Thursday, August 30, 2012

Five Question Friday - August 24, 2012

 
 
1. What do you enjoy doing the most with your spouse?
 
We usually have a great time together, but traveling has to be the thing I like doing most with my husband.  Our goal is to go to all 50 states, England, and Australia, with some others thrown in for good measure.  We've already tackled quite a few on our list, and are always talking about the next trip, the next adventure. 

2. How do you eat your taco? From the top or from the side?
 
I had a taco tonight for dinner!!  I'm a side-eater!  Load it up, take a bite, and let it overflow. :)

3. Have you ever shut off the basement light and ran like a fool because you knew someone was down there and would get you?
 
Since I moved out of my parents house (a LONG time ago) I won't even go back in the basement!  I now send my husband down there if I need something. :)  I always hated that basement, it was scary, and made funny noises.

4. If you could change one thing about you what would it be and why?
 
MMMM  Only one?  I have a hard time finishing some things.  I have some projects I started years ago, and haven't touched them since.  I'd like to actually start and FINISH a weight loss program successfully, but probably need serious help.  

5. What age do you think is appropriate to have the "bird and the bees" talk with your children?
 
In this day and age, probably 11 or 12 depending on their maturity level... if they are more aware, probably late in the 10th year.  Some that are very protected, probably 14 or 15.  I think it really depends on the kid.  



Your comments are always appreciated!

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Sunday, August 26, 2012

August Christmas Card Challenge Winner!


 CONGRATULATIONS 

The August Winner of the 2012 CCC Challenge:

JPScraps!

Jamie, I have your package ready to go.
Keep watching your mailbox.


Your comments are always appreciated!

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Friday, August 17, 2012

Mom's Chocolate Cake

 I'm not sure if I posted this yet, but I'm in a sharing mood, and dying for some of this Chocolate Cake!  It is BY FAR the best scratch made, chocolate cake.  So chocolatey, so moist!  Can you say EASY!?!
It takes only a few minutes to put together, and you won't believe how good it is.
**I've tried it with the Special Dark cocoa...  VERY good!

In my recipe book, this is actually titled:  Mom's Good Chocolate Cake !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you make this, please leave a comment.

1c. boiling water
1/2 c. butter (no substitutes)
2c. flour
2c. sugar
6T (1/3 c.) cocoa
1t. baking soda
salt
2t. vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 c. sour milk (milk with a couple of drops of vinegar)


In measuring cup, boil water and melt butter in microwave.

In mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients.  Mix lightly to combine.
Add liquids to dry ingredients. Mix well.
Stir to make sure the bottom isn't covered with dry ingredients.

**This will be a very liquid cake mix... not thick at all.  Don't worry!!

Pour into greased and floured 9 x 13 pan, or 2 rounds.

Bake 30 - 35 min.  at 350.



Your comments are always appreciated!

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5 Question Friday August 17, 2008

1. What's the one thing you buy every time you walk into the store?
Chocolate!!!  (Well, not every time, but most of the time!)  Sometimes as a surprise my husband will have chocolate for me when he makes a small grocery run.

2. If you had a day all to yourself how would you spend it?
I am lucky to get these relatively often...   I like to put Pride and Prejudice (Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle version) in the DVD player, and work in my craft room.  Sometimes I'll play one disc, sometimes both. :)  

3. Are you a speed limit driver? If not, over or under?
It depends.  I am usually an over the limit driver, but some days I feel quite Zen, and will take my time and hang out a little under the limit (in the right lane, of course!).  If I have clients with me, limit or under always.

4. What's your favorite dessert to make, homemade or from a mix?

 Mom's chocolate cake!  It's the most amazing scratch cake recipe - and so simple!  I also like to bake my Kitchen Sink cookies - a scratch recipe as well.  We actually don't have dessert - hardly ever.  If I want something quick, fresh strawberries, Reddi Whip, and some angel food cake slices.  YUMMMM


5. Would you rather have a spider or a mouse scurry across your face (no copping out and saying "neither!!")?


DEFINITELY a spider.  Mice make me SCREAM!!!!!

Two stories:  
As a college student, I was home one summer and a mouse ran from our basement door UNDER the recliner I was sitting in watching TV.  It was around 1:30 a.m. since I was home from the late shift I worked as a summer job.  I RAN upstairs, and woke up my dad, but he didn't do anything!!!.  I didn't sit in that chair for a LONG time.

As a teacher, my students were telling me they would hear scratching from the back of the room for a couple of days.  One morning, one of the girls (kind of yelled) that she saw eyes and whiskers.  I got all the kids to the front of the room on the carpet, sent one for the custodian, and I RAN outside of the portable!  **The kids were OK, nobody was in danger, and they were 10 years old.  :)  I was totally freaked out!!   We talked about that the entire school year - was a good joke with the class. :)


Your comments are always appreciated!

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A Proud member of The Lime Light. Click on over to see what we are doing.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Five Question Friday 8-19-2012



1. Thunder storms- love them or hate them?

I actually LOVE thunderstorms.... especially the big, cracking thunder that makes me jump about 3 feet in the air. :)  I'll scream, then laugh.  **Unless it happens in the middle of the night.  My husband gets a laugh too, cause he likes to see me jump and get scared.
**Funny story - when I was in my first apartment, I woke in the middle of the night thinking "Who's taking pictures?"  After a few minutes, standing in the doorway, I realized it was lightning outside.  Silly, isn't it?  :)

2. Do your kids get back to school clothes?
No kids in our house....  I will confess I still buy school supplies.  I am a teacher, and I NEED crayons, pencils, paper, etc.  Don't I?  :)

3. Do you golf? Do you watch it?

I did golf in high school - and had a few hole-in-ones.  I haven't golfed in years.  Watch it on TV?  No!  I'd sleep in 2 minutes! :) 
My husband and I will go mini-golfing when we're on vacation, and I always win!  It's a fun activity in the evenings after dinner when we're in a new place visiting.
My nephew on the other hand worked as a caddy for many summers, and went on to get his own very good set of clubs.... now that he's working, I'm sure he'll join in the company games. 
4. Showers or baths? 

Showers!!!!!  The only time I'm immersed in water is in a swimming pool.

5. What's the strangest meal you ever ate?

Sushi!!! I can't handle the raw sushi, but I do LOVE tempura fried rolls, with eel sauce!  I'm usually very happy with my chicken, beef, and fish.  I will occasionally have venison or elk, but only in sausage.



Your comments are always appreciated!

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A Proud member of The Lime Light. Click on over to see what we are doing.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

10th Anniversary Travels

This is a pretty photo-loaded post...{Click on any of the pictures for a larger version.}  In late June, early July my husband and I took a 10th anniversary trip out west.  My goal was to see the Grand Tetons.  If you don't already know, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the mountains, waterfalls, "big rocks", and all things historical.

SO, we set out on June 29th, and took a wonderful trip up through Nebraska to start since Colorado Springs was having problems with the wildfires at the time.




On our 2nd day out, we saw a sign on the highway for a Pony Express Station.  Since our rule is "20 miles", we decided to stop....  The pictures were taken in Gothenburg, Nebraska.  It's been relocated to acity park, and when you go in there are all kinds of displays and exhibits.  The clerk was very knowledgeable about the area, and all things Pony Express.  We saw a sign that was advertising for Pony Express riders - they wanted young, skinny boys, preferably orphans.  Bet you didn't know that! :) 




  

Here are two of the MANY pictures we took at the entrance to Estes Park, right before you enter Rocky Mountain National Park.  This was a great valley to drive through with the mountain streams running just at the base of the rocks.


On the way out of RMNP, and Estes Park, I saw a rock formation called Devil's Backbone.  There was a scenic drive-out, and parking area so we went in to take some pictures.  It's a huge rock formation running along the top of a ridge, and driving from both sides, it really does look like a huge backbone sticking up out of the hills.


This Trail Center was such a nice surprise!  It is located in Montpelier, Idaho, right along the Oregon Trail!  We were driving from Wyoming into Idaho, and had to stop for lunch.  This HUGE building was right across the street, and I decided we just had to stop after lunch.  What a nice surprise that was!




We stayed in Idaho Falls, Idaho for 4 nights.  It was a good central location for the places we wanted to see around the area, and the hotel we stayed at was VERY VERY nice!  Great room, great front desk service, nice people.... BEAUTIFUL scenery!

These are just two of the pictures I took of Idaho Falls, off the Snake River right in the middle of the city!  There's a greenbelt - park area with benches, parking areas, etc.  Lots of people were walking there in the afternoons, early evenings.  They took picnics and blankets, walked the trails, just watched the falls.  It's really a beautiful place.


 Ok, so you hear about the Rocky Mountains....  but when you're actually there... they are breathtaking!  We spent 2 days at the park, and just drove around.... stopped and walked...  I had to buy another memory stick for my camera!!!



These photos were taken in the park at one of the drive-outs on Jenny Lake. 

It doesn't look like it at all, but there are 4 lakes within the park!  It was so pretty!  The 2nd day we drove back here, and had lunch among the pine trees, just looking at the mountains.

YES, I could do that every day and never tire of the view.
 Two days at GTNP was definitely not enough.  We will go back to visit for sure.  Even with 2 days there, we didn't see everything, and drove past some places we were going to stop and never got back to.  Plus, we didn't even drive all the way up to Yellowstone - so that will definitely take even MORE time! :)


 July 4th, we drove up to Butte, Montana.  At the visitor center, I saw a pamphlet for the Mineral Museum.  Loving all things rocks, we just had to go!  It was in one of the University buildings, and very easy to find.  We had the entire museum to ourselves, and the man working there was very informative.
It's an impressive museum!  That gold nugget, by the way was HUGE!!!!!

  I really loved the blue color on the Azurite, and took lots of pictures!  So so pretty!
I took this as we left the Mineral museum, from the top of the parking lot looking down onto one of the mine entrances.  They were all over the town.

We stayed only a few hours in Butte, Montana - but there were lots of things to see!!!  We definitely could have spent more time there.



We stayed one night in the Salt Lake City area on our way back home, and I just had to get some pictures at the Stampin' Up offices.  I called ahead, and we arrived on a rainy morning.  The place was quiet, but very busy.  One of the front desk ladies was kind enough to show us around and give a little informational tour.  Thank You!  





We went to check out our timeshare location in Utah, and found the Olympic ski jumping venue on our way there!!!  It was starting to rain heavily and fog was rolling in quickly.  I got a couple pictures before the fog obscured my entire view.






Well - I hope you enjoyed my little photographic tour of our trip....  we took a total of 1,187 photos and video over the 10 day trip and had a WONDERFUL time!

We met lots of great people, and saw some absolutely beautiful mountains, waterfalls, and learned lots of interesting things during our travels.


Your comments are always appreciated!

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Sunday, August 5, 2012

2012 Christmas Card Challenge - August


Well, here we are in August...  August 5th.  It's tax-free weekend here,  and SO SO hot!

I want to send out BIG thanks to all the contributors here - last month was GREAT with 3 entries and 2 winners from the voting.  Congrats, ladies!  From now on though, I will only have one winner, so if there's another tie I'll use a number generator or some other impartial way to choose one winner.

Ok, on to more important things!  So, even though it's August, and you might not have participated in the CCC yet, there is still time!  Don't have a blog?  Contact me through the comments, and I'll make sure your pictures get posted in the challenge.  (I've already got a plan for that contingency!)

Here is the link to the original post from January introducing the challenge, and all the (very simple) rules needed to participate in these monthly challenges.

The theme for the month of August is:  Try A New Technique!  You must use some new paper crafting technique you have never used before for this month's cards.  Have you seen something on YouTube you've been DYING to try and haven't?  Here's your chance!  Saw a cool technique on someone's great crafting blog and you just had to try it?  Here's your chance!

The basic rules are the same as always, create 6 or more Christmas cards between today and the 20th.  Get them entered in the Linky below, and get your friends to start voting for your card between the 21st and 24th midnight CST.  I will announce the winner, and get the prize out in the mail!!!

Good Luck!
I'm sure your cards will put mine to shame for sure.

Here are my cards for the August Christmas Card Challenge.  I used a new technique called Sparkly Stained Glass, first demo'd by Mary Director, an awesome, wonderful Stampin' Up Demonstrator.  I saw her video, and loving everything sparkly, I just HAD to try it!!!!!
One thing you don't know, is the previous post I made with only the glitter... those cards were actually made AFTER these, so they still count as a new technique.

Since the cards use a Window Sheet, the light really made it tough to get good pictures of my cards, so you'll see some glare.  Funny though, the lights don't glare like that to your eyes.  Hmmmmm

Ok, enough of me... here are my cards, showing different variations.... More info below!
Each one looks just a little different, so I took some close-ups.  Sorry again for the glare.
This technique isn't difficult at all, but it's so different from anything I did before, I had to give myself a little pep-talk when I started with the reinkers.

This one especially shows how they sparkle!
I am always amazed at how these cards just SPARKLE!!!
I used 3 - 4 colors of reinkers:  Raspberry Ripple and Green Galore were my favorite.  Cherry Cobbler and Wild Wasabi worked really well, and Riding Hood Red and Green Galore were great too!
I think I like the very light green to give it a contrast with the reds that seemed to take over.

I went and got a few colors of Staz-On ink, but it turned out that the Jet Black worked the best.

HERE is the link to Mary's video tutorial.  Thanks so much for this AWESOME technique!!!


Good Luck with your August cards!  Can't wait to see what new techniques you try.



Your comments are always appreciated!

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 A Proud member of The Lime Light. Click on over to see what we are doing.