Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

This morning, Sam woke me up before he left to tell me a few things:

1. He was proud of me for getting the raise I deserve at work (I had my annual review last week and asked my boss to reconsider my merit increase and gave him four reasons I deserve the more money, and named my price.  To my surprise, he met my request yesterday!!!)
2. He wanted me to make the roasted tomato basil soup recipe he found in the crock pot cookbook
3. Our water heater wasn't working properly and he'd taken a lukewarm (at best) shower

Needless to say, it was a lot to take in at 6:00 this morning.  Hunter and I decided it was best NOT to lounge in bed, and we got up to tackle our honey-do list.  

First, I reviewed the recipe (which I included at the bottom of this post) and saw that I needed to roast the canned stewed tomatoes with brown sugar and diced onion in the oven for 30 minutes to create the base of the soup.  I was pretty confident I couldn't chop the onions small enough to make them smooth in the soup without a little help from my favorite emulsifier, so I pulled out the archaic cuisinart we got from Sam's grandpa several years ago when we helped him move out of his house.  The thing worked like a dream!  It took care of the chopping while I was spreading the tomatoes out on a baking sheet and sprinkling them with the brown sugar.  

Then, while the tomatoes, sugar and onions were in the oven, I took Hunter on his morning potty walk and tackled the pilot light on the water heater.

After everything had roasted, I popped it all back into the food processor so I could get the mixture as smooth as possible before tossing it into the crock pot with chicken broth, tomato paste, some spices and the left over juice from the canned tomatoes.  Needless to say, I did a lot better with the food processor than if it had been up to me to chop everything by hand.

Into the crockpot it all went, and then I started working on the dishes.  Unfortunately, the water coming out of the sink was still all cold, so I had to call our property manager and have her sent up a handy man to get the water heater functioning again.  Hey, at least everything was fixed before 9:30!

The final product was pretty delicious, if I do say so myself!  Sam has made a few comments to me that on the days I am working from home he would like me to get a home cooked meal put together so that it's ready when he gets home from work.  I suppose he's got a point that it would be nice if I did a little more cooking.  Even if some days it's a crockpot meal that I prep in the morning and then let simmer all day, rather than a complicated recipe I tackle at 5:00 when i get off work, it's nice to have home cooking and it's something we want to make a priority when we have our own family.

Mental Health Days

Everyone needs a mental health day sometimes.  Today is mine.

I haven't had a day to myself since April 14.  Since then I've either been traveling and participating in wedding festivities, working, or entertaining out of town guests.  Please don't misunderstand me, those are all very exciting things that make me very happy, but they do wear me down too.

Sam went back to work today after his week of vacation so that left Hunter and I at the house.  How very relaxing!  The only bummer was that Hunter seemed to think it was time to get up when Sam left for work at 5:30 this morning.  C'est la vie.  It got me up, out of bed and started my productive day.

What have I done with my day?  I started off my cleaning out my briefcase and purse of all the miscellaneous stuff I'd been collecting during the last couple of weeks.  I was able to file my bills and paychecks away in our guest bedroom, clean out our stationary drawer and make room for the new thank you cards and greeting cards I ordered from Papyrus earlier this week, and stripped the guest bed and bathroom linens to be cleaned before my parents arrive next weekend.

Funny anecdote, twice I tried to start the washing machine with the guest bed sheets and twice I accidentally turned on the drier instead.  Boy, did I need a mental health day or what?!

I also have been catching up on my blogging (both reading and writing) and downloaded some new material on my nook.  Which I swear I am going to go and read once I'm finished with this post because I am racking up a ton of unread stuff on that little device and I'm itching to read it all.

I also met with a colleague of mine and spent a couple of hours with her hearing about her job hunt, catching up on what's going on in her love life and just enjoying not having a time-schedule that I had to follow.  When we were done I ran into Target to buy more dishwashing detergent (the kitchen is getting cleaned as soon as I get though the piles of dishes in our sink), razors (summer weather is here and I definitely can't wear shorts with the fuzzy legs I am sporting), and birthday and mother's day cards (which will all be slightly belated).  All in all, it was a good trip.  I just need to run to Petsmart and get Hunter some new chewy sticks to entertain him when we're having company over or take him somewhere for dinner.

It's odd because I would think all these errands would be stressing me out more, but having accomplished so many of my To Do items has really relaxed me and made me feel in control of my life again.  I even took some time to write cards to a few friends and family members because I believe snail mail brightens everyone's days.  It actually seems that many people like to accomplish things on their days off: How and When to Take a Mental Health Day gives you ideas of how to schedule time off as well as what you should do to help yourself recover from the stress in your life.

Sick

I tell ya, being at my parents house is a real treat.  My parents completely spoiled Hunter and I while we were staying with them last week.

Sam and I attended my company holiday brunch on Sunday morning and came home to finish packing and load up the car.  Unfortunately, the 49er game got interesting and we had to postpone our departure until after the loss- ugh! 

After all of Sam's birthday celebrating, he and Hunter passed out on the way up to Northern California and I drove 6 hours straight, making it home in record time.  Yay! 

• It was an amazingly busy week- Monday Sam and I went into San Francisco to do some shopping.  
• Tuesday I worked a bit from home and then did some reconnaissance with Mom and Lisa in Danville.  
• Wednesday I had my busiest day- up to Sacramento to visit with Aunt Kathy, Aunt Annie, Alicia, Justin, Clare and Ryan; off to Jackie and Joe's to try on my bridesmaid dress for their wedding; dinner with Tony and April to meet the adorable Harper; and then back to pick up Hunter from Jackie and Joe before driving back to Mom and Dad's house.
• Thursday I visited Nonna and Papa with Hunter for some pie making activities.
• Friday Mom took the day off and we spent the day running errands and then hosting Sam and his parents for dinner.
• Saturday I caught up with Lindsay over breakfast and a walk before getting my nails done with Mom and then heading over to Sam's parents' house for a Chanukah kick-off party.  
• Sunday we got up and drove home to Southern California.

Unfortunately I managed to come down with a horrendous head cold while I was in NorCal and I am suffering immensely for it now.  I worked from home today to minimize the exposure of my coworkers, but I think I was initially feeling ill on Wednesday night, and I woke up Thursday with a scratchy throat.  Today has been the worst day (I think) but I slept horribly last night.  I am just soooooooo congested that I keep having to blow my nose and drink tea/water/soup.

I'd like to say Hunter enjoyed having me home today, but truth be told, he has been sleeping most of the day.  Hopefully that means he will also sleep tonight!

It's hard to believe that 2 weeks from today we will be celebrating Christmas Eve with my parents and my sister.  I think Carina is going to bring her Terrier/Chiuahuah mix with her from Colorado, and my parents are bringing Max down too.  It will be a full house for sure!

Hopefully by then I will be feeling better!  This Wednesday kicks off the holiday parties and I am terrified that I will be lingering on the brink of health for the holidays this year.  No fun when I have the Rose Bowl to look forward to!

MNF with Kaepernick

So what can I say?  Today I worked a 9.5 hour day, went shopping for our Thanksgiving dinner (turkey, stuffing, & cranberries down; sweet potatoes and asparagus to go), and got dinner started in time to watch the Niners Monday Night Football Kickoff.  Oh the life of a modern woman! 

We're almost to the 10 minute mark of the 3rd quarter and the Niners lead the Chicago Bears 27-0.  Boo-Yeah Bears! 

Colin Kaepernick is looking really good tonight, and it's his first pro start so I'm proud of him.  In fairness, the Bear's quarterback is out tonight as well so both quarterbacks are backups. 

I should really start folding Sam's laundry, but I just don't feel like doing housework tonight.  I already cleaned up everything from dinner... can't that just be enough tonight?  LOL.  He has a very light workload this week (thank you Thanksgiving!) and he was home by 6:30 tonight.  MNF is so much better when I have Sam to watch with instead of just Hunter.

Hunter, by the way, is doing much better since his run-in with my underwear.  I think he's completely back to good in fact.  We all went to Hunter's obedience lesson last night, followed by Chinese food take-out because we were craving soup.  :-)

I'm so excited to have the long weekend off, even if I have to work a few hours to keep from getting behind, it will be so nice to be able to go to the gym during the middle of the day, take Hunter on some longer walks (the poor guy hasn't had too many since the time change), and get some quality time in with Sammy.

Fall Back

Sam, Hunter and I have been enjoying the extra hour today.  We all slept in (Sam slept the longest because he is the most sleep deprived) but even Hunter managed not to wake too early.  And because the 49ers have a bye this week, we were able to really take advantage of the extra hour.

To celebrate our first Golden Weekend (where Sam has both days off) in town since September, I made bacon and toast for breakfast and cleaned the kitchen while Sam was sleeping. 

After breakfast, we headed to Costco where we stocked up on the essentials (TP, paper towels, dishwasher soap, etc.) and then stopped at Ralph's on our way home for the non-bulk grocery items.  It's funny how much more I enjoy running errands when Sam's with me. 

When we came home, we and made BLTs and strawberries for lunch and started a massive laundry project.  Good God, it is unbelievable how much laundry Sam amasses between Golden Weekends.  He has dress clothes, gym clothes, scrubs, you name it!  I have some laundry to do myself, including our bath towels.

We're having friends over for dinner tonight.  So now we're going to take Hunter out for a walk and then finish up our cleaning/laundry so that we can start prepping our dinner.  I'm excited!!!