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Saturday, January 30, 2010

A Day With Trevor

Up at 4:05 a.m. Pulling out of the driveway at 4:55 a.m. Arrived in Okawville at 6:00 a.m. This was the start of my Saturday. I was asked to watch Trevor today because Mommy was called in to work OT and Daddy had deer meat to get processed. I didn't have anything planned for today so why not spend it with The Trev?

I wondered how he would take to me walking through his bedroom door to get him instead of his mommy or daddy. He just smiled and lifted up those arms. Back downstairs I think he was expecting to see his mommy or daddy somewhere but when he didn't he just rolled with the punches. He was unusually quiet for the first hour or so which is very unlike Trevor. The boy has an enormous vocabulary. However, we just can't understand most of it. I have lovingly nicknamed his language.....Trevorese.

It was a fun day. Filled with playing, laughing, a little scolding, endless picking up of toys and even a few hugs and kisses. It is 7:30 pm and I am already thinking of turning in for the night. Before I do, here are some snapshots (straight from camera, unedited) from the day.


Having a blast navigating the livingroom in my shoes!


The boy seriously LOVES to wear everyone else's shoes but NOT his own!
After he was done wearing them he thought it was time for me to wear them. Yeah so, they are on the wrong feet. You gotta give him an E for effort. Just look at the concentration on his face!!


Practicing to be a stunt horse rider for the circus.



In search of toys...no doubt thrown behind the ottoman just so he can do this!




Me trying to take photos of Trevor without a flash. Ha! Right! Maybe if he is sleeping. We were making goofy noises/faces at each other at this moment.





Oh, to be so flexible!






Classic Trevor face! You would think he discovered gold in that box but I guess buried toys are even better than gold to an 18 month old.

And that was my day......told ya, FUN :)
xoxoxox



Thursday, January 28, 2010

CoffeeShop



This is why I love reading other blogs! While skimming through some old posts at SuzyQ Scraps' blog I came across her entry about ACTIONS. Actions (for those who don't know) are these awesome shortcuts to edit your photos in Photoshop Elements.
Suzy mentioned a website (blog) called The Coffee Shop. I am really tired right now so I will let you link on over to the site and read about these SAHM's and how awesome they are for creating these FREE actions for people like me (and you)!!! Yes, I said free. I love FREE!!!

Here is a before and after of a photo of my nephew, Trevor. I will explain what I did.

(BEFORE)

All I did to the (straight out of the camera) photo above was red eye reduction & brightened it up just a bit using the Levels Adjustment Layer.


(AFTER)

I ran two different actions on this photo to get it to this point.

First....I ran the Baby Powder Room action which allowed me to soften up his face and removed the blotchiness. This action also allowed me to brighten & whiten his eyes to make them pop more.

Second....I ran the Hot Cocoa 2 action that gives this warm, soft glowing effect. Oh, I just love the result!

Of course, you know I did a layout using the final product! This was for a Scrap Orchard Template Challenge. I used several kits....Sweet Teddy & Caber MacGregor by Amy Stoffel as well as Composure by TaylorMade Designs.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Tastefully Simple

I have a new love and it is called Tastefully Simple. If you have never heard of this company and their products then let me encourage you to check out their website HERE.

A friend of mine from church, Jennifer Church, is a consultant for them. I went to a show this week and had the opportunity to taste first-hand all the yummy goodness their food offers. If you EVER have the chance to attend a show I highly recommend it because you just HAVE to taste for yourself.

I was having quite a conundrum after attending this party. I have lost a chunk of income due to the economy hitting our familys' business hard. Therefore, a strict budget was set in place to get me through these lean times. No frivolous purchases for awhile.

However, I am also cutting out fast-food/restaurant eating as much as possible. That was a decision I made before the income reduction. That means I must cook and to cook semi-healthy you should really plan ahead and be prepared with certain staples in your cupboards.

After a great amount of thought and changing of my mind I came to the decision to purchase the following products. I will explain why.......

Onion Onion Seasoning Blend
Added to cream cheese or sour cream you have a wonderful, fast & savory dip. Use it in place of fresh onions without the tears! I can't wait to sprinkle this in my hamburger meat for burgers!


Garlic Garlic
If you know me you know I love me some garlic. Just the name of this product, Garlic Garlic, was enough to sell me :)

Dried Tomato & Garlic Pesto Mix
I sampled this the night of the show and in the famous wordage of Rachael Raye: YUMM-O! Just add olive oil and water for delish pesto in 10 minutes. Can't wait to add this to some pasta one evening. Add a side salad and presto....you have dinner!

Bountiful Beer Bread Mix

Hello?? I was not expecting such mouth watering goodness in a bread. It's bread after all. A mix that all you add is beer or another carbonated beverage and bake it. How good can it really be? V-E-R-Y GOOD!!!! That's how good. It had a nice dense but not too dense texture. What really surprised me was the hint of sweetness from the beer used. Oh, and the crunchy top coating is to die for!!! I can so see having a piece of this with a cup of coffee for a snack.

Bayou Bourbon Glaze

If you have ever had TGI Friday's Jack Daniel's Sauce (and liked it) then you will like this! Again, can't wait to make some burgers with some Onion Onion & this glaze added to the meat before cooking.

Well, now that I am sufficiently hungry (and probably you, too) I will bring this to a close. You would think I sell this product but I don't. But, my friend, Jennifer Church, does. And, if the economy turns around I will be hosting a show of my own down the road. In the meantime, I look foward to building my seasoning inventory over time as there are more I want but cannot afford right now.

How about you? Have you a favorite Tastefully Simple product? Do share!

xoxoxoxo

-


Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Jasper the Dog

This is just an email I received and thought it was just too funny not to blog.....

Jasper and the Unbaked Yeast Rolls

We have a fox terrier by the name of Jasper.. He came to us in the summer of 2001 from the fox terrier rescue program. For those of you, who are unfamiliar with this type of adoption, imagine taking in a 10 year old child about whom you know nothing and committing to doing your best to be a good parent. Like a child, the dog came with his own idiosyncrasies. He will only sleep on the bed, on top of the covers, nuzzled as close to my face as he can get without actually performing a French kiss on me. Lest you think this is a bad case of 'no discipline,' I should tell you that Perry and I tried every means to break him of this habit including locking him in a separate bedroom for several nights. The new door cost over $200. But I digress.

Five weeks ago we began remodeling our house. Although the cost of the project is downright obnoxious, it was 20 years overdue AND it got me out of cooking Thanksgiving for family, extended family, and a lot of friends that I like more than family most of the time. I was assigned the task of preparing 124 of my famous yeast dinner rolls for the two Thanksgiving feasts we did attend. I am still cursing the electrician for getting the new oven hooked up so quickly. It was the only appliance in the whole darn house that worked, thus the assignment.

I made the decision to cook the rolls on Wed evening to reheat Thurs am. Since the kitchen was freshly painted, you can imagine the odor. Not wanting the rolls to smell like Sherwin Williams #586, I put the rolls on baking sheets and set them in the living room to rise for a few hours. Perry and I decided to go out to eat, returning in about an hour. The rolls were ready to go in the oven.

It was 8:30 PM. When I went to the living room to retrieve the pans, much to my shock one whole pan of 12 rolls was empty. I called out to Jasper and my worst nightmare became a reality. He literally wobbled over to me. He looked like a combination of the Pillsbury dough boy and the Michelin Tire man wrapped up in fur.. He groaned when he walked. I swear even his cheeks were bloated. I ran to the phone and called our vet. After a few seconds of uproarious laughter, he told me the dog would probably be OK, however, I needed to give him Pepto Bismol every 2 hours for the rest of the night. God only knows why I thought a dog would like Pepto Bismol any more than my kids did when they were sick. Suffice it to say that by the time we went to bed the dog was black, white and pink. He was so bloated we had to lift him onto the bed for the night.

We arose at 7:30 and as we always do first thing; put the dog out to relieve himself. Well, the dog was as drunk as a sailor on his first leave. He was running into walls, falling flat on his butt and most of the time when he was walking his front half was going one direction and the other half was either dragging the grass or headed 90 degrees in another direction. He couldn't lift his leg to pee, so he would just walk and pee at the same time. When he ran down the small incline in our back yard, he couldn't stop himself and nearly ended up running into the fence. His pupils were dilated and he was as dizzy as a loon. I endured another few seconds of laughter from the vet (second call within 12 hours) before he explained that the yeast had fermented in his belly and that he was indeed drunk. He assured me that, not unlike most binges we humans go through, it would wear off after about 4 or 5 hours and to keep giving him Pepto Bismol.

Afraid to leave him by himself in the house, Perry and I loaded him up and took him with us to my sister's house for the first Thanksgiving meal of the day. My sister lives outside of Muskogee on a ranch, (10 to 15 minute drive). Rolls firmly secured in the trunk (124 less 12) and drunk dog leaning from the back seat onto the console of the car between Perry and I, we took off.

Now I know you probably don't believe that dogs burp, but believe me when I say that after eating a tray of risen unbaked yeast rolls, DOGS WILL BURP. These burps were pure Old Charter. They would have matched or beat any smell in a drunk tank at the police station. But that's not the worst of it. Now he was beginning to fart and they smelled like baked rolls. God strike me dead if I am not telling the truth! We endured this for the entire trip to Karen's, thankful she didn't live any further away than she did. Once Jasper was firmly placed in my sister's garage with the door locked, we finally sat down to enjoy our first Thanksgiving meal of the day. The dog was the topic of conversation all morning long and everyone made trips to the garage to witness my drunken dog, each returning with a tale of Jasper's latest endeavor to walk without running into something.

Of course, as the old adage goes, 'what goes in must come out' and Jasper was no exception. Granted if it had been me that had eaten 12 risen, unbaked yeast rolls, you might as well have put a concrete block up my behind, but alas a dog's digestive system is quite different from yours or mine. I discovered this was a mixed blessing when we prepared to leave Karen's house. Having discovered his 'packages' on the garage floor, we loaded him up in the car so we could hose down the floor. This was another naive decision on our part. The blast of water from the hose hit the poop on the floor and the poop on the floor withstood the blast from the hose. It was like Portland cement beginning to set up and cure. We finally tried to remove it with a shovel. I (obviously no one else was going to offer their services) had to get on my hands and knees with a coarse brush to get the remnants off of the floor. And as if this wasn't degrading enough, the darn dog in his drunken state had walked through the poop and left paw prints all over the garage floor that had to be brushed too.

Well, by this time the dog was sobering up nicely so we took him home and dropped him off before we left for our second Thanksgiving dinner at Perry's sister's house. I am happy to report that as of today (Monday) the dog is back to normal both in size and temperament. He has had a bath and is no longer tricolor. None the worse for wear I presume. I am also happy to report that just this evening I found 2 risen unbaked yeast rolls hidden inside my closet door. It appears he must have come to his senses after eating 10 of them but decided hiding 2 of them for later would not be a bad idea.

Now, I'm doing research on the computer as to: 'How to clean unbaked dough from the carpet.'
And how was your day?

See, told you, funny stuff!!! Hope you had a good laugh!

1 Peter 3:10

1 Peter 3:10 (The Message)
Suffering for Doing Good

8-12 Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that's your job, to bless. You'll be a blessing and also get a blessing.

Whoever wants to embrace life
and see the day fill up with good,
Here's what you do:
Say nothing evil or hurtful;
Snub evil and cultivate good;
run after peace for all you're worth.
God looks on all this with approval,
listening and responding well to what he's asked;
But he turns his back
on those who do evil things.

Wow, did I need to read this today. I receive a daily Bible verse in my email inbox everyday. This was todays verse.

I needed this because I have been dealing with some "sharp-tongued sarcasm" lately. I even had a conversation with a friend recently how I am just not going to stand for it anymore. One more 'fiery dart' thrown at me and I am not keeping my mouth shut. I know it is wrong and that my former Pastor would always say "if you want to confront someone then you probably shouldn't". Oh, but it is SO hard for me to turn the other cheek. But when I read the second half of that verse: Whoever wants to embrace life and see the day fill up with good, Here's what you do: Say nothing evil or hurtful; Snub evil and cultivate good; run after peace for all you're worth. God looks on all this with approval, listening and responding well to what he's asked; But he turns his back on those who do evil things. On January 1st of this new year I made a choice to REMAIN in Christ. A choice to REMAIN attached to the vine. In essence, fill up with good. And to do that I should say nothing evil/hurtful; snub evil, cultivate good; run after peace for all I am worth!!! These are the things God looks upon with approval.

So I ask myself.....from whom am I seeking approval from? Those spewing the sharp-tongued sarcasm? Or God? I choose to seek God.

How about you? Are you being a blessing or are you being disagreeable, sarcastic, uncompassionate?

xoxoxoxo

Friday, January 22, 2010

The Missing....Found

Received this email from my dear, sweet friend, Christina....

So…I thought about sending out an email, but I had basically asked everyone if they had seen it so didn’t really see the point. I searched and searched frantically all day yesterday for this notebook. This morning on the way in, I gave the loss of my notebook to God. I convinced myself that if I wasn’t to find it, God was going to teach me something from it….take care of my things better (because you might lose your notebook), remember my list of to dos better (because you might lose your notebook), don’t keep important conversation data only in your notebook (because you might lose your notebook), don’t be so mean to people (because they might steal your notebook, lol)

Anyway I told God that I could accept that I lost it if he wanted me to. Know what he said (immediately)? He told my sweet friend Hilary to send an email without asking me because the one person that knew where it was is in the field 95% of his day and wouldn’t realize that it was mine and I was missing it so much….

It’s so amazing the little things that God uses to bring you back to the right way of thinking.

You might think the point I am trying to make by posting this email is to show you how much God cares about those little things (that are really huge to us). Well, of course, I believe that is very true. He does care about what we care about....even little things.

However, what I think He cares about even more is our response to Him when things/people in our life go missing. Do we kick, scream, cry, pout and take it out on those around us and God? Or, do we go to God and humbly say "Okay, God, I am okay with this.....if it be your will." Sometimes God has to use these moments to get our eyes off us and back on HIM.

Thank you Christina....for sharing this with me.

xoxoxoxo

Thursday, January 21, 2010

It's Official

I now know how to design blinkies! Woo-Hoo! They are quite labor intensive to create so now I understand why they cost anywhere from $15-$50 to make.

Look over to your right.....see it there in my sidebar? I created this one for an upcoming digi-scrapping contest I am going to be in. It's called Amazing Digital Scrapbooking Race, Season 5. Just like the TV show, we work with a partner and travel all over the digi-world for six weeks competing to move on to the next round. There won't be any judging of work or eliminations. Well, you will only be eliminated if you do not complete a challenge in time or properly. Any team that finishes is eligible for the grand prize. No, I don't know what that will be yet but I hear it is an awesome package of goodies!

Well, this has been an extremely LONG day. Off to bed. Was just so excited about my new blinkie skillz that I had to blog it before turning in.

ps - I created this using the kit, Little Angel, by Lyndsay Riches at Scrap Orchard. You can see her store HERE.

xoxoxoxo