickets to next years event!!

Tomorrow..I’ll tell you about my Sunday! 🙂

Until then blogworld!

Kristi

In my humble opinion….

I am hoping this blog allows me to move on and free myself of the frustrations of seeing daily posts on the internet in regards to the opinions of others when it comes to the recent tragedy that was the massacre shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Typically, I am fascinated and non-judgmental when it comes to the thoughts and feelings of others about political and religious beliefs. I am a strong believer that everyone has feelings and whether I agree with said feelings or not…all of our feelings are valid in their own right.

Today is no different…I do not judge and I will not judge but..I am tired. I am tired of seeing all of the posts on the internet. I am tired of listening to the media claim they know the answers to fixing the problems of this nation. So tonight..I say my peace and I will move on. I will not listen to the news and I will scroll past all those on my friends list who post anything about the tragic event.

I am a Liberal. A Liberal who happens to be pro gun ownership. I know, right? I have not always been so. Only in the past five years have I changed my feelings about guns. I used to be terrified. The reason for my terror? I was uneducated…period. My friends and family and I live in the suburbs of Arizona. We frequently go out to the desert and shoot guns using targets for practice. There are usually about fifteen of us out there along with an arsenal of guns – we all interchange, trying out each others firearms and practice. Its a fun event, I have learned a lot and to be honest..it’s a powerful feeling KNOWING that if it came down to me and an intruder…I will win.

To me, owning a gun gives me the power to protect myself from those who want to invade my space, possibly harm me physically and steal from me.

Unfortunately, these are the times we live in.

With that said…I DO believe it IS way to easy for anyone to purchase a gun. I bought my first gun three years ago. I walked into the local gun shop in Glendale, AZ, told the salesman which gun I wanted, he asked me if I knew anything about the gun I wanted to purchase, I said, “No, but I have a few friends that know enough to teach me”. He said ‘OK” took my paperwork, dialed a phone number and ran a quicky background check. Found nothing and I was literally out the door with my new matte black .45 caliber Glock 23.

The entire process took less than fifteen minutes. To me, that’s unacceptable. What if..just what if…I had JUST found my husband in bed with another woman or I was just fired from a job and would not be able to provide my family with a great Christmas or I could no longer pay my bills. Crimes of passion can stem from these examples and more. We hear it everyday..
In fifteen minutes, my anger would not have been diminished, I could have very well been angered by something, purchased a firearm and taken matters into my own hands in a heated rage. I had no prior record so that quicky background check they just ran is really useless..I could have just snapped..this would have been my first crime of course I would have had no blemishes on my record.
In a sense, I do agree with some form of gun control..it should not be that easy to walk out of the store with a gun and no education. Some sort of waiting period should be required along with a background check.

Is this going to solve the problem of shooting massacres, no…. no it will not. It is only one step…One issue.

The other problem I see is family. We all know in these times, most people cannot live in this economy on a one income family. That leaves our children either at home alone while we work to raise themselves or it leaves our children in the hands of day care or babysitters. We don’t have sit down dinners with our kids, we dont ask them how their days were and if we do…do we truly listen to not only what they are telling us but how they tell us how their days at school were?
I have a now nineteen year old daughter. It was like pulling teeth trying to get her to tell me how her day actually was. I would ask, “How was your day?” I would get…”Fine” It would take literally twenty minutes of prying to actually find out what the kid did that day. Frustrating, so frustrating but I wanted to know and to me “fine” was not acceptable.

I am not saying I am perfect, there have been many times, I have asked..just to ask and have not really listened to the answer. Not because I didn’t care but even as an adult..I am unfocused. Everyone of us is guilty of this. Our children are not perfect and they are not “fine”.

We, as a society, need to recognize this. We need to recognize and admit to ourselves that our child could possibly need us to listen and pay more attention to behavior signs which may lead them down the wrong path. A path which may lead them to become pregnant as a teen, may lead them to drug and alcohol usage, may lead them to gang violence or worse yet…may lead them to retrieve our guns, shoot us and then shoot down twenty completely innocent children.

Not every instance is the “fault” of the parent. Some kids are just born with mental and social health issues. These traits are seen by the parent..sometimes the parent sees or feels something is “‘off” within the child and they start treatment early..sometimes the parent ignores the warning signs..after all, it’s “my” child..I am fine..my child should be fine..my child is a “good” kid. Your kid is not perfect..if you feel something is “off” it’s worth his/her life and the lives of yourself and others to get it checked out..to seek professional help.

I hear and read people say “it’s video games and movies and music” to blame for our kids desensitization regarding human life. I don’t believe that to be true either. It comes down to paying attention to our children, educating them, creating good family values, teaching them right from wrong and holding them accountable for the actions they make.