the best ham I have ever had...

I saw a this recipe on Pinterest  for a crockpot ham...and decided to give it a shot.  

I've never made a ham on my own and wasn't sure how it would turn out but decided to give it a shot!

Growing up, we would go over to my Nana's house about once a month, and we always had the EXACT same thing.  Ham, 'ice cream' mashed potatoes, and green beans.  

The ham was cooked ALL day, and was so incredibly salty you needed a few gallons glasses of water to make you feel better.

So, when the hubs and I went grocery shopping, we looked for a spiral cut ham.  At Costco it was close to $40 dollars for one!  Probably because it could feed an army was close to 20 pounds.  In other words, not for us.  When we went to Safeway, we hunted through the Manager's Special of hams, and found the cheapest one.  A 10 pound ham, normally $36 dollars, on sale for $12!  

In addition you need:

• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar (rubbed all over)
• 2 cups of pineapple juice ( I used 2 cans of pineapple chunks and it was DELICIOUS)
• 1/2 cups of syrup (I used just regular syrup, it said to use maple, but that was all we had!)

On Saturday I popped it in the crockpot, flat side down, and rubbed it all over with the brown sugar.  We poured the pineapple juice and and syrup on top.  Then, since the lid wouldn't fit, I just covered it with four layers of foil and called it good!

Set the crock pot on low, and leave it for 4-5 hours!  After about 4 hours, pour some of the juice back up on top.  

Seriously, this was the BEST ham I have EVER had.  It was wonderful.  

I think this could become a monthly recipe... especially since it will last us about a week! 

    

high five for friday...

Ahhh what a week.

Starting from January 2, my school district only has FOUR full weeks left.  On every other week, we either  have a holiday, day off, or a furlough half day.  

This week was a FULL week.  Plus, we had a Friday the 13th.  And my student teacher.  Made for one tired teacher come Friday afternoon.

This week, I am loving

1. LOVE these burlap canvas squares... I am making these as I type! 

2. We have had some *cold* days here recently...but have been having the most spectacular sunrises and sunsets!  The forecast is calling for some snow...as long as it is gone by Tuesday when I have to drive to school!

3. Teacher Taco Night!  Love getting together with my friends and our husbands, lots of kids running around and plenty to eat and drink!

4. Heard this song again for the first time in a while... been on repeat on my computer, in my head, and in my heart. 

5. Thankful for what Martin Luther King Jr. stood for... and that we have Monday off!  Pretty neat...my students wrote this week about THEIR dreams, and their work is being featured at a MLK day event on Monday! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Looking forward to three days off...and maybe we will even see some snow this weekend!

red velvet...

Tonight we had prayer night with our high school students and I always make treats... so I made some yummy cupcakes!  I decided to do a trial run for tomorrow, so I made Red Velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting!  

They are soooo tasty!

Tomorrow we have Teacher Taco Night...And I am bringing dessert... Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake!  It used the same cake to make the cupcakes and used the frosting too.  The cake was so easy...all in one bowl.  LOVE those types of cakes!  

I found the recipe here on Recipe Girl... and it looks soooo tasty! 

Can't wait to try it tomorrow!  

midweek confessions 1...

Saw this idea over at Thoughts and Ramblings from a Crazy Person, one of my favorite blogs to read.  Love the honesty! :)  So today I am linking up to

Monday was my first morning with my student teacher.  So, in order to look good be super prepared, I was at school by 7:00 and when she walked in at 8:30, I was energentic, happy, and all set to go.  Tuesday morning?  Rolled in to school at 8:10.  Sat at my desk checking e-mails and looking at Pinterest teaching stuff until my first kiddos walked in at 8:50. 

This morning?  Went back to sleep after the hubby left and slept an extra hour.  Something about that hour that does miracles for my mood.

Tuesday while running a small group during Daily 5, we were talking about synonyms, or for those of you who may have forgotten 5th grade vocabulary, two words with the same meaning.  I asked if anyone remembered what a synonym was, and one of my sweet peas quick had an answer.  "Yes!  It's like when you call someone a witch, but you really want to call them a.... ".  She quickly faded out at the end realizing swearing in front of your teacher at all was not a good idea.  Enter: me turning my head quickly and moving on to antonyms while trying not to laugh.

I have been trying to exercise at least 4 times per week.  So last night, it was to the YMCA we went.  Again.  Two nights in a row!  We did the elliptical, and got a good workout in including 35 minutes straight on Fat Burner.  My screen told me I burned 398 calories.  However, when I entered my exercise into www.myfitnesspal.com, it told me that 35 minutes on the elliptical would count at 536 calories burned.  I went with the 536 as my entry.

Yesterday, my class at a 10 minute discussion about how having a horse in your house would not be a good idea.  Especially when they had to poop.  Welcome to 5th grade.  During the discussion, my students were able to make wonderful sentences using the complexor AND, which is why I just let it happen.  Should be exciting when today we using the complexor BUT. 

Happy rest of the week!

love-hate...

Ahhh.... working out.  We have a love-hate relationship.

Dieting.  Love-hate.

Tracking my food.  Love-hate.

I think the reason that all of these feel like a love-hate, is because it brings back lots of GOOD memories, and lots of BAD memories.

More about that to come...someday. 

But right now, I am doing this for me.

Working out at the Y 4-5 nights a week.  Sore, and loving it.  It feels... good.

Tracking all of my food on www.myfitnesspal.com.... feels good.  

Eating healthy, every day.  Good.

Not feeling like I'm going to be in trouble with someone if I slip up and eat something not so healthy.... great.

Down 10 pounds so far... and lots more to go. 

But learning more towards the LOVE part of this right now instead of the hate. 

the day the tanning salon burnt down...

I live in a small town.

Small enough that when a business is on fire, everyone and I mean EVERYBODY comes out to watch.

I was grading papers wasting my life on Facebook today, and a few pictures popped up of black smoke coming out of a building in the center of our town.

And for some odd reason, I have a strange fascination with things like this.  I know, weird.  And if we are being honest, I also have an odd fascination with polygamy, school shootings, and TV prison shows.  Glad I got that out. 

My wonderful husband, knowing that I am fascinated by things like this, offered to drive me down to the BIG SCENE so I could see what was happening.  We had to go into town anyways that day, and since our small town is pretty much two intersecting roads, we were going to go by anyways.

Fast forward 4 hours... we are back home now.  Yes, we ended up watching for FOUR hours.  

It went from being contained to one business, 

to spreading to the ones next door,

to taking over the whole building.

Apparently, it started in a Dessert Sun Tanning salon.  A facial bulb EXPLODED while a girl was tanning.  It started smoking a bit, and she went out to the front.  The girl at the front came back to look, and it was on fire.  And because NO ONE had a brain knew how to use a fire extinguisher or thought about cutting the power, it quickly spread to the rest of the store.  And because the store is connected to a bunch of other ones... we lost a hearing aid shop, cigar shop, travel agency, beauty supply shop, and 

my favorite coffee shop.  The only decent drive through, my favorite place to meet up with friends, and a central hub in our town - gone.  

I saw more people today out there that I knew then I do going to church on a Sunday!  So that is the story of the day the tanning salon burnt down.   

gift cards...

I have a love-hate relationship with gift cards.

LOVE that I can pick and choose what I want....

HATE that I always forget I have them....

LOVE not having to pay for something with my debit card 

HATE having a wallet full of them....

LOVE not having to decide which envelope to take the money out of (thanks Dave Ramsey!)....

HATE having $0.53 cents left on it and feeling the need to keep it and not waste those precious pennies...

Exhibit A:

I went through and found all of my gift cards... including the ones I just received for Christmas and my birthday

 I have a gift card problem.  

Today, Ryan and I decided to go and return a wedding gift (long story... yes, we got married in MAY, but the post office lost the package and we JUST got.  Bad news is that we had already had that item), and I had them put the balance on one of my Macy gift cards (pictured in the right center on my board above). 

Because we had a pretty good size balance left, we decided to see if we could find a new comforter for our bed.  We had been wanting a down comforter to go in our duvet cover, but they are SO expensive.

After trying out many different thread counts, weights, down alternatives, and allergy/asthma sensitive ones,

we did a lot of thinking (yes, that is a thinking face, not a mad face) and found there right one!  And the best part was that it was 60% off, plus an additional 10%, so we got a $300 dollar comforter for about $70!  That also means I have $16.37 cents left on my gift card...guess it goes back up on the board.

We put our new comforter into our duvet cover we got off of our gift registry...so cozy!  Not exactly what our bed looks like, but we LOVE the design on our cover!

Tomorrow, I think we shall get Starbucks coffee (2 gift cards), maybe do some shopping at Old Navy (3 gift cards), eat at Red Robin (gift card), and then get some yummy Blu Berry fro-yo (10 gift certificates).  Ha!