I had some friends come over for a little garage photo shoot this morning… and then Ashleigh decided she wanted in on some of the camera time. So, there you go. Looking pretty in her farmeralls.
Monthly Archives: November 2006
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5 Things You May Not Know About Me, But You Do Now
November 29, 2006 – 8:14 pm
I blog-hopped over to this site and found a fun meme. I think I’ll join in:
1. Andy and I have known each other since seventh grade. In fact, we had the same 7th grade pre-algebra class together with Mrs. McCollough aka Dragon Breath. Isn’t that just an awful nickname?
2. I do not like to write on transparencies. I very much dislike that inky stuff from Vis-A-Vis pens on the side of my hand…
3. I was once called a "Nightmare" by a former student’s mother. I must have been doing my job correctly then, right?
4. On numerous occasions, by my dad’s instructions, I have thrown a living worm from the sidewalk back into the grass so it could live.
5. I remember exactly when I first tried a Gingerbread Latte… on my way to work on a Friday morning at the Chino Hills Starbucks in a small, red espresso cup. I was hooked (that so sounds like a first date!).
So, you know you want to play. Go for it!
If you send Susie snail mail…
November 28, 2006 – 10:05 pm
If you send Susie some snail mail
she will likely want to open it right upon receiving it.
And if it happens to be from Australia,
then she might go berserk about having received something from clear across the Pacific
And she might tell her husbandly that it is the first thing she has ever received from Australia.
To which he might take out of her hand, give it a look over, and say, "Wow, it cost a lot to send. Oh, they sent it air mail, well that explains it."
And she will likely say, "How else would they send it, by truck?"
Which might lead to a conversation about how Americans are connected to Australians by the Internet and how that can happen.
And with a well-informed (read: nerdy) husband that knows about underground wiring, she might be enlightened to the communication age.
And promptly have a weird dream confusing being able to drive a truck from Australia and being able to send e-mail to the same place and all the things we would need in an underground tunnel to drive to Australia.
Like:
a gas station
a restaurant
places to sleep
someone that would be available to assist with road side services
And a toss-and-turn night would result as Susie tries to figure out how to get to Australia by truck in her sleep.
So, if you think you’re going to send Susie some snail mail, maybe it shouldn’t be from the land known as Down Under.
So they say…
November 27, 2006 – 8:09 pm
They say a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. I think the way to mine just might be through my feet. Look what Andy surprised me with last night- a brand new pair of cable knit RED slippers. I’ve been dreaming about them for a few weeks now… Ah, they’re just lovely, aren’t they? You can get your very own pair here.
When Sarah is Away…
November 25, 2006 – 11:24 pm
Ashleigh will find a new toy to play!
Funny, it doesn’t seem like it was too long ago that Sarah was exactly this age (19 months) on her own brand new wheels:
(photo taken December 2004)
Black Friday
November 24, 2006 – 2:14 pm
We are not typically Black Friday Shoppers, but send over a few sales ads to our home, and you’d think we only had one day of the year to shop! This is the scene of our home on Thanksgiving morning (everyone got into the spirit of browsing the best deals– or wanting everything in the electronic sections, oh, wait, that’s just Andy):
We visited four stores this morning (not at 5AM, though, we got out about 10AM) and came home with one item. Yep, that’s it. Andy said we probably spent more in gas than we did on the gift we purchased. And then he promptly swore off Christmas shopping the old-fashioned way and said he’d be happy to deal with retailers in the comforts of his own home. Hello, Amazon.
Ten on Tuesday- the Thankful Edition
November 21, 2006 – 2:18 pm
I like my 10 on Tuesday’s, but I really liked Jill’s take on today’s post– Ten Things to be Thankful for:
10. Water…seriously, I can’t drink enough fast enough to keep my pallette refreshed.
9. Sunshine… Is there nothing better to wake up to smiling at you? Okay, that and husbandly ;0)
8. Prayer… what an intimate way to talk to our Creator and that He answers us without reservation. I’m continually blown away by this, which leads me to…
7. Girlfriends… I have made some amazing girlfriends here in SD. Ones I don’t want to imagine having to leave without in a few years.
6. Paper and glue… one of the reasons I got into blogging is because I happened upon a community of people that love the same crafty things I do. And meeting those crafty people in real life that challenge me to make things like this.
5. Sarah singing, "He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands" adding in her own version, "He’s got the Bean and her sister in His hands." Absolutely without question, melts my heart.
4. New recipes… seriously, you are missing out if you are not trying new meals on a regular basis. For example, I discovered yesterday that I don’t like cooking with bone-in, pork shoulder. I wouldn’t have ever known had a not tried something new.
3. A working washer and dryer so I can do laundry quickly, especially when I put it off for the weekend. Don’t you love dependable large appliances? I should definitely appreciate them more- perhaps give them a little more attention? Hmm.
2. That in two days I will get to spend half the day in a chaotic house with my family. I love that. I love that I get to look forward to my dad roasting the turkey, stuffing it as he gets into "cooking mode, " my mom running around with the girls, trying to find the LARGE green tablecloth and then ironing it, my sister painting the Bean’s nails and Tyler trying to save his Mister Potato Head from the likes of Ashleigh’s mouth. Sounds like a perfect Thanksgiving day already, and we didn’t even include pumpkin pie… which leads me to…
1. Andy is off this week (do you love when the husbandly is home, too?) and he is baking pies tomorrow!
gobble. gobble.
the evergrowing mental to-do list
November 20, 2006 – 8:07 am
needs to begin with writing my to-do list down
so I can be productive today
and tomorrow
and all the way up
to December 1st
so I can focus on
being calm
and relaxing
and being happy that December
is almost here
EEK!
Toffee Coffee Cake
November 18, 2006 – 8:59 am
I have been baking for a group of moms I am involved with at church and this was November’s recipe. This is the second time I was able to use my Pampered Chef Bundt pan and the cake turned out awesome. Really yummy stuff here. I only post and pass on the best of the best, friends. I suggest you try this one for a holiday brunch!
Toffee Coffee Cake
¼ cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup sugar
½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 & ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
3 regular sized Heath bars, crushed (OR 4 oz. Heath Toffee Bits)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
¼ (1/2 stick) butter, melted
Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour a 9 or 10 inch Bundt pan.
Mix together ¼ cup sugar and cinnamon and set aside.
Combine 1 cup sugar, butter, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla in mixer. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and continue to beat for 3 minutes at medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally.
Spread half of batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoonfuls cinnamon mixture. Spoon remaining batter over and top with remaining cinnamon mixture. Sprinkle with crushed toffee bars and chocolate chips and drizzle melted butter on top.
Bake for 45-50 minutes. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove from pan and let cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.
On Why We Should be in the the Procrastinators Hall of Fame
November 16, 2006 – 8:07 am
We, as in Andy and I, are seriously the worst procrastinators in the world. This incident most definitely earns us a place in the Procrastinators Hall of Fame (I mean, of course, if there is such a thing)…
We haven’t taken clothes into the dry cleaners for quite some time. In fact, it has been so long, that we had forgotten what cool clothes had been stuffed into the bag months and months ago. We estimate the last time we actually took anything in to get cleaned was before I was pregnant — likely in February or March and perhaps even before that.
So, does it come as much of a surprise that the stash of items we sent there last month was still there this month? Yep. The cleaners called us Monday night inquiring as to when we might be there to pick up our goods (which is nice for "come pick your stuff up so I can have room for more customers!"). Um… Tomorrow? Maybe. Andy made it to the cleaners on Wednesday after work where he was presented with three groups of plastic bags (holding our clothes!), along with two small bags that hosted a gorgeous red blanket from PB and Petunia the adorable diaper bag. Oh, and a $167.13 bill. Ouch.
When asked why Andy didn’t bring his uniform shirts in to have them be cleaned (remember, he was coming home from and wearing one), Andy kindly replied, "I need these shirts to be clean every other day. I can hardly make it in here once a year. I think I ought to clean them myself."
2007 Goals: Go to the Dry Cleaners once a month.