This weekend

Obviously I've had a lot of free time on my hands - hence all the postings - but I have actually been pretty busy and fairly productive!

Saturday:
I did sleep in until 10:00 and then lounge around watching television and playing games on the computer until noon but this was only because I was so exhausted from the day before with all the Field Day nonsense that I had to take care of at school. Craig was off tournamenting for the day so I didn't really have anyone to make me get out of bed before I really wanted to. Last week was a crazy week for us between school and outside commitments that neither of us had ever felt like cooking so we kind of ate out every night. Oops. Yesterday I knew that I didn't want to eat out again...but I also knew that Craig wasn't going to be home in time for a six o'clock dinner. So I called up my parents and invited them over for dinner at my house to keep me company but to also show them the new St. Augustine sod that we had installed in the front yard and the curtains that Craig hung in the living room. The afternoon was spent grocery shopping for ingredients for dinner as well as finishing up the laundry that Craig had started earlier in the week. My parents arrived promptly at six o'clock and this is what we had for dinner:

Pork Chops:
- one bottle of white wine vinegar
- a very generous helping of brown sugar
- three pears sliced and cubed
- four pork chops

Combine the vinegar, brown sugar and pears in a large skillet and cook on high heat until the mixture is simmering. Add pork chops and smother them with the pears and liquid. Periodically flip pork chops every so often to ensure they are evenly cooked.

Oven Baked Potatoes:
- one packet of onion soup mix
- 3/4 cup of vegetable oil
- 4 Idaho potatoes

Wash and peel the four potatoes and then cut them into cubed pieces. Combine mix, oil and potatoes and mix thoroughly so that the oil and mix evenly coats all the potatoes. Place into glass pan (I use my big Pyrex...not sure of the size?) and bake at 450 for 40 minutes. I like mine with ketchup!

Lemon Garlic Broccoli:
This is a pretty basic way to spice up the broccoli that I love so that Craig will eat it...without dousing it in cheese and butter. I just cook fresh broccoli (just the "tree" part, not the stem) until it's just a little bit crisp and not totally soggy and limp. Drain the broccoli and add a few douses of lemon juice with one or two small scoops from the small jar of minced garlic. Sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper and serve!

It was a totally easy dinner to prepare, but everything sounds and looks a lot fancier than it really is!

Craig came home around 9:00 and actually brought a guest with us to stay for the night! One of his coaches that works for his select basketball finished at the tournament late and had to be up there VERY early this morning and he lives WAY far away so he decided that it would be better if he just crashed at our house for the night! Obviously Craig cleared this with me way earlier in the day so I had time to straighten up the house and wash the sheets and comforter in our spare bedroom.

Sunday:
So far today has been fairly uneventful. I woke up at 8:00 with Craig to say goodbye to him before he left for the day to the tournament. Angie has been alternating between chewing on the bone, playing ball and napping....well mostly just napping. I would love to go lay out by the pool...but it's just so hot out there (and not even June yet!) and I have to be dressed and ready to go see Wicked at the Dallas Fair Park this afternoon with some of my former work buddies. We're meeting at a friend's house at 4:30 and then carpooling to Dallas for dinner and then the show. Craig was nice enough to let me get third row seats and I'm excited because I hear the show is spectacular. I hope it's better than the book because I tried to read the book a few years ago and it was pretty terrible.

Monday:
Tomorrow will be another rather uneventful day - we're just planning on sleeping in and I think I'll make pancakes and eggs for Craig since he's worked so hard this weekend on his tournaments. We might have some friends over for swimming and eating but either way I'm going to make potato salad and macaroni salad. Then we will just get ready for the final push towards the end of the school year! We have this week (four full days) and next week (three full days and one half day) and then we're out until August! It can't come soon enough.