Pasta Milano

The Scrapbook crop was fantastic! We all had such a good time. I truly enjoy spending time with this group of ladies. The page kits were a total hit! Talk about having a great time, we laughed the entire time.

The page kit was for an 8½x11 recipe page, fairly simple in structure but it looks great! The color and design were very pleasing to the eye and the ladies were very happy with it. They also couldn't wait to try the recipe on their own.

Here's a picture of the finished page...I love it!

The joys of Scrapbooking

It can be a little frightening designing a scrapbook layout kit. Will people like it? Will they smile and pretend to like it? All that has been running through my head for the last couple of days. Well I'm going to take the plunge and just go for it. Not everyone has the same style or taste when it comes to scrapbooking or for that matter Pizza.

I'm going to have them trying new things today. I'm pretty sure that most of the ladies have never inked the edges of paper or card stock. For the ones still working in the simple get it done CM way, this is going to rock their world! The others I know are a little more advanced and this should be a lot of fun for them in general. I might even have them stamping on chip board and cutting out and all kinds of fun stuff. I'll fill you in later on it all!

Is it Wednesday already?

Can you believe that it's already Wednesday? This week is going by fast. I've got to get Hannah in for her blood work up some time this week, it needs to be done before her pre-op appointment on the 11th of December. We received good news in the mail yesterday... our insurance has approved Hannah's surgery (thank you Lord for listening to and answering our prayers). I'm not sure how much ($ wise) is going to be covered by the insurance and what part we're going to have to pay, but I'm willing to hope for the best.

I'm not one to have kids spend the night on a school night but I made an exception. My son Andrew asked if his best friend Drew could sleep over. Sure what the heck, they're 14 years old and a bit more responsible than say a pack of 10 year old girls. Oh my gosh what a delightful evening. No screaming, no slamming doors and I absolutely did not hear "Mom" being screamed once (whew). I had help cleaning up after dinner and they were quietly playing downstairs, alright so they were playing video games...but they were having fun and that's what matters. They even got all of their homework done:) I like it when I don't have to hound my children to do their homework. It was a great evening for all of us!

I picked up my Stampin Up order and all I have to say is WOW these little ATC albums are adorable!!!! The new mini winter catalog, well lets just say that I'm glad that I can shop from it for 3 months. Tons of great stamp sets and just as many great project ideas to go along with them.

Now to gear up for the day...I need to check out my calendar and see what is going on. I've got a feeling that I've got some serious baking to be getting done and some recipes to be writing up.

The weather is a bit warmer today than it was yesterday, currently it's 5 above zero versus yesterday of feeling like minus 8.

You Know...

It's days like these that have me shaking my head and wondering. Wondering about what you ask? Here it is...I drove my kids to school today (yes again) because of 2 reasons
1- being that Andrew had to wear his JR ROTC uniform again (apparently when you miss a Monday you have to make it up). With it being so darn cold, there was no way I was sending him out wearing it and not having on a heavy winter jacket, hat and gloves. I can drop him off near the front entrance of the school and the boy just walks 20 feet to the door.
And 2- Hannah had to be at school early today for some project she's working on at school.

So where am I going with this right? I absolutely cringed when I saw a boy walking (not sure if he's in high school or middle school) from the apartment complex that's about a half mile from the high school wearing only a hooded pullover sweatshirt. No hat on his head (not even the hood to his sweatshirt), no gloves, obviously he didn't have a coat on and this boys face was bright red from the cold. Now, from the 30 seconds that I was outside to warm up the kid mobile, I was without a hat on my head my ears were bright red and burning from the cold by the time I returned to the house. Oh yeah you can be certain that when I came inside I immediately grabbed a hat and put it head! Now, do the parents of these children not realize that frost bite can set in rather quickly when the weather is this raw? Are they ignorant or what? Then I drive a little further only to see some kids walking from the trailer park that's near the Vandenberg school (that's 4th and 5th grade) again no gloves or mittens, no hats on any of them and one had on what looked to be a thin wind breaker and it wasn't even zipped up. It breaks my heart to see this kind of thing going on. I'm all choked up just thinking about it. I want to beat some common sense into the heads of the parents of these children. Talk to your children about winter weather, the signs of frost bite and show/teach them how to dress warmly.

So now you're probably saying...what if they can't afford coats, hats or gloves? There are programs out there to get their children FREE winter wear. Trust me it's available, I know this because my son just finished collecting coats for a Coats for Kids drive through his high school JR ROTC program. Hundreds of clean ready to be worn coats were collected. Our church is currently collecting hats, gloves, mittens and scarves, again for those in need of such items all FREE of charge. Are you too proud to wait in line to get your children FREE winter wear? Then by all means go to a thrift shop, Good Will or Salvation Army store and purchase one. But for heaven sake, don't send your children off to school in this kind of weather without proper clothing! To me, sending your children out in this bitter weather wearing a hooded sweatshirt or a wind breaker is a form of child abuse. Obviously I can't save the world, but I can try to make difference in my little corner of it.

It's a blustery Tuesday

So here it is, O'dark thirty and BLINK! I wake up just after 3am and no matter how hard I tried I was not getting sleepy. So I figure the best thing to do is to get out of bed and I did so right around 4 am.

The wind is just howling outside, it sounds like a freight train roaring on past my house (no, it's not a tornado). It's a steady 38-40 mph wind from the North (it's the cold from the North coming down to say hello). Yup it's cold out there with the wind chill it's a whopping -8 outside. This is going to be a good day for the marinated beef stew I've got planned for us for dinner. With cold weather like this, we're going to need something to warm us up from the inside out!

As I look at all of the stuff I have going on this week, I have this overwhelming sense of peace about it . I've got things planned out, meals 3/4's prepared and ready to go into the oven, outfits to wear and so forth. I'm not going to get my hair done at the salon this time around, I'm just going to wear it down. No need to stress myself out over nothing in particular. From worrying about getting an appointment before the kids get home from school and being ready before 5 pm, to having something good for the kids to eat before we leave for the Holiday Formal. Too much undo stress there, so I'm opting out of getting my hairs done up.

On to scrapbooking...I've got an idea of how I'm going to approach my picture a day scrapbook layout. This project can actually be a lot of fun once you get over certain obstacles in your mind (this is where my creative side has to give way to the practical side). I'm going to keep it simple with clean lines, using the same fonts, colors of card stock and embellishments through out every page. For me, this will be quite a challenge since (as you all know) I love every color of the rainbow and all sorts of embellishments. I'm hoping that others will do this project with me and let me know how they are coming along with it. I look forward to making these pages for my Book of Me. Pushing myself to scrap about something every single day in the month of December, it'll be interesting to say the least.

My Kitchen Wish List

We all have these little wish lists in our heads about certain things we would like to have I'm just writing mine and putting it out for all to see.

For my Future Kitchen

• 6 burner gas range or stove top
• double ovens- one being a convection oven
• refrigerator with water tap on the inside and pull out freezer drawer
• stainless steel lined dishwasher
• chest freezer
• one handle faucet/sprayer
• under mount sink

Tools

• potato ricer
• kitchen scale
• tall pepper mill
• sil-pat (2)

Pots and Pans

• the 2 burner Calphalon grill pan
• Calphalon roaster pans with lift out rack
• 8 quart Calphalon dutch oven
• pumpkin shaped cake pan
• snowman shaped cake pan

Small Appliances

• Kitchen-aid hand held mixer-pink
• 10 cup Kitchen-aid coffee pot-red
• wide mouth 12 cup Kitchen-aid Food Processor-red

Pottery/Dinnerware

• Soup Tureen
• Fiestaware Sauce Boat-shamrock

Have you laughed today?

I don't know about you, but I certainly love a good laugh. I really got a good one from those "quizzes" yesterday. From the Broccoli Casserole Soda to my being 90% Thankful to being very honest at the same time having a B+ personality. Then there was being the "stuffing" of the Thanksgiving dinner. I was laughing myself silly with the answers.

Now take the plunge and go have some fun, go ahead take a quiz...you know you want to (heh heh heh).You're going to laugh your socks off!

Do you have a Type A personality?

You Have A Type B+ Personality

You're a pro at going with the flow You love to kick back and take in everything life has to offer A total joy to be around, people crave your stability. While you're totally laid back, you can have bouts of hyperactivity. Get into a project you love, and you won't stop until it's done You're passionate - just selective about your passions

Do You Have a Type A Personality?

How honest are you?

You Are Very Honest

You tell it like it is, no matter what. Even if the truth hurts, you'll dish it out. And while some may get hurt by your honesty... At least everyone knows where you stand!

How Honest Are You?

How Thankful are you?

You Are 90% Thankful

You're an incredibly thankful person, and everyone around you feels very appreciated. You inspire people to be more optimistic, forgiving, and grateful.

How Thankful Are You?

What part of Thanksgiving are you?

You Are The Stuffing

You're complicated and complex, yet all your pieces fit together. People miss you if you're gone - but they're not sure why.

What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?

What Jones holiday soda are you?

You Are Broccoli Casserole Soda

Vegetarians taste better!

What Jones Holiday Soda Are You?

It's Monday!

So it's Monday...I've already got the meals planned out for the week which takes a huge load off my mind. There's nothing worse than realizing that it's 6 pm and you have nothing planned in the way of dinner for your family. I find that the hubby and kids get a little cranky when you try to give them cheese and crackers for dinner...2 nights in a row.

I finally downloaded the pictures from my camera from our Turkey Day vacation. Yup, just as I thought...nothing but pictures of squirrels. It could be worse, could be that I took no pictures at all. Don't you find that rather funny of me, especially when I was pushing "taking pictures" during the holiday? I knew what I wanted to do, I had a layout in mind, certain types of photo's that I wanted to take and lets just say that no one was with me on the idea. Before I knew it, the turkey was hacked up and spread out...no pictures of the golden turkey on a platter. The squash pie (as my m-i-l calls it) was burnt and someone was trying to put the blame on me, LOL! Yeah right, I wasn't even in the kitchen! Heck I wasn't even allowed to help out! The kids were all over the place and there was no way I'd be able to get a half way decent picture of anyone. So there it is, no Thanksgiving Day photographs. It's was raining and just dreary all day long. I'm looking at the pictures I did take and am thinking about the possibility of doing a layout on the squirrels.

The remainder of Mount Washmore is calling my name, it's all that delicate line dry stuff. I need to drag the suit cases out of the living room and toss them to the garage. I hope to get going on some scrapbooking today too!

I've got one busy week ahead of me!

As I look at my calendar I see that I'm about to start another terribly busy week...with 2 back to back holiday formals to attend, 4 cheesecakes to bake, plus getting Hannah's blood work done for her surgery on the 20th, there's also a couple of dental appointments this week. Did I mention that I'm having a crop on Thursday and I'm teaching a cooking class this week too? Yes I dare say that I've got one busy week ahead of myself! But hey what's a vacation for but to recharge your batteries and get you ready to jump back into things?

I went grocery shopping this afternoon and I felt this overwhelming urge to cook. I've got 3 different meats marinating, all for 3 different meals this week. Teriyaki tri-tips steaks, pork roast marinated with fresh herbs and garlic and of course Parker's Roast Beef Stew marinating in a lovely Cabernet Sauvignon. Want to know where I got my recipes? Check out my links...food network is awesome! I also made a pot of my vegetarian chili and a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I dare say that being on vacation and not cooking for a week got me feeling a little lonely for my kitchen. Yes it's safe to say that I'm back in the groove!

We're back from Boston

and glad to be sleeping in our own beds! As much as I like to spend time visiting friends and family, it always feels good to be back home surrounded by ones' own things.

Our trip was very successful in many ways!

1-My wonderful husband helped his mother to find and buy a new to her car. He did the home work and found quite a few of the one she was interested in, this particular car was found at a dealership in New Hampshire and lets just say that my m-i-l is VERY happy with her purchase. It's a cute silver gray Subaru Forrester.

2-We were successful in having our Christmas shopping done and gifts wrapped before we left to come back to South Dakota. In fact we were done BEFORE Thanksgiving! Oh my gosh the stores and their sales...who needs black Friday when there are sales like what we came across. I'm serious, the sales we came across were spectacular to say the least!

3- My husband was able to meet up with some of his old friends. Although the circumstances in which this occurred was not the best. The older sister to one of my husbands close friends had passed away and there was a wake being held for her. I stayed with the kids while I sent him off to pay his respects to the family. It really brings the sense of Thanksgiving home, to be giving thanks for what you have and the people that you have in your life. Being able to pay tribute to a wonderful woman, wife and mother who died before her time is only part of being thankful for all of the blessings we are given.

4- Turkey Day was great. My mother-in-law always has a huge spread...food enough to feed the entire neighborhood in case they were to stop by and say Hi. Pies...can that woman make a pie! Delicious is the only way to describe them! Did I take any pictures...yes and no. I have pictures of squirrels playing and that's it. The day I had planned to take pictures (I even packed the tripod for this trip) it was gray and raining all day long. Every day we were out and about shopping and it was too dark to take a decent picture inside of the house.

Did we do anything touristy? No, not on this trip. It's not as if we won't ever be going back there, so the kids and I didn't mind. I think that the kids really got into the shopping aspect of it all too. Andrew was able to find the video games he wanted at a price that he found to be really great. Hannah got to have another experience at the Build-a-bear Workshop. She had the time of her life building and dressing her newest addition...Anna the Frog. Anna is adorable and has a wardrobe that she will be sharing with her sister Evelyn the Bear. Who would have thought that there would be a Junior Girl Scout outfit available as bear wear? Who ever thought of this place (Build-a-bear Workshop) is rolling in the $$$ that's for sure! Every mother and daughter that came in left with a bear or different animal friend :)

Coming home was a little rough as our plane was 3 hours late leaving Boston. So instead of leaving at 6 pm we left at 9 pm. We got into Minneapolis and were booked into a hotel for the night...no suit cases. So there we are, in a hotel room, no shampoo, no toothbrushes or combs, uh huh. Thank goodness the hotel does supply some amenities, ones in which we were able to get from the desk clerk, or we could have been one scary looking foursome at the airport, LOL!

I brought back a couple of thank you types gifts for my friend Kim (ssssh it's a secret) who graciously accepted my bribe of making her family a cheesecake in payment of watching all of our pets. Yes I still intend on making that cheesecake but I will also surprise her with some other goodies as well. And as you all know, it's always nice to let your friends know that you appreciate them.

Mount Washmore has once again reared it's ugly head and I have yet another mountain of laundry to get through and the worst part of it is that I've run out of detergent. So I have to wait until the commissary opens at 11am in order to start the process all over again, ugh!

I'll say it again...I'm glad to be back and sleeping in my own bed! And yes I am very thankful for the many blessings the Lord has bestowed upon my family.

We're leaving in a hour

It's an hour until we leave and all I need to do is to put on my make up. Yes you got it, I got up a hour before the alarm (nothing new there). I'm excited about this trip. Our bags are packed, liquid things are in a quart sized zip lock baggie, books packed and I'm drinking my coffee.

We've decided not to bring the lap top because of Internet connection issues so it's highly unlikely that I will not be adding to my blog while we're gone. But then again you can never tell where I might find Internet access. I'll be keeping a trip journal and when I come back I'll be sure to update you all on where we've been and what we've done.

I hope that everyone has a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving! I'll be back home next Friday the 24th...stay tuned!

One Day to go...

Until we leave for Boston. Am I ready? Not even! I've still got a few more things to wash and then there's every ones clothes to sort and pack. I'll have everything together by this afternoon.

The plan is to do all of our Christmas Shopping for the family while in Boston. I'm going to save myself time and money by getting everything out there. No waiting in line at the UPS counter or at the Post Office for me this year! Can you tell that I'm excited about that? :)

Of course I have a lot to get done today, my friend Kim is going to pet sit for us, pick up mail and so forth...so I need to meet with her today. My friend Theresa is going to drop by with a couple of gowns for me to look at (she's got oodles of the things) for the 2 Christmas parties that I'm going to attend (they're formal too).

Then there's the Luncheon for my husband, he's leaving one job to go to a different one here on the base. Picking up my son's best friend and bringing him here to hang out and play video games for a few hours. And of course there's that Mom thing of making sure that the house stays tidy...ugh! it's time to drag out the vacuum and get on with that laundry (it's a never ending cycle of dirty clothes around here).

Lets do Lunch

I love that phrase don't you? But I'm probably the only person I know that says it and means it. I get such great enjoyment from having friends over to dine be it lunch or dinner. Being able to sit around a table, to enjoy one another's company and to just have fun.

So with lunch in mind I've got to design a recipe page scrapbook style :) I've got a couple of ideas, but nothing really that grabs my attention at the moment. It'll come to me and when it does I'll be grabbing a pencil and getting my ideas down on paper.

Today is our OSC Spa Luncheon. I'll be bringing my camera of course (to take some pictures of this event). I'll be able to tell you all more after I get back from it.

Tomorrow is another luncheon, this one is being held in honor of my husband getting a different job here on the base and is leaving his old one (after 18 months). So, I suppose that cancelling my dental appointment for tomorrow is in order since it's at the same time as the luncheon.

I'm off to make some phone calls and to get dressed for lunch!

the fine line between Love and Hate

Okay, so my "Word" program is making me bonkers right now, LOL! Computer journaling...if my own hand writing were better and more like calligraphers rather than my own chicken scratch I'd do it more often. But alas, beautiful hand writing was not one of those gifts bestowed upon me. Last night as my daughter Hannah was checking out my latest layouts (I was so proud that I had completed them, journaled and everything). She noticed some out of place words. I looked at what she was pointing to and the word "aaauuuggghhhh" came out. So this morning I've gone back and have fixed them in my word program and have printed out the boo boos and am ready to lift off the journaling areas and put in the new improved ones. There are days and then there are days, if you know what I mean. There are words like "so" instead of "do" "though" instead of "thought" and "that" instead of "the". Hannah's favorite (she found this on a different layout was the phrase "Needles to say", it just cracks her up to no end and she says it to me when ever she finds the occasion. The needles misspelling I am going to leave alone, I'll let it stay as a testimony that only 1 being in this world is perfect and needles to say...it's not me, LOL!

a Note from The Scrapbook Nook

Scrapbooking is gaining more popularity every day. Even though many of my closest friends and family members do not scrapbook, they do enjoy looking at the ones I have made for them over the years. Don't let this holiday season get away from you. Bring out that camera, great shots are right around the corner! You might not scrapbook but I'm almost certain that someone in the family does...and they would dearly LOVE to get copies of those wonderful holiday pictures!