When Bill retires we are planning on traveling some I just hope the economy is stable by then which will be a year or two from now. I’m not going to hold my breath though, but I can hope. I feel very sorry for families with young children because there’s so much to worry about now a days, but families need time to have fun together even if it’s not a big vacation way from home.
I receive e-mail advertisements all the time for vacation specials because I signed up to receive special deals when they become available. Of course I get them from all over because I like to dream and plan. I often get the Disney packages, but it’s only Bill and myself and if we still had small children that would be ideal. For those families that are planning a get away it pays to check with a travel agent or find online specials.
Disney vacations are one of the top get aways for family fun and excitement. I will never forget the magic I felt as a little girl when we all went to California to visit family and we actually got to go to Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm. That’s one of the very few good childhood memories I have from the time I lived with my aunt. I got to see my older brother and he rode the rides with me, it was great. That was a great vacation and we were staying near San Diego so Disney Land was over an hour away, but we had a ball and there is so much to do.
There are so many places I would love to travel to with Bill and I’m hoping the economy will improve and hopefully he will retire soon. Our vacations together have been few so I’m looking forward and planning just encase. Sometimes I get a little envious when I see some people in my family taking all these great vacations and I want to be able to travel like I did when I was younger, but I want to do it with Bill and of course I really don’t care that much about amusement parks and I don’t want to take my grandkids.
My sister Betty and grandkids go to Disney World in Florida every year and they love it. I have never been to Disney World even though I lived in Florida for awhile. Since Bill isn’t really into theme parks that’s probably one destination that we will miss out on, but I still like getting the special travel deals to see what’s available. Bill has bad memories of flying do to the war so we’ll probably get an RV and trailer for the bike, sounds like fun to me.
Many people are finding it easier to get higher learning online and actually earn a degree. With the economy the way it is many people are opting for online study courses while they continue to work and take care of their family and you can still get financial aid to pay for it. You interact with students and full time professors through a virtual classroom, but you can fit it around your schedule, but you do need to get the work done on time.
I recommended MS nursing to my daughter-in-law who is a nurse because she can do it at home while taking care of Ethan. This is a Master of Science that you can get online from ST. Xavier’s they are also an accredited college. To apply for admission she needs her bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college or university which she has and it doesn’t cost anything to apply online.
They have financial aid staff members that will help you fill out forms and help you get the assistance you need and possibly any scholarships that would be open. I’m hoping for scholarships because her other student loans still haven’t been paid off yet, but they could always be combined and when she’s able to make more money that will be a lot easier to take care of. So for young people or even older students I recommend checking out the online options.
Have you ever thought about publishing your own cookbook? Bill’s sister-in-law did just that for the reunion we went to in Ohio back in 2003. She gathered up all the family favorite recipes put together a lot of old photographs which look better than the cover I scanned and had a really cool keepsake to hand out to everyone at the reunion.
I just checked the last page and it gives all the information for making your own and they also have a web site where you can check it out Morris Press Cookbooks. This would also make a really great gift basket item for people that like to cook, just add a few spices and condiments or whatever and presto a very thoughtful homemade gift.
This is also a good idea for school and church fundraisers or even a great marketing idea for companies. I have been looking at some of their favorite recipes and I thought what a cool idea this would be for some of the food sites I visit. They could make their own cookbook and sell them from their web site or blog.
The cookbook I’m looking at now is full of all kinds of handy tips like use a metal ice tray divider to cut biscuits when your in a hurry. Just press into the dough and biscuits will separate at dividing lines when baked. Cracked eggs should never be used because they may contain bacteria. Instant potatoes are a good stew thickener.
I’ll go through the book later and find all the helpful hints I have never heard of before and make a list. Some look pretty interesting.
We talk a lot about health and fitness, but how serious are we? All we hear about on the news and everywhere else is how fat we Americans are in comparison to the rest of the world and guess what, it’s true. Even the Orientals when they move to our country have proven that eating our fast food junk has made them fat. Are the fast food chain and the health and fitness field in cahoots together?
The health and fitness field is a booming business and they sell us everything from supplements, equipment, gym privileges, special clothes to wear and diet pills with special diet plans to follow to help us get into shape. I think they give the fast food industry a kick back for making us fat so they can sweat it off of us and make more money. I’m not really serious, that was a joke.
Where I live we have a women that reports on TV about the obesity problems and guess what, she’s a doctor imagine that. Dr. Wanda Fowler and guess what else she’s also not the thinnest person I have ever seen. I’m not saying she is obese, but she is hefty and I find it difficult to listen to her even though it’s her knowledge that she is imparting.
I don’t care that she may indulge in a taco or whopper, but it’s really strange to listen to someone over weight tell me I should eat one way while she eats another. Maybe she has a glandular problem, but I would probably listen closer to someone that doesn’t just talk the talk, but then again I’d probably do what I feel like doing anyways regardless of what I know I should be doing.
Of course I worry about getting older and my health, who doesn’t? I’m concerned about social security and if it will be there when I’m actually old enough to draw it. I’m concerned about being a burden on the people I love, yet I continue to do unhealthy things. I would love to see national health care for everyone, it seems to work well in Canada and other places.
Many of us don’t go to the doctor and get the care we need because we don’t have insurance. Good health and healthy living has become the top priority in most peoples life because we want to live longer, but if we don’t get our economy and the world we live in fixed then what quality of life are all those healthy bodies going to experience? Just a thought!
Bill went to Harrisburg to a motorcycle swap meet with his son today and that’s great because they don’t get to spend much time together. I decided to stay home and save the 15 dollars just to get in because I don’t buy anything anyhow. There’s no telling what he might find for his bike sometimes they have pretty good deals and he loves to haggle.
I’m doing a little computer work till he gets home. It’s overcast so we probably wont take out the bike because it’s no fun to get caught in the rain. Bill will probably spend the day making soup because he loves soup when it’s yucky outside. I was at Carole’s Thoughtful Spot last night and she was talking about soup.
Carole cooks soup like I do straight from the Campbell can, but Bill likes to make his own from his Mothers recipe box, he loves that box and one he really loves is what he calls Hungarian noodle soup, not quite sure why it’s called that except that his Mother is Hungarian. I told Carole I would get the recipe for her so I decided to put it in a post for her.
He serves the noodles on the side so you can add your own and he says you have to have hunky bread with it which I think is a sourdough bread loaf bigger than the Italian bread, but I eat what I want. He’s so picky about what day to have certain things and what must go with it. The recipe is below and I also added his sister’s vegetable soup recipe, but I’d call it hamburger cabbage soup.
Bill usually gets the already cubed beef in a pack and a soup bone he insists it wouldn’t be the same without it. He fills his humongous soup pot as shown below, it must be 8 quarts half way and puts the beef and celery, salt and pepper in together and lets that cook awhile. Then adds all the other ingredients, he uses the baby carrots and 2 14.5 cans of tomatoes plus the juice.
As far as the potatoes that’s the last ingredient he adds and uses about 6, but you can use less. It is very tasty and I like it. If you like cabbage you might like his sisters soup recipe, but Bill says you have to serve that one with cornbread. Like I said Bill is very fussy with his recipes, but so long as he does the cooking I really don’t care. We usually eat it for a couple days then give the leftovers to his daughter or my brother.
