Whatcha Got Cookin'?

I have to say, one of the great things about being down here is that my cooking skills are improving by leaps and bounds! That's right, I can cook! I'm pretty good at it, too, and getting better everytime I venture into the kitchen.
When I first got here, Sue gave me a makeshift cookbook - just a few recipes to get me going. They're all very simple and easy, but so far I've only tried one of them because it's one of BJ's favorites and one that I remember eating as a kid: Chicken and Dumplings! Mmm mmm YUM! I had quite the adventure making dumplings for the first time, mainly because I misplaced the cookbook, but all was not lost...I called BJ's sister and got the recipe from her, then called Sue to double check when I had trouble. My flour wasn't looking/feeling the way it should have, and I got a little concerned. But in the end, I had a lovely batch of dough to slice up and boil to perfection! I was so proud of myself!
One of my other cooking adventures centered around what to do for dinner one night (this happens a lot, this is when I break out the cookbook or just open all the cabinets and stare for a few minutes). I opened up the cabinets and stared, and didn't see anything immediately appealing. Then I remembered we had ground beef in the freezer, and it came to me...cheeseburger casserole! Yummy stuff, to be sure, but when I told BJ about my dinner plans, he suggested I try something else. His other favorite dish, something he will eat his weight in - beef stroganoff, made according to his family's age-old recipe. It came out so great, all three of us were fat and happy by the time dinner was done! That cheeseburger casserole idea got me hooked, though, so a few nights later, I made some, and boy, was it ever delicious! It's really easy, too! Here, I'll share it with you! Bear in mind, I was cooking for three people, two of whom are big eaters. You can always expand the recipe or shrink it as you see fit!

2 boxes of mac and cheese
2 lbs of ground beef
2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
1 soup can of milk
1 cup of chopped onion
1 package of crackers, crushed into crumbs
1 cup of chopped onion
1 cup of shredded cheese
9 x 13 baking dish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the mac and cheese according to the box (mine was the easy kind, with the cheese pouches). Set aside, covered. Brown the ground beef and onion, then drain and add to mac and cheese. Add the soup and milk, and mix it together thoroughly. Spread the mixture in the baking dish and top it with the crumbled crackers. Sprinkle with all or part of the shredded cheese. Bake at 350 until the cheese on top melts. Take it out to let it cool, and enjoy!

I'll be sure to share some more recipes with you later!

Hello, My Name is Kati, and I'm an AudioPhile...

So, I was checking out a link in an email that Mom sent me. This link takes you to a site where you can pinpoint what song was the number one in the country on a specific day in history. The first amazing thing about this site is that you can roll the dates back to the 1800s! The second is simply that it can remind you of songs you forgot you ever knew!

I decided to go through and find my birthdays and other special days, and that got me to thinking...this site tells me what the nation had to say about popular songs, but the songs say NOTHING about me. I think that's a little unfair, don't you? Because of this, I decided to make a few lists of my own to counterbalance things a little. Some of these songs you'll know and remember. Others, you've probably never heard. But there's a site that I can recommend where you can listen to just about anything you want. ProjectPlaylist is the name of the site. If you know the name of a song, the artist, or both, you can search it and listen to it. There's no sign-up, no fees or anything. I wouldn't put up a link for people to go to if there was any of that involved.

That being said...enjoy!

My Life (According to Top 40 Radio)

Birthdays (Valentine's Day)

1984 "Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club

1985 "Careless Whisper" by Wham! featuring George Michael

1986 "How Will I Know" by Whitney Houston

1987 "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi

1988 "Seasons Change" by Exposé

1989 "Straight Up" by Paula Abdul

1990 "Opposites Attract" by Paula Abdul with The Wild Pair

1991 "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" by C+C Music Factory

1992 "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred

1993 "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston

1994 "The Power of Love" by Celine Dion

1995 "Creep" by TLC

1996 "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men

1997 "Un-Break My Heart" by Toni Braxton 1998 "Nice & Slow" by Usher

1999 "Angel of Mine" by Monica

2000 "Thank God I Found You" by Mariah Carey featuring Joe & 98°

2001 "Ms. Jackson" by OutKast

2002 "U Got It Bad" by Usher

2003 "All I Have" by Jennifer Lopez featuring LL Cool J

2004 "The Way You Move" by OutKast featuring Sleepy Brown

2005 "Let Me Love You" by Mario

2006 "Check On It" by Beyoncé featuring Slim Thug

2007 "Irreplaceable" by Beyoncé

2008 "Low" by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain

Matt’s Birth

August 7, 2000 "Incomplete" by Sisqó

High School Graduation

June 2, 2002 "Foolish" by Ashanti

College Graduation

May 5, 2007 "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne

Wedding Day

September 17, 2005 "Gold Digger" by Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx

Divorce Day

May 1, 2008 "Lollipop" by Lil Wayne featuring Static Major

First Day in TN

Sept 8, 2008 "Whatever You Like" by T.I.

And now...

My Life (According to Me)

"Angel in My Eyes" by John Michael Montgomery

…because my mother will always have an angel in me

"Cheek to Cheek" by Fred Astaire

…because Matt slept so soundly when I sang to him

"When We Die" by Bowling for Soup

…because life’s too short not to make amends

"Girl Next Door" by Saving Jane

…because that’s how I felt for a long time

"18 and Life" by Skid Row

…because I love my brother more than he knows

"Boondocks" by Little Big Town

…because I’m proud of where I came from

"Footloose" by Kenny Loggins (or, the cast of the PSC production)

…because I lived a dream by singing and dancing onstage

"Crash and Burn" by Savage Garden

…because I’d do anything for the people I care about

"Extraordinary" by Liz Phair

…because I am

"I Hope You Dance" by Leeann Womack

…because I did

"I’ll Stand by You" by The Pretenders

…because I know my daddy will always be there

"The Story" by Brandi Carlile

…because I’d be nothing without the people I love and who love me

"Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns N Roses

...because I’m the proudest aunt in the world

What follows is a playlist that was made for me by BJ. He left me a series of notes one night when he went to sleep before I came home, and once I traced the notes to his laptop, I found a website pulled up and instructions that said "Press PLAY". This is the playlist he created for me, to say everything he can't find the words to say himself.

For Kati

"Invincible" by Crossfade

"Far Away" by Nickelback

"Mine" by Taproot

"Until the Day I Die" by Story of the Year

"Broken" by Seether feat. Amy Lee

"Right Here in My Arms" by HIM

"Fill Me Up" by Staind

"Epiphany" by Staind

"Seize The Day" by Avenged Sevenfold

"I Miss You" by Blink 182

"Calling You" by Blue October

"Love Song" by 311

"Amber" by 311

"When Heaven’s Not Far Away" by Cold

"Broken" by 12 Stones

"Crash" by 12 Stones

"The Reason" by Hoobastank

"All for You" by Sister Hazel

"One Thing" by Finger Eleven

"Dream" by Cranberries

"Lightning Crashes" by Live

"What Do I Have to Do" by Stabbing Westward

"I'd Do Anything" by Simple Plan

"The Way I Feel" by 12 Stones

In reponse, I made a playlist for him. Here it is!

For Him

"Surface this River" by Paradise Daze

"Human" by The Pretenders

"Gotta Be Somebody" by Nickelback

"Anywhere" by Evanescence

"#1 Crush" by Garbage

"Bring it on Home" by Little Big Town

"Firefly" by Breaking Benjamin

"Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling

"Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven

"Thunder" by Boys Like Girls

"Fall for You" by Secondhand Serenade

"Vulnerable" by Secondhand Serenade

"As Lovers Go" by Dashboard Confessional

"Broken" by Seether feat. Amy Lee

"Funeral of a Good Girl" by Bif Naked

"Amazing" by Aerosmith

"Got a Feeling" by Flickerstick

"Everything" by Lifehouse

"Angel of Mine" by Amanda Somerville

Finally, I figured I’d share some of my oddities with you! Some of these are pretty outrageous, some are before my time (thus it might seem unlikely that I’d take to them), others just don’t exactly seem like my style and some are just flat-out shameful…but, ya know what? Hey, Mikey! She LIKES it!

I Like It (And You Probably Didn’t Know!)

"And She Was" by Talking Heads

"Those Were the Days" by Mary Hopkins

"Dirty Diana" by Michael Jackson

"Shake It" by Metro Station

"Forever Young" by Rod Stewart

"One Tin Soldier" by Coven

"Wild Wild West" by Escape Club

"Vincent" by Don McClean

"Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" by Warren Zevon

"The Ocean Doesn’t Want Me Today" by Tom Waits

"Narcotic" by Liquido

"Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)" by Cobra Starship

"My Paper Heart" by All-American Rejects

"Copa Cabana" by Barry Manilow

"Belleau Wood" by Garth Brooks

"Beyond the Sea" by Frank Sinatra

"The Tide is High" by Blondie

"Hey Leonardo" by Blessed Union of Souls

"Feel Good, Inc" by Gorillaz

"Goody Two-Shoes" by Adam Ant

"Green Fields of the France" by Standard, The Corsairs version

"Dance Commander" by Electric Six

"Play Some Rock" by Liquido

"I Love Myself Today" by Bif Naked

"Here Comes the Rain" by The Mavericks

"Ghost in this House" by Shenandoah

I hope you've all enjoyed this little musical adventure!

Another Day, Another Dollar (Less)

Well, it's PassItOver again! For those of you who are unaware, PassItOver is not a religious holiday. In fact, it's not a holiday at all! It's that special day that rolls around every two weeks when you get money and immediately have to PassItOver LOL In light of this, I think we should change the quote "The best laid plans o' mice and men often go awry" to "The best laid plans o' mice and men are squished flat by bills". It's all good, though, because the money is going to a good cause. I like to think of it, not as bill payments, but as charitable donations to organizations who, instead of giving you a gift bag of goodies for your trouble, allow you a house to live in, food to eat and utilities to use! It makes me feel better about having to pay so much for so little. That, and the fact that many people, especially these days, don't have what I'm lucky enough to have.
That said, I have good news....WE'RE MOVING! For the past two months, we've been looking into moving to a bigger house, one that would more comfortably accommodate three adults and two kids (Addison, and Matt's son Austin). Earlier this week, we went to look at a house in Springfield, TN, where BJ's mom lives, and we fell in love with it on sight! It's cute on the outside, amazing on the inside, and better than I ever hoped to have found so soon! It has two bedrooms (and they are MASSIVE!), a single bathroom, a separate dining area which we'll be turning into a den/office for the desk and computers, and a neat little kitchen that is the perfect size for all of us! Walking through the house, BJ and I were already planning what we'd like to do with the space available, but we'll run through all that with Matt when we move in. One of the cool things is that both bedrooms are roughly the same size, and if one is larger it's only by a foot or two, so it's fair between all of us. Also, there's a nice yard in the back for the kids to play in, and a roofed front porch. So this coming spring and summer, we can play with the kids in the backyard, then sit on the front porch and relax at night! There's a nonfunctional fireplace in the house, two of them, actually. They run to a central chimney, and the fireplaces are situated between the two bedrooms. They're purely cosmetic, but they'll be cute little decorative pieces for the bedrooms. And this is will be the first time that I've have a mantle! Looking around the room that BJ and I will have, I already know where I'd like to put the bed and everything. We're going to be looking into getting some area rugs for the living room and bedrooms, because it's all hardwood flooring. The floor in the kitchen is a brand new laminate floor that the landlord installed just the other day, and we'll end up getting a couple small rugs to put in front of the sink and the stove. Another thing we'll be getting is a refrigerator, because the house doesn't come with one. I can do without a washer and dryer for a while, but we kinda need a fridge! LOL I've been checking Craigslist for cheap used ones, and there's a site that BJ's mom told us about that's a lot like that. As it stands, I gave the landlord a check this afternoon for the first month's rent, and as soon as we have the utilities switched over, we can have the keys and start moving in! That will probably happen on Monday...it would have happened today, but I didn't have the deposit money on me.
Anyway, that's all for now, I'll keep everyone posted about the moving process!

Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...

So, about my mention in the Swisher tribute-blog. We have a new addition to the household. BJ's friend Matt recently moved back to Tennessee after a brief stay in Georgia. It's a long story, and it's not really mine to tell, but the abbreviated version is that Matt's relationship was not working, and life at his father's left more than a lot to be desired, so BJ and I told him to come stay with us. BJ and Matt have been friends since they were 13 and may as well be brothers. Matt also helps keep me safe and sane, he was my first good friend here. I couldn't let someone who treats me like a little sister go back to a life like he was looking at in going home. He's family, and family is always welcome in BJ's home, and in mine.
In other news, Addison's potty training is going extremely well! She has very few accidents these days, and spends most of the day on the potty trying because she hasn't quite nailed down the "Gotta Go" feeling. I'd rather have her THINK she has to pee 50 times a day when she doesn't than never at all and have constant accidents. Anytime she thinks she has to go, she tells us clearly "Potty! Pee!" and off to the bathroom she goes, usually with her daddy. BJ stands in the doorway dutifully and waits with her until she's convinced she's done, and then playtime resumes until the next pee-mergency. Her vocabulary is slowly but surely expanding and becoming more clear. Everytime she's here, we work on new words and pay extra attention to helping her put words together. Things like "Can I have a cookie?" or "Can we watch Nemo?" We're very big on manners, so almost everything comes with a "please" or "thank you". We've also discovered that she has a FABULOUS time playing with Play-Doh! We got her Play-Doh for Christmas, and we left some at Sue's house for her to play with when we take her to visit. Addison, Sue and I sat at Sue's kitchen table and had some hardcore Pay-Doh fun for at LEAST an hour and a half! Sue is a true Play-Doh Mom, too...she broke out the cookie cutters, the same way she did for BJ and Stasia when they were little. We made cookies, angels, bells, icecream cones, snails, beds, pillows, blankets, cars, kitties, sandwiches...you name it, we made it with Play-Doh! You can bet we'll be having fun like this more often now that we know how interested she is!
Oh! Before I forget! We got a package from Mom today with the family's Christmas cards in them. Thank you all for the cards and Christmas wishes! Stacey sent pictures of the kids, and I know it shouldn't be so shocking, but I had to take a minute to think about it. They're growing up so quick! It doesn't seem like Christopher should be 14 already! He is the spitting image of Uncle James, and if I didn't know any better I'd swear that Evelyn was a little Stacey and Wyatt was a little Brett! I also got a picture of Miss Kindle Mae Gill, who looks like a cross between Aunt Mel and Jess. She's gonna be a gorgeous girl! Speaking of look-a-likes, I saw the pictures Mom sent of Cilla and Matt under the tree, and in the snow with Pap. They look so much like Ricky and me that I want to cry. Makes me miss the good old days. I got to talk to Cilla one of the last times I called home. Ricky and I talked for about a half hour, and he put Cilla on the phone, who told me "Hi, K! I love you, I miss you!" I asked her about Destind and she told me, very adamantly, "Desti-boy MY baby!"
Well, I suppose that's all for this installment. There will be more adventures, so keep your eyes peeled!

Thank Heaven for Kitty Cats!

Yes, yes, I know...I haven't written in a while, shame on me for it. Life has a tendency to get in the way, and mine has always excelled at that.
For those of you who don't know, we here at *Casa de Lowry-Walker-Capps have a "baby". He's small, four-legged, furry, tears around the house day and night, gets underfoot with lightning speed, has a penchant for hair ties (the elastic kind) and the hair in the tub drain, lives for cuddles and chasing the beam of a laser pointer, prefers perching on a shoulder to lounging on a bed, gets high on laundry detergent and has a purr that rivals most earthquakes.
That's right, we have a kitty, and his name is Swisher. He got his name from his foster mom at the animal shelter from which he was initially adopted - when he was a kitten, his tail was bigger than he was and he would get so excited that he'd sway and swish his tail until he not only knocked over the other kittens, but himself as well.
For all intents and purposes, he is my baby. He relies on me (and BJ) for food and necessities, and runs to me when he is scared or so excited he doesn't know what with it. He comes looking for praise when he does something good, cowers and gives me "kitty eyes" when he's done something bad, crawls into laps for cuddles and affection and fusses when he is disturbed. He doesn't talk much, in the sense that he doesn't have a defined "meow" yet. Instead, he squiks and squeaks at us, and will respond with an appropriate-sounding noise or combination of noises when he's spoken to. For instance, when we disturb his kitty nap time, he'll say "Menh-ENH-enh!" which can't be translated because no one, let alone a cranky kitty, is entirely coherent when awakened abruptly. When asked if we woke him too soon, he'll yawn and tell us "Menh...ENH!" as if to say "Well...YEAH!"
As much as he is our baby, he never lets us forget who the REAL owner is in this house...HIM. We do not own him, he definitely owns us. Just ask him, he'll squik you all about it! He cares for his humans the way all cats care for their true families. For instance, he brings "gifts" to our "nest"...or, he leaves things in the bed for us. Sometimes he'll just leave the gift to be discovered later (in the case of hairties, plastic twist-ties and bits of yarn). Other times, he'll bound up onto the bed while we're in it to deposit his offering immediately. Most notably, his first gift to us was a cricket that he'd caught and killed himself. While his timing was not...shall we say, "appropriate"...we took the time to praise and cuddle him, and to thank him for the gift. Once he was satisfied that he'd done well for his family, he snatched the cricket up in his teeth and trotted off with it. I can only assume, knowing Swisher, that he played with it a little more before eating it. On another occasion, one that solidified my belief that we are truly HIS, he brought us a gift that was as unusual as it was appropriate. He bounced onto the bed one night and plunked down something large and heavy. Once my eyes adjusted enough to see what it was, I laughed so hard I cried a little. He'd brought us a partial roll of electrical tape. Apparently, he's seen us working on the computer enough that he could identify it as something valuable to us, something we should have more of. So, he thoughtfully fished it out of the box in the bottom of the hall closet and brought it straight to Momma and Daddy, since we were in the "nest."
Like any good pet, he is viciously protective of his Momma and Daddy, speficially Momma (me). One night while I was playing a video game in the bedroom with BJ laying next to me, Matt came into the room to see what I was doing, and Swish immediately took a seat between Matt and us, to keep him away from his humans. When Matt leaned closer, Swish assumed a defensive stance at my side, glaring at Matt in a way that said "That's close enough to my momma, thank you...back it off now, buster, I don't wanna have to hurt you!" Even at his most defensive, he's never raised a paw, flashed a claw or bared a fang at anyone in anger. I consider him a pacifist: a good, stern look does the trick for him and he sees no reason to resort to violence.
One of his miraculous talents is that which all good pets possess - the ability to sense and make better any ailment, emotional or physical, that afflicts his humans. When BJ is in a bad mood, Swish will nose at his hand and settle on the arm of the couch to let Daddy know that he's there without demanding more than his Daddy can give right then. When Matt is feeling sick, Swish will climb up onto the couch with him and snuggle until he's satisfied that the sick is all gone. And when I'm sick or upset, Swish will not leave my side. He'll station himself as close to me as he deems appropriate, be it next to me on the couch or tucked securely under my chin while I sleep (under the covers and in my arms, no less!). The hardest thing for him is to see me cry. When his momma cries, his world falls apart and he goes into Super Savior Mode. You can plainly see that his thought process is "Something is hurting Momma...this can't happen, I have to fix this immediately!" He will stop at nothing to reassure me and make me safe and happy again. He prances and cries near me in a panic at first, then rushes to my aid with a purr and a nuzzle, followed by a warm, loving cuddle. He puts himself in my arms, leaving me no choice but to cradle him, and he paws softly at my face until I look at him. That's when he makes the hurt go away...he gives me a kitty-nose-kiss and opens his eyes for me, something he does very rarely.
Swish has a special circumstance - he has chronic goopy-eye, which I've learned more about since we got him. What presents as runny, squinted eyes in cats is actually a feline form of the herpes virus. It's noncontagious to humans or other animals, and doesn't cause any serious harm to the animal, beyond being an inconvenience. We do our best to keep his eyes clean and clear for his comfort, and according to what I've read, he may yet grow out of it. Some cats never grow out of it, but his eyes have been steadily improving since he's come to live with us. When he opens them all the way, his eyes are the most beautiful shade of amber-gold I've ever seen, so much that there is nothing to compare them to. He saves the best glimpses of his gorgeous eyes for when I'm hurting...I think of it as a little something special between him and me.
His other special skill goes hand in hand with his protectiveness. We have a presence in our house, one that does not appear to be a friendly one. Through our encounters with it, we've decided that it is male, is largely unhappy and scared of cats and small children. It stays mainly in the bedroom but ventures out every so often, usually when Addison is asleep in the bedroom. On any given day, we'll hear a distinct snapping, like someone breaking a dead tree branch, coming from the bedroom, and this puts Swish on alert. He is particularly unsettled by this presence because we've discovered that it only shows itself to me on specific occasions. From the bedroom doorway, you can look directly through the bathroom and into the shower. Our shower curtains are a clear outer curtain with a frosted liner, and before we aded the frosted liner we could see completely into or out of the shower. This male presence has voyeuristic tendencies, apparently, because it watches me while I shower. When I would shower at night before Swish came, I would often see someone who, at first, I presumed to be BJ standing in the bedroom doorway, watching me. One night, not long after I got here, I decided to tease him, so I said "Don't think I don't see you there, slick..." only to have BJ come in from the living room and ask what I was talking about. As he walked into the bathroom with me, the person I saw in the doorway disappeared, and I realized that something was not right. I went pale and started to shake, and told BJ what I'd seen. Swish senses the presence, and refuses to allow me to shower without being stationed on edge of the toilet seat or on the side of the tub, facing the doorway in alert mode. Since he's become my bathing buddy, the presence hasn't watched me.
A few days ago, we got to watch Swish battle it out with the presence. I'm positive that's what he was fighting, because it happened in the kitchen and when Addison is here, we'll hear the branch-breaking sound come from the kitchen instead of the bedroom. At first, we thought he was playing with the dust mites in the sunbeams, and then I noticed the concentration and intent in his face and posture, and the way his ears were laid back and his teeth and claws bared while he stalked, charged and pounced. He was defending us from whatever lives here, and he was not about to let it interfere with us, much less hurt us. After his battle, he came to curl up on my lap, with his little heart racing. He stayed alert at first, until I calmed him enough that he went to sleep on me.
Swish is a truly amazing little creature, and I love him as much as any mother loves a baby. He returns that love in ways that make my heart melt. I'm so happy that he's not some aloof, finicky feline who wants nothing to do with the humans who happen to inhabit his living space. He's my baby, my protector, my security and my snuggle-buddy. He is everything a perfect pet should be.
So I say, "Thank heaven for kitty cats!" Sing it with me, you know the tune!

*ahem ahem ahem...*

Thank Heaven for kitty cats!
Our kitty cat steals hair ties every day!

Thank Heaven for kitty cats!
He nuzzles, purrs and plays his days away!

His golden eyes so sparkly, big and pretty!
We just can’t help but love that frisky little kitty!

Thank Heaven for kitty cats,
Thank Heaven for them all,
No matter where, no matter who!
Oh, without ours, what would we ever do?

Thank Heaven…thank Heaven…thank Heaven for kitty cats!

I hope you enjoyed that tribute to my special little fuzzy man! Stay tuned for more, world!








* "Casa de Lowry-Walker-Capps" is what I affectionately call our home, since there are three different surnames here - BJ Lowry, Kati Walker and Matt Capps...I'll explain the newest addition in a later blog.