Weekend Review

Hope you all had a nice weekend!  I was working this weekend, but had Friday off which was nice.  My daughter Heather had the day off as well, and asked me to go out for lunch with her.  We had lunch at Panera, did a little shopping at a Meijer near us, then stopped at a thrift store and a local antique/décor place.  She got a cute farmhouse sign for her house.

I got this cute towel to hang on my stove.  Those are all names of streets in our town.

Friday evening Bob and I went into Grand Rapids to go through the yearly Home and Garden Show.  His store was a participating vendor, so that made it even more enjoyable to walk through.  It was a pretty drive - very cold out but clear blue skies are nice!

Check out these cute Adirondack chairs with backs shaped like Michigan!

Here's Bob talking to the guys at his store's spot.

The middle of this venue was all set up with a huge garden.  There were brick walkways and spring flowers in bloom.  It smelled wonderful!  They even had this old car on display!

I had to work on Saturday, but Heather and Andrew came over in the evening to work in Bob's workshop.  They bought an old chest and dresser and have been coming over occasionally to work on it.  Saturday evening Heather was putting the final wax coat on the chest while Andrew worked on the dresser drawers.  They finished the chest and took it home with them.

I worked on Sunday too.  I'm sure you remember that we recently completed a new addition and opened it 2 weeks ago.  They are now working to renovate the existing building.

One side of the building is closed off and is all torn up.  We can't get in during the week when the guys are working, but I snuck over to check it out on Sunday.  They say it will take 2-3 months to complete, then they will start on the other side.

That's my weekend.  Aside from a very crazy day at work on Saturday, it was a good weekend!

A day in my life

Happy March!  I'm always happy to see March come, because it means winter is winding down.  I can't complain about this winter, because it's been warmer than usual with much less snow, but I'm still happy to see it go away!
The first day of the month was pretty typical for me.  Here's how it went:

It was a work day for me, so I was up at 5am.  I walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes, took a shower and got ready for work.

6:10am -  I had some oatmeal for breakfast and watched the morning news.  We had crazy thunderstorms the night before, and the weatherman was predicting a little rain in the morning changing over to snow and sleet along with high winds!

6:50 am - I pulled into the parking lot at work.

6:55am - All is quiet when I walk to the nurses station.  There were a few residents awake and sitting in the Bistro, but it's mostly dark and quiet.  The area you see lit up is the nurses station.
It was a busy day and I got out of work late.  I left around 4pm, although I thought I was going to have to stay until 7pm, so 4 seemed pretty good!

When I left work at 4, the rain had turned to snow and it was coming down hard!

I stopped and got a manicure.  While there I started talking to the lady next to me and found out she was our substitute mail carrier.  We had a nice visit!

 I left the nail salon at about 4:45. It was snowing and blowing so hard that it was difficult to see in some spots!

 We had an easy supper - pizzaburgers.  I had the meat spread made so I just had to put it on the buns and broil them.

 After supper I made up some oatmeal, which is my usual breakfast in the winter.  Now all I have to do is pop it in the microwave in the morning.

Then I spent some time making a menu and a grocery list so I'll be ready to get groceries after work the next night.

After everything was cleaned up, I did a little Bible study, relaxed with my computer and also watched the latest episode of Fixer Upper.  It's one of my favorites and I always record it because it plays on Tuesday night when I'm at Bible study.

Bob was at a meeting and when he came home he said it was nasty outside, still snowing and the roads were getting bad.  We'll see how they are in the morning!

11pm - I need to get to bed so I can go to work tomorrow. Thanks for sharing my day!

Cooking Thursday

I made some bars this week that were as quick and easy to throw together as a packaged brownie mix (it's actually one of the ingredients), but are a bit of an upgrade.  So here's a recipe that's perfect to use when you have to bring some type of treat, but you don't want to use brownies again!

Duo Cookie/Brownie Bars

Cookie Dough:

Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix*

1 egg

1/2 cup butter, softened

Brownie Batter:

Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Brownie Mix*

1/4 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

Heat oven to 325 degrees.  Lightly grease a 9x13 pan.

In medium bowl stir together cookie mix, egg and butter until dough forms, hand kneading if necessary.  Set aside

In second bowl, stir together brownie mix, water, oil and egg until fully blended.

Spread brownie mix into prepared pan. Spoon cookie dough on top of brownie batter.  Bake 40-45 minutes or until cookie is golden brown.

*You can use any brand brownie mix that makes an 8x8 pan, and any standard cookie mix.