Twitter anyone?

Okay, so I have been signed up with Twitter for almost a year now but didn't keep up with it until recently. I have been hearing more and more about it so I thought I would give it another try. It's actually pretty easy to get/receive updates so I really have no excuse to NOT do it. I can update via my cell phone or right from my address bar in Firefox (it's an add-on for you Firefox users.)

I must admit that in this last week that I have been following people via twitter, I have enjoyed it! I have chosen to get a few close friends'/family members updates sent to my phone and it is really interesting to see what they are doing throughout the day. Kind of like being a "fly on their wall" so to speak.

Anyway, if you are on twitter and want to stay connected, you can find me here: eally67

Mystery Shoppers

Mystery Shopping - did you know that this is really a job? I know somebody who has been doing this "job" for about 2 months. This person loves this! I am quite amazed at all the different assignments my friend is sent out on. It doesn't just consist of shopping in a store and spying on the customer service reps/cashiers as I previously believed mystery shopping consisted of.

My friend has to schedule appointments to see apartments, check the trailers that show before movies and review the audience's reaction, set up displays in grocery stores or department stores and various other jobs. This friend of mine has been encouraging me to sign up for some of these Mystery Shopping jobs because there are so many of them available in our area and not enough shoppers.
I went and looked at the information and signed up for one of the companies but I just haven't had the time to really fill out my profile and delve into this. Last Thursday I received an email from this company asking me if I could "shop" an apartment complex over the weekend. They really needed this job done and they saw that I lived in the area. They would pay me $35.00 to complete the job by Monday. I agreed and they emailed me the information packet.
After reviewing the information packet I started second guessing my decision to accept this job. Why? Because it required me to lie. I was supposed to contact the apartment complex's manager by phone and schedule an appointment to see one of the apartments with the intent to rent (or so she would be led to believe.) I was to make up a story as to where I worked, how I came across that particular apartment complex, and my yearly income (which couldn't be above a certain income since these apartments accepted "low-income" only.)

By the time Greg got home from work, I had worked myself into such a tizzy over this "job" and was stressed out! He and I went out to dinner that evening and I was telling him about it. He knows how I feel about lying and how I detest lying even in the smallest, minute way. I try each and every day to be an honest person, always telling the truth in every single thing I do. If I don't want to "tell the truth" about something, I will simply say "I don't want to talk about it" or something like that in order to keep from having to be dishonest.

Why did this bother me so much? What if I did this job and as the manager and I were walking around the apartment complex I ran into a friend of mine who KNEW I had just purchased a new house? They would definitely start asking me why I am looking for an apartment?! What if I gave this woman this whole story of lies about myself and then she showed up at my church on Sunday?? Oh heaven forbid! I would feel awful!

Friday morning, I emailed the company and told them I could not complete this job after all and they were going to have to find somebody else. Guess who they found? My friend - guess the "lying game" doesn't bother my friend huh?

Iron Jawed Angels

I watched this movie last night on HBO. It's called Iron Jawed Angels - it's based on the true story of the women's suffrage movement, more commonly known as the right of women to vote. With this very important presidential election being held next week I thought it was important to point out that it wasn't that long ago that women would not have been able to decide who was going to be our next president. Because of the dedication and sacrifices of the women portrayed in this movie we do have a vote now! I hope and pray you will get out and let your vote count next week.

Why oh why?

Dakota is 12 yrs old. He likes his hair down on his forehead (because he doesn't like his forehead to show...don't ask me why because I don't have a clue?) just touching the top of his glasses. He doesn't want long hair but he doesn't want really short hair either. The picture above is from Saturday a week ago.

Greg is 47 yrs old. He keeps his hair very short and spiky. He hates Dakota's hair on his forehead, on his ears and on his neck.

These two go round and round about the hair constantly. I don't get it. Why does it have to be that big of a deal??! This has been going on for years too! Now, last night, Greg got his clippers out that he cuts his hair with and he "trimmed" Dakota's hair. I am not even going to put a picture on here of Dakota now - it looks terrible!

Dakota came out of the bathroom mad at ME! For not "protecting" him I guess. I was washing dishes and he walked past me and said "Thanks mom! I really appreciate you helping me! Thanks alot! Now look what he did."

I am going to take him to get it fixed today...which will require getting most of his hair cut off. I have always been of the mindset that you pick your battles and hair issues are just not one of the battles I choose to fight and I don't understand why it has become such a major ordeal between these two?

Gratituesday - My daughter Felicia

Felicia, her husband, Will and their boys live in Hawaii. She is pregnant with their 3rd son. I haven't seen them in a 1 1/2 years. The baby is due Dec 24th. We are hoping I can get out there for the birth of the baby and to help out afterwards but with that being at Christmas time I am not sure right now what is going to happen.

I was present at the births of Felicia's other babies. I have been around for her other pregnancies. She had a baby shower this past Saturday that was given to her by a close friend of hers in Hawaii. This young lady went above and beyond to make this baby shower so special for Felicia!
I am so grateful to Corrine for going "all out" and throwing a terrific Baby Shower for Felicia! Even though none of her family was able to be there, she had all her girlfriends there with her and she received a lot of really nice gifts.

This is Felicia & Will's oldest - Allan - he will be 5 in December.

Felicia & Will's youngest -Nathan (he's dancing) - he just turned 3 in July.

For more Gratituesday posts, go here.

Update on Raven

Greg took Raven back to the vet on Friday. Our vet's office has about 8 vets working there and you never see the same one twice. So he sees a different one on Friday from the one I saw on Tuesday. He tells this vet that Raven isn't eating or drinking anything because she keeps throwing up and we think it is the medicine making her do it.

His response: "Well, quit giving her the medicine."

Greg: "The other vet told us to give it to her to get rid of the worms!"

The vet checks her for worms, says they are all gone and now we just need to get her to eat and drink. So he gives her a shot to stimulate her appetite and an oral medication (anti-wormer) as a precautionary measure. He sends home another dose of the oral de-worming medicine with instructions to give it to her later that evening.

Greg brings her home, drops her off with me and heads to work. About 20 mins later she starts throwing up...violently! This lasts for the next 4 hours until she finally falls asleep in exhaustion and sleeps for the next 6 hours. I kept checking to see if she was breathing.
When Greg got home and saw how pathetic she was and after dealing with her the rest of the evening and into Saturday morning he ran back up to the vet's office and said something was wrong with her because she was worse now than when he took her to the vet the day before. The vet's answer..."you'll need to hospitalize her and even then I can't guarantee she is going to make it."

The only problem with that is the cost - yes, I love animals but I am not willing to sacrifice my house payment to hospitalize this 10 week old puppy I have had for one week. My husband was heartbroken at the thought of having to put her down.

Later that afternoon he looked up (on the internet) the medication that the vet had given her by mouth. These are the symptoms....

• nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, or a decreased appetite;

• headache;

• drowsiness or dizziness;

• insomnia; or

• a rash.

Hmmm, sound familiar? Hello!? Wonder where he got HIS Vet's license...Vets-R-Us?! Everything we were trying to eliminate he gave her a medicine that increased the problem! We had not given her anything by mouth since Friday morning because she couldn't keep it down anyway. Saturday afternoon, we started giving her 3 ml of Maalox followed by 3 ml of Goat's Milk. We continued that throughout the weekend.

She woke up this morning and started sniffing around my kitchen. I thought "hmmm, is she hungry by chance?" She hasn't eaten since last Saturday (over a week ago) unless we have shoved it in her mouth with a syringe so I wasn't sure if that's what she wanted or not. I put some food down and let me just tell ya....this was a beautiful sight this morning!!

Sharing my heart...sort of

It has been a very difficult month around my house. Not quite sure what's in store for us down the road. I haven't posted too much "personal" stuff in awhile because it would have come across as very negative. That has been my attitude lately and as much as I try to get over it I am really having a hard time with it.

I can't go into too many details about what's going on - because it involves other people but I can say that for the first time ever in my life I have very angry with God. I've been so angry that I haven't even been able to sit and pray about things like I would have in the past. I shared this with a few very close friends a couple of weeks ago and let them know I needed intercessory prayers because I just wasn't capable of handling it on my own right now.

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My husband is very good at his job. He has been with the company for 7 years. He works long, hard hours and his job is his priority in life. He has known about a re-structuring that is going to take place within the company for about 2 months. This will mean a lot of people are going to lose their jobs. Even though he has known about this for 2 months he couldn't tell anybody. It has torn him up because he really cares about his employees and he has hated lying to them. They can sense something is going on and he would be hit everyday with questions about what's happening and he would tell them not to worry about it, everything is okay...but he knew it wasn't okay.

I didn't agree with the way he was handling it but I am not in his shoes therefore I can't judge him. The announcement was going to be made last Tuesday about the restructuring. Friday before the Tuesday the President of the company flew into town to prepare for the announcement. Greg met with him and asked him if his job was secure. Greg was told yes, he had nothing to worry about, everything is okay. (Hmmm, okay isn't this the same message the Pres. has been telling Greg to tell "his" employees for 2 months and they ARE losing their jobs in Dec?)

Monday afternoon Greg was called into Human Resources and told by the President that his position is no longer needed and he would be let go in January. If he stayed until then he would be receiving a severance package. Thank you very much.

As you can imagine my husband's world was rocked...devastated...knocked out from under him. We didn't speak for three days last week. He was so distraught and angry with the world - he didn't want to take it out on me so he stayed away from me. Finally Thursday he broke down, apologized, cried and talked it out.

This Monday (as in 4 days ago) he was called by the Vice President of the company and told they made a premature decision and they are keeping his position and they need him. What the heck??!! Today the President and the VP flew in town to meet with him. Give me a break! I'm sorry, but ya just don't jerk people around like that....

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Our lab puppy we got on Saturday is sick...very, very sick. She started getting sick Sunday evening. Tuesday morning I took her to the vet and found out she has hookworms. The vet gave her a couple of shots and gave me lots of medicine to give her but she only gave Raven a 50/50 chance of making it. I am taking her back in the morning...I'll be surprised if we don't have to put her to sleep. It's been an exhausting week taking care of my sick baby...bless her poor little heart, she is as sweet as can be. :-(

Freedom Isn't Free

When Tina was pregnant with Bailee, Bryant was deployed to Iraq. She came to live with us in FL during her pregnancy rather than stay in CA by herself. The whole time he was in Iraq a wonderful "angel" of a woman adopted Bryant and Tina as part of the Soldier's Angels program. She mailed care packages almost weekly to Bryant in Iraq and to Tina in FL. She took the time to call and check on Tina periodically throughout her pregnancy and even called her in the hospital after Bailee was born!
I know there are several programs out there that allow you to "adopt" soldiers who are deployed. I am familiar with Soldier's Angels because of Tina and Bryant. That one requires a longer commitment.

I wanted to point out this other program, Any Soldier Inc., which will allow you to send packages to a specific person in care of a unit...that person will then hand out the "goods" to his/her unit.
You can look up a contact in a certain branch, (Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard) and when you click on their name it will tell you how many times their name has been requested, where they are located, how many males/females are in their unit and when the last time they made contact was.
Until November 11th (Veteran's Day) you can buy a raffle ticket for this $800,000 + house for $100. There are several other cash prizes they are giving away. You can see all the details here plus pictures of this beautiful house!!

Wordless Wednesday - Windy Day at the Beach

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, go here

What time I am afraid

"What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee" Psalm 56:3

Ever since my children were young and learned this verse we have always quoted it when one of us was scared or afraid of something. Tina used to be scared of thunderstorms and she drew a picture one time of a thunderstorm and wrote this verse on her picture. I love that picture...it's the perfect example of a time to call on Christ from a child's eyes.

I went to GA to visit Tina and my granddaughter, Bailee a month ago. Dakota and I went alone because Greg had to stay and work. It's about a 4 1/2 hour drive and only 2 hours of that drive is on the interstate. The rest of the drive is through small AL & GA towns.

We have a GPS that we use when we travel. Before I left Pensacola I entered in Tina's address and the GPS gave me directions. The only problem was the directions wanted me to go through Tallahassee, FL and then up to Tina's house (much longer route!) so I hit "recalculate alternate route" and then it gave me the route I wanted...basically through the small towns and back roads.
We made it to Tina & Bryant's house without incident and stayed there for a 5-day visit. The morning we were going to leave I woke up at 4:00 am and was wide awake. I woke Dakota up and told him I wanted to get on the road. He, of course, thought I had lost my mind but I told him he could sleep in the truck on the way home. We loaded the truck, left a note for Tina and headed out by 4:45.

I handed Dakota the GPS and asked him to set it for home. He got it all set for me and then he got comfortable and quickly fell asleep. I drove along for an hour before hitting the 1st town where I thought I was going to have to turn to start making the trek west...but the GPS was silent so I kept on heading south. For another 20 mins I headed south into unfamiliar territory.

Hmmm, I start seeing signs for cities that I'm realizing I shouldn't be headed towards. "Now, how did that happen?"

Oh DRATS!! (a sinking thought just occurred to me) Dakota set the GPS and I didn't tell him to recalculate alternate route. I quickly grabbed the GPS and hit "recalculate"; it does and it tells me to make a right hand turn in 100 yds. "Oh great! Maybe I'm not too far off course"

Let me just tell you...for the next 30 mins on that Sunday morning I drove up and down hilly country roads in pitch black early morning hours with no other cars in sight saying this verse over and over and over in my head. Dakota slept peacefully beside me as I fretted terribly and relied on God and this little box (GPS) to get me back on course. The final straw was when the "box" told me to turn left and when I turned left it looked like this...for the next 2 miles!
A dark, winding DIRT road, barely wide enough for one vehicle - God help me if another vehicle were to come along - I have no clue what I would do then!

As soon as I got to the end of this road the GPS told me to turn left and I was back on the main highway where I was supposed to be...actually beyond the small town I would have gone through so I still made it home in the same amount of time I had planned on - in time for breakfast with Greg at Cracker Barrel. I was praising God for getting me home safely!!

You're Gonna Miss This: Tina & Felicia's Birthday

For more You're Gonna Miss This Moments, visit Pam's blog by clicking the image above or clicking here.

On to my moment...
My twin daughters are going to be turning 21 next month. Tina lives close enough now that she is planning on driving in town to let us celebrate this birthday with her but Felicia is in Hawaii so she'll be celebrating with her family and friends there. I will miss celebrating with both girls. We have had some fun celebrations over the years.

Their 17th birthday party was supposed to be a "surprise" Luau party. I had done great at keeping the surprise from them until the day of the party. Dummy me...on the day of their party I sent out one last reminder to everybody in my "family" group email folder and I forgot to remove their names this time so I sent the reminder to them too. They didn't bother to tell me all day that they knew about it though. I didn't find out until they drove up to the church and Felicia's husband (Will - she was married and living on her own at the time) told me "next time you want to surprise somebody with a party you might want to try not emailing them about it!" We all had a great time despite my goof! Felicia and Will moved to West Virginia a month later right after the holidays so this was our last big party together that year.
Felicia and Will came in town for the holidays the next year so while they were in town we decided to celebrate the girls 18th birthday by having a Mystery Dinner Theater Party. We are all "in costume" and had different roles to play. The girls have always wanted to do this - it was a lot of fun.
Tina had just given birth to her daughter Bailee a couple of weeks before their birthday in 2006 and Felicia had come down from WV to be with her sister during Bailee's birth so we celebrated their 19th birthday before Felicia left to go back home.
This was the last year the girls have spent together for their birthday. Being identical twins...they are very close and have a special bond. They talk daily on the phone several times a day. It's been over a year since they have seen each other and I know they miss one another dearly...especially around their birthday and holiday times. I miss them even more during those times...

My Anniversary is today

Happy Anniversary to my honey! We were married October 21, 1995....And now 13 years later....

I love you honey-bun!

Google Reader, Bloglines and Blogger Followers

Do you know what this symbol stands for? If you read many blogs or newspapers online you have probably seen this symbol. It is the RSS logo.

RSS = really simple syndication

When you see that logo you generally can click on it and subscribe to whatever it is you are looking at...a blog, editorial, magazine, or news feed. Once you have subscribed then you will receive daily updates from all your subscriptions into a "Reader." This eliminates the need for you to have to go back to each website to see what's new.

There are several "Readers" to choose from. I have been using Bloglines for the last year. Overall I have been happy with it until recently when several of my feeds keep getting dropped and I have to go back in and re-enter the feed information for those websites. That's frustrating so I started looking for another Reader to use.


I know some people use Google Reader and like it, so over the weekend I looked into that one. I was pleasantly surprised to see that some of the Blogspot blogs I am "following" (also a new service of Blogspot) were already in my Google Reader...because all of this is controlled by Google of course.
I have added this "Following" widget to my sidebar in both of my blogs. If you don't already subscribe to one of my blogs and would like to you now have 3 options (email, RSS, or by Following - which will allow you to "follow" my blog in Blogger's dashboard or in Google Reader.)

Update on Wedding from Saturday

Remember when I posted about the wedding we were attending this past Saturday? Dakota had his best friend (our pastor's son) spend the night with him Friday night and I carried both boys to the wedding. By the time we got to the church we had to park three blocks away - it was packed!!
I kept Jacob with me during the service instead of trying to find his mom...his dad was a groomsman in the wedding as well as performing the opening prayer and asking who gives the bride away. The bride's father is a pastor and after he walked her down the aisle he actually did the ceremony.

Anyway, the main reason for writing this "update" is to say that Jesse (the girl) was absolutely breathtaking as she walked down the aisle. I wanted to post a picture but I didn't take my camera. Over 1/2 of our church is on myspace and we all share pictures with each other on there - there were like 1000 cameras there that night so I just knew somebody would have pictures up already but of course they don't! LOL While she was walking down the aisle, Jessie (the guy) was on stage and started bawling. It was the sweetest thing.

On the 20 minute drive to the reception I had Dakota, Jacob and another friend of theirs in the car with me. All 3 boys were sitting in the back seat discussing the events of the wedding.

Jacob: "It was nice and all but I wouldn't be crying like Jessie up on stage like that."

Russ: "Yeah, me either. Man he was crying like crazy"

Jacob: "Did you see him when my dad was praying? He was trying to wipe his eyes and quit crying? That was funny."

I said: "Oh you guys...he was just overwhelmed with her beauty as she was walking towards him. He's waited a long time for his beautiful bride."

Dakota said: "That's what I'M talking 'bout!!"

Jacob: "Yeah, I would probably cry too."

Russ: "Yeah, me too."

Our new baby!

Her name is Raven and she is 9 weeks old....another black lab to add to our family. We love our labs!

She is so cute!

The old man (as in our 6-yr-old lab, Jet) doesn't really take too kindly to her puppy ways yet as he has ruled the roost for 6 years now...but he is coming around. As I type this they are actually laying side-by-side sleeping for the first time in three days! LOL

DNA

Let me first say I DO NOT WATCH Jerry Springer! Somebody emailed me this clip and I thought it was hilarious (in a sad sort of way)...wanted to share.

Thankful Thursday

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
Col 3:15

It is so easy to take daily life for granted. Just waking up and doing daily chores or going to a job is not even an option for so many people because they are dealing with diseases and illnesses I can't even imagine what it's like to have to deal with everyday. Each morning when I wake up I lay in bed for a few minutes silently talking to God. I have a mental checklist of people that pop into my mind first thing in the morning and I want to make sure I offer up prayers to the great Healer for these friends. I am so thankful that God is Jehovah-Rapha and He promises us that He will heal us.

For more Thankful Thursday posts, go here.

Wedding of "The Jessies"

Jessie (the guy) is Dakota's Youth Pastor. He's a great young man! Has a heart for God and a love for young people. He majored in music education and is extremely, EXTREMELY talented in that area! His day job - he teaches the drumline at an area high school band. Dakota adores Jessie.

This Saturday Jessie is marrying the woman God has saved just for him...Jessi! These two are so precious together. Everyone at church is looking forward to this day for the two of them. They have both been very vocal throughout their teen years and college years about abstinence and purity and faithfully serving God and He will lead you to the man (woman) He has chosen for you. It's been awesome being a part of this journey with this young couple and now to finally be able to watch them get married Saturday evening is so exciting.

Hand Illusionist

I saw this on MrsMomma's blog and I thought it was the neatest thing...wanted to share.

Wordless Wednesday - Father/Son Campout

After a night of playing with the other boys at the Father/Son Campout...
my dirty son.......
didn't understand why he had to take a shower before he came home! His daddy told him he was NOT getting in the truck and riding home like that! LOL
For more Wordless Wednesday posts, go here.

Toon-ful Tuesday

I've Been Awarded!

Wow, I received an award!! My super-funny bloggy friend Rebekah from Diagonally Parked in a Parallel Universe blessed me with this award.

The steps of this award are to list 6 things we love, then pass it on to 6 lovely bloggers. Okay, so here goes....I love -

1. The sound of YaYa from my grandchildren when they learn to start calling my name. It sounds so precious coming from them.

2. How Dakota (my 12-yr-old) still comes in every night to give me a hug and a kiss before bedtime and he tells me he loves me and I know he means it.

3. My alone time in the morning after Greg has left for work and before Dakota has gotten up...I listen to praise & worship music, read my Bible and then get online. It's my favorite time of the day.

4. thunderstorms, hurricanes and weather phenomena - I am fascinated by the weather and love watching the patterns, jet streams, etc

5. spending time with my best friend, CJ. We don't get to spend as much time together these days because she has been so sick from chemo but I love our time we do get to sit and talk. She is an amazing woman I love dearly.

6. when my husband treats me like I'm the center of his world and a priority in his life.

Okay, now passing this on to 6 lovely bloggers...
Jennifer F. from Conversion Diary - she used to be an atheist and has converted to Christianity...her tales of faithfully serving God whilst raising very young children are encouraging, uplifting and sometimes humorous.

Hunny Bee at It's A Honey of A Life - she is pregnant with baby #2 and dealing with a precocious almost 3-yr-old...her blog will keep you in stitches!

Hinsley at The Oxygen Chronicles - her refreshingly honest account of her struggles and trials she is going through helps you "see" things from another point of view.

Monica at Shine Again - this homeschooling mom of 7 children is amazing and encouraging to read about!

Claire at Two Kids, A GearHead and Me - I tagged her last year, but she needs a jumpstart on her blogging again, so I am going to TAG her again! She is a lovely gal who is so humorous WHEN SHE WRITES! LOL

Alyssa at Keeping the Kingdom First - she is a fellow bargain hunter, frugal shopping queen who puts God first in everything she does. I love following along with her blog!

You're Gonna Miss This Moment: Band

I found out last week that this past Saturday was the annual band competition held at the high school I graduated from 23 years ago. My old high school has been holding this competition for as long as I can remember...it draws hundreds of people annually to come watch the 50+ bands that participate.

I used to be in band in high school - in the color guard. I loved it! I missed it dearly for years after I graduated and because of that I never missed a band competition or a winter color guard competition for the next ten years or so.

When my children reached middle school age I told them all they had to choose an instrument - it wasn't an option...they were going to participate in band. If they absolutely hated it after a year or so I would have let them quit, but I knew they would love it - they were all musically inclined. Jon, the oldest, chose trumpet and he excelled at it going on to play in the high school marching band and taking on a leadership role there. My twins were right behind him in grade - Tina chose saxophone and Felicia chose flute. The girls, like their brother, excelled in the band. Both girls took on leadership positions in the high school band.

Jon went to a different high school than the girls did because he chose to go live with their father in another city. It wasn't far from us but when the girls started band their freshman year there was an opening for a Color Guard Director. I mentioned that I used to be in Color Guard and could help out so after an initial trial "volunteering" period I was hired. Because I was now employed with the band and required to attend all football games on Friday nights I couldn't attend any of my son's football games unless we didn't have a game one particular night...which did happen a couple of times so we were able to go see him perform.

I was so blessed to be able to spend this time with my daughters during their high school years. I taught the 7th period Color Guard class and then stayed for band practices every afternoon and then we would all drive home together. It took us 45 mins - an hour to get home every day. That was our time where we could talk and re-hash the day's events. Then on the weekends we had football games and competitions. There was lots of traveling to state competitions and football playoffs. We have some great memories from those 4 years.

Back in August, I was asked to come back and teach Color Guard again this year. I told them I would consider it. It took me about two days to decide it just wouldn't be the same without my daughters there and I turned down the offer. This clip is my daughter, Tina - she was the drum major her junior and senior year.



This clip is from the same evening but it's just one from the band/color guard on the field. At the beginning of the clip, you can see Tina in the lower right hand corner directing the band.


To read more about You're Gonna Miss This Moments, check out Pam's blog.

Then Sings My Soul Saturday - This Too Shall Pass

For more TSMSS, visit Amy's blog here.

Can-Opening and Cake Baking In the midst of Chaos

Catchy title huh? LOL Bear with me here....this post is full of random thoughts.

Have you seen those nifty little One Touch can openers? I think they are probably sold in the "As Seen On TV" section in some stores (at least that's what I always think about when I see them...lol.)

Anyway, when we moved into our house we needed a can opener. I would have picked out the traditional under the counter number with the bag opener/ripper thing on it since I am forever having to grab my scissors to open up food bags that are sealed up tighter than Ft. Knox...BUT the decision wasn't mine alone and my darling husband picked up this little snazzy number.
Let me tell ya something - I am sooooooooo glad he got this! I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this can opener (once I figured out how to use it!) My biggest struggle to begin with was just not leaving the thing alone. I kept wanting to grab it before it was done and "help" it along. That's not how this thing works! You simply place it on top of your can, any can you want to open and push the black button and walk away...it will come to a complete stop on its own and turn off on its own when it is finished.
Then it just waits there resting comfortably on top of the can until you return to remove it and the lid - voila! Isn't that the neatest thing? Okay, it doesn't take much to humor me...but this really does have to be one of my favorite kitchen gadgets!
I have a very good friend who just had a baby last Friday. She has 2 boys already and she just had her 1st (and last) girl. I went and visited her Sunday evening in the hospital...of course her baby is just precious!! Today I went in with somebody else and we prepared dinner for my friend and her family. I made a vegetable and dessert. The dessert was this Banana Nut Cake - a new recipe for me that I found online today - it is awesome!

I am limited on pans and have no disposable pans big enough for a cake so I had to cut the cake up and put it on a couple of smaller plates to deliver it...so I didn't have to worry about getting my dish back from my friend. When I did this, there wasn't enough room for 4 pieces of the cake so those pieces just had to stay here at my house....notice there are three pieces in the pan? Umm, yeah, did I mention the cake was DELICIOUS?!!!
I am normally an extremely organized person. Ask me where something is and I can put my finger on it because I have a place for everything and everything in its place...that is until we moved into our house! With purchasing the house at the end of August, we have been overwhelmed with paperwork and I have let it take over...
I keep saying everyday I am going to tackle this forever growing mound of paperwork...yet I procrastinate. Today I received a bill in the mail and after going over with it a fine tooth comb I am questioning the amount but in order to be sure of something I have to dig through this "mess" to find last month's bill. **Sighhhhhhh** I guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow.

We have a small front porch...today I put out my Fall decorations. Dakota doesn't like it. He wants scary. I told him "I don't DO scary!" I like it! I especially love the yellow flowers - they are huge!

Lowe's Kid's Clinic this Saturday

Take your child to a participating Lowe's this Saturday from 10:00 - 11:00 am and help them build this glow in the dark Spooky Wooden Skeleton just in time for Halloween.
Then go back on October 25th from 10:00 - 11:00 and build this Pumpkin.