Happy New Year Everyone! Unfortunately I'm ending 2011 and starting 2012, with a yucky chest & head cold. I'm getting better, slowly.

F.B. & I will just be celebrating New Years quielty at home this evening. We'll have some cheese, crackers, pepperoni & Martinelli's sparkling cider at midnight! And watch the ball drop in New York on TV. New Years Day, I'll be cooking ham & sweet potatoes. And we'll get to try our chocolate chip panettone cake.

Christmas Picture of us both:


I ordered some more goodies. I ordered another one of these chairs from Walmart, because I absolutely love it and I want a matching set. The chair itself is really comfortable and even cuter in person!

Arista Arm Chair- Black and White Floral (Walmart)

Royal Opulence Satin Sheet Set: Zebra (Walmart)

Oh and I got the best deal on a 4 cup Pyrex meauring cup from Big Lot's last week! $6! (No more baking disasters now, yay! Lol!)

My husband thinks I'm crazy because I never take off my wedding band. I have a very slim 3mm titanium wedding band. I also have a "blingy" part of my wedding ring that I do take off when I come home. But the wedding band itself, never comes off.

I occasionally remove my wedding band to apply lotion. But I sleep with it, shower with it. It never comes off. (It never tarnishes either because titanium doesn't! hehe!) My husband takes his wedding band off to shower & sleep. But, I'm always afraid I would forget to put it back on if I did that, lol! I mean occasionally I forget to put the "blingy" part of my ring on when I leave the house.

So how about you? Do you take your wedding band off? Or am I the only crazy one. :-p

My sweet Iris, my "ratatouille" passed away sometime last night.... I found her this morning when I woke up. My sweet girl was getting frail, she had an abscess on her one paw and what appeared to be a tumor growing in her belly. (She had a paralyzed tail from a back injury when she was younger). Though weak & getting frail, her energy was good, she was always so very excited to see me when I opened the cage door, and her appetite was good.

I will miss my "ratatouille". That was her nickname because she was the colors of Remy in the Disney movie. She was a blue berkshire. Iris was very affectionate, like her sister Jasmine. She loved to give kisses to your hands, your face. She loved grooming your nails. She had a hearty appetite like her sister Jasmine. They even looked a lot alike when they were both younger. I will miss my blue girls... it really sucks losing them so close together.

♥ I love all of my pet rats, but blue rats are my favorite color, if I had to choose. Goodbye my sweet Iris. ♥

Jasmine on the left- Iris on the right.

Iris & Jasmine- By Ciara Kay Barsotti

I got a crock pot for Christmas from my parents. Something I've wanted for awhile. The first thing I made in it, was potato soup! :-)


Here is the original recipe. And below is the recipe altered by me to serve 2 people. Perfect soup for a cold winter evening.

Potato Soup for 2 in Crock Pot

• 3 large (or medium) potatoes, chopped
• 1 half of medium onion, chopped
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon of minced garlic (I use the kind in a jar).
• 1 tablespoon of honey (adds some sweetness).
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups of milk
• 1/2 cup water
• Few shakes of Goya Adobe all purpose seasoning. (Red Lid).

Put all the ingredients into the crock pot, stir. Cover and cook on low for 5 or 6 hours.

After it was done cooking, I took a potato masher and mashed some of the potatoes up. So the soup had a creamy texture, but still had chunks of potatoes in it. Then I whisked the soup real good before I served it.

Top with cheese or croutons & enjoy!

Getting ready to cook for 6 hours!

Ready to eat!

I also made homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. Mmmm!


Chicken Noodle Soup for 2: Crock Pot Recipe

• 2 chicken thighs (fully cooked), bones removed & cut into small pieces
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• Few shakes of Goya Adobe all purpose seasoning. 
• 1 tablespoon of honey (Trust me!) 
  
• 3 cups of water
• 1 can of chicken broth
• 1 half of a small onion diced
• 1-1/2 cup of frozen mixed veggies (peas, carrots, lima beans).
• Half a box of your choice of noodles, (All I had on hand were the mini shell kind).

Set aside noodles. Add all other ingredients, stir together & cook on low for 5-6 hours. One hour before it's done, add the noodles & 1 extra cup of water. Stir & let finish cooking. (I also added a potato because we had some around the house).

We still have leftovers of the chicken soup! It made a lot! And it was sooo good!

I've been fighting a nasty cold since last Thursday, which turned into a chest cold this past Monday, so hot soup was just what I needed!

Now... can't wait to make pulled barbeque pork & beef stew in my crock pot!

Early Christmas Gift. :-) Meet Buttercup & Sweet Pea!

Buttercup is beige capped with a blaze. She's a chubby little roly poly girl, and pretty brave and not afraid of people.




Sweet Pea is an extremely light cream hooded with red eyes. She almost looks like a PEW her markings are so light. She is smaller and more nervous than her sister.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to everyone! F.B. & I will be celebrating Christmas Eve at our apartment. This will be F's 1st Christmas in the USA, our 2nd Christmas married & our 3rd Christmas spent together. :-)

I'll be making alfredo pasta with mushrooms, bacon and ham for Christmas Eve dinner. Also Texas toast with cheese, and Pillsbury cinnamon rolls for dessert. Mmmm.

Christmas Day we'll be meeting my family at a Chinese Buffet for brunch. (3rd year we've done this tradition). Then we'll be heading back to my parents house to exchange gifts. F.B. & I will be exchanging gifts tonight.

I made a batch of cookies Friday night and two batches this afternoon. Of course I had some cookie baking disasters though... 1st off, I really need to buy a GLASS measuring cup- my plastic one melted while trying to melt chocolate in the microwave, lol!


And I really love Dollar Tree. My apartment is stocked with stuff I've gotten from there. But their cookie sheets... epic fail. The metal warped in the oven and my cookies ended up looking like.... brownies? The perfect cookie on the right is from the cookie sheet my Mom gave me. The cookies on the left... are from the Dollar Tree cookie sheet...


I made a batch of these White Chocolate Cherry Cookies:


And Thumbprint cookies with strawberry jam!

We had to take Jasmine to the vet this morning, to be put to sleep. I hate having to make that decision... it's the worst.

Jasmine started with an eye injury back in November. We think maybe one of the girls scratched her in her eye. It got infected and started swelling. The vet started her on Cipro eye drops & oral antibiotic. She was doing betterish, but then developed a nasty respiratory cold on top of things. Poor girl was wheezing and losing weight and her appetite was really decreased. She had a re-check at the vet and they switched her to Baytril antibiotics, plus the Cipro. Her eye started to get worse a few days after her 2nd vet visit. The eye had ulcerated. If she hadn't had the respiratory infection, the eye could have been removed. Poor girl wasn't doing so well though, she was hardly eating, and we could not get the antibiotics down her. Even when we tried mixing them in baby food or Ensure.

Jasmine was always really sweet and energetic. She LOVED to give kisses. She would kiss your hands, your face all over. She was a sweet mellow rat. She also loved to eat- when she was well. She loved treats or scraps of food. I will definitely miss her kisses. ♥

You can see just how bad Jasmine's eye was in this picture with Violet & Daisy.

Today is our 2 year wedding anniversary! (Though "legally" our marriage certificate says December 18th. See why here). I get 2 hours of administrative holiday leave, so I am using it to leave work a bit early on our anniversary. We will be heading to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner!

I finally finished unpacking on Sunday! We have internet now too. Yay! January is going to suck with all the new bills being due though... I may have to call the electric & gas company to change my due dates once I pay the 1st bills, so that my one pay check will just be for rent, food, gas & my other check for all the other big bills.

We had my cousin Jessica over Saturday night for dinner. (Darn we forget to get pictures together!) We also Skyped with her sister, my cousin Chrissy who lives in Georgia. We ordered Chinese take-out and exchanged Christmas gifts, had some wine & watched 'The Social Network'. It was a really fun evening.

Our new apartment is really close to where I used to work, before our office relocated to Center City Philadelphia. It's a shame, because if we still worked at the old location I could probably WALK to work! The Chinese take-out place is one that my co-workers used to order from for lunch. :-)

My cousin spoiled us with some Christmas/Housewarming gifts!

Sparkling wine!

Christmas day, we are hopefully meeting with my family to have brunch at a Chinese Buffet & exchange gifts. For New Years Eve, I think my husband & I will just be celebrating here at the apartment. I already bought a small half ham, sweet potatoes with brown sugar, crackers, cheese, pepperoni & Martinelli's sparking cider. And a chocolate chip Panettone cake.

Moving day went fine. So exhausted and achy though! Almost unpacked, just some clothes to still hang up and put away. Returned the Uhaul truck this morning. My family helped us move yesterday and we were able to load up the truck for one trip. And then just 2 small trips for last minute items. We are using the internet from my cell phone until we get our Comcast internet. My T-mobile Sidekick 4G can be used as a router. I have "unlimited" mobile internet, but only up to 5GB a month so we can't watch any Netflix until our regular internet service is set up. Back to work on Wednesday. I'll have to use a different train station too. :-p

Also there's some things in the apartment that maintenance has to check out. Our bathroom sink is leaking underneath when you run it. And our shower doesn't work. The knob to turn for shower just gushes tub water out whichever way the knob is turned. Anyhow if that can't be fixed the way I want it- then I ordered this as a back up. At least we don't have to pay for water.

This morning we just ran the tub & used a bucket we have with a handle & spout to "shower" with. (Philippines flash back! The water pressure can be pretty low at times in the Philippines. So everyone has a big tub of back up water with a lid & a bucket or ladle to rinse/bathe with in their shower/tub.)

Here's some pictures of our apartment. We picked up a few Christmas decorations at Dollar Tree today.