Cooking for 2

http://recipes.cookingfor2.com/eRMS/recp.aspx?recid=39210 (copied and pasted this photo from the link above, so I wanted to make sure credit is included)
My little helper! She wants to learn to cook now!

Hey, I found a new magazine that I like! It's called "Cooking for 2" by Taste of Home publications. I saw a few laying around my friend's house and I looked at them and wanted to get one of my own. They show recipes with pictures and it's perfect for just 2 people. NO LEFTOVERS! There was one page for whenever one person is away for the weekend, so they have recipes just for one person. I made Broccoli Crescent Appetizers, and it turned out great! It has homemade cheese sauce and I was able to put them in all the crescent, and there was NO sauce left over. Awesome!

My VP not working!!!

Hey,

For those who haven't heard of VP, it's a videophone and it's a way deaf people can communicate with each other (it's been around for a couple of years). It is hooked to a TV and a high speed Internet service or DSL. As you can see in the photos, my daughter Abby and her friend, Jonah could see each other on the TV. The VP has features where you could click for a full view of the other person instead of seeing 2 pictures. I usually use that full view because I can see my friends more clear that way. They have relay service on the VP which is called VRS and I like using that to call my hearing friends, order pizza, make reservations with car rental, or stuff like that.

Anyway, today I had a VP call with somebody in Pittsburgh to talk about a deaf event that's coming up soon. That was about 2:30pm today, and it went well. Then another friend wanted to talk to me on VP tonight, so I went to call her at 9:30pm and it wouldn't work at all! I am desperate for it to get fixed because I have an VP interview tomorrow! While I'm trying to do all the trouble-shooting, I thought I'd do a blog about Abby's very first VP call.

Abby misses her friends in DC, so she asked me if she could VP one of her friends (back in Aug). She got on the VP for the first time with Jonah, and instead of chatting like I had expected, they got a pad of paper and started drawing pictures for each other! Cute, ha ha. They drew Pokemon, of course. In the next series of Abby's VP calls, she would run and grab one of our 3 cats to show them to her friends. We have a friend who has a little girl, and she likes to see Abby's stuffed animals. When I'm trying to talk to my friend, her daughter and Abby are shoving one of their stuffed animals in front of the cam, interrupting our conversations! During my recent VP conversation with my Texas friends, at my end it was just me and Abby but on the other end, it was a couch full of my friends and their kids! The kids were excited to see each other, so VP calls are fun!


See both kids are drawing at the moment.
Jonah was done first, then waiting for Abby to look up, so he started spinning in his chair.

Our cats

This was taken in November. Whitey, Taz, and Midnight.

I can't find my wire for the camera to upload current pictures of our cats! I've been searching for that wire all day! Probably one of the cats played with it and it got stuck underneath something. So I'll just post old photos of when they were little. We got Taz on Sept. 9th which was one day before Abby's birthday. In early October, we saw a white kitty but we thought she had a home. One week later, we saw her again and that time, she had a buddy, a black kitty. We asked around the neighborhood to see if we could find the owners of these 2 kittens. We were told that they have been roaming the neighborhood for 2 weeks, so they were strays. Abby begged me to take them in, I told her that it'd be for temporary until we can find homes for them. Four months later, they're still living with us! Yep, they're family now. That week in October, I took them both to the vet, and he said that Whitey was 6 months, Blackie was 3 months exactly the same age as Taz.

Taz was so small in this picture, I couldn't believe it! He's bigger now! This was taken in Oct.

Taken last Oct, her name is Midnight. She is still our smallest kitty! Taz and Midnight are both 6 months old now but Taz is growing big!

Science Center and Car Trouble!

The 2 photos are tiny models on a huge table where they have Thomas the train and other trains go around the table. See the baseball fans below, they're made out of Q-tips! I like going there because it shows all 4 seasons, and the lights will dim as if it's night time, then brighten up. Funny because Carrie said to me, "We've been here 2 days already" but it was only few minutes!
These two activities were Abby's favorite. Playing in the water, of course and playing the digital drums. She thought it was hilarious because there's a microphone where your voice becomes distorted when you speak into it. That's Abby's fave part about the drums because she records her voice and hits the first button which sounds like a chipmunk and the end is a boy voice.

Look at Abby's face, that's how she reacted when she saw the TV with the brain jello that we can eat! Abby said EWWWW!!!! (That's her friend, Isaac, on the left). Josh sat in the front, and Bing Xia sat with her mommy eating snacks.
I liked this one because it's cool. It looks like gel is inside and you can move the Earth one way to see it spin, then stop it and spin it the other way to see what the gel does. It looks like a hurricane.

Today, Abby and I went into Pittsburgh to drop off my car at a Volvo dealership. I've been having some trouble with my car lately, and 3 local places couldn't help me because they didn't have the parts. To make long story short, my car is no longer driveable. It's parked in my driveway and I'll put it up in the newspaper to see if anybody wants to buy it for the parts.

What am I gonna do about transportation? It's too cold for me to walk, so that option is out. I know alot of people walk everyday in this weather, but I can't! Bicycle would be fun, but Abby doesn't like it. Since she's with me all the times, that mode of transportation is out! I'll need another car, indeed and I'm working on it with some advice from my friend's brother.

Anyway, when we dropped off the car this morning, my friend and her 3 kids came to pick us up from the shop. We went to a sandwich shop in Pittsburgh, called Uncle Sam's Sandwich Shop. Abby said that it was better than Subway! The service was quick, and she liked having french fries. I had onion rings, but it was too much for one person!

Afterwards, we all went to the Science Center, which Abby loved. We watched a "kitchen" show about brains, and they made jello using a model of a brain. Abby thought it was gross, and so did I. They used red jello mix and added yogurt (I think to make it look pinkish and more realistic). The kids all had fun, and this time I have photos! The last time we went, my batteries died. Now I can share them with you.

Oh yes, it also snowed this morning. Alot at once, but not enough to play in it.

Please pray for me to find a car within my budget!!!