Foot Photo #2

After the movie we went to our parents to hang out and eat (They always feed us! Yum!) Dad and Mom gave all three of us girls matching-ish slippers (plus other awesome stuff!). Of course we had to take a picture to show off how cute our feet were together. I didn't realize until I was looking through my pics the next day that we had taken two sets of photos of our feet in two different places wearing two different foot coverings on the same day AND our feet are in the same place/position in both photos. We are super silly girls!

Foot Photo #1

We went to the movie theater to watch Sherlock Holmes on Christmas day. While there we posed with The Chipmunks. We were apparently still a little camera crazy after the photos because we put our feet together for another picture. Silly us!

My Lost Contact

I removed a contact from my eye, opened my fingers slightly & it shot out like a spring! I looked everywhere, trying to not move. It was tricky, since I was wearing several layers of clothing it could have fallen in & was snuggled in several blankets & also juggling the phone, contact solution & open contact case. After a few minutes I set the stuff down & got up to look, being careful to move things as little as possible. I can't see much without contacts so I was moving around with my face practically touching every surface of every blanket & object near me, including all my clothing, the stuff I was holding, coffee table, end table, lamp, and floor. I did this several times before walking away sad because it was my last set of contacts. This took over 1/2 an hour. That's a long time for a contact to be out. I finally gave up but asked God to help. I felt like I should check the
contact solution again. I saw it! It was a crispy little thing but eventually I was able to rehydrate it!

The Boyz Are Home!

They were with their father for CHRISTmas and with my brother for a few days before that. They came home this morning.I missed them. This picture was taken while they were with Uncle Rob and Aunt Jackie. The boyz helped them move into their house. They used the money they earned from that job to buy me a new microwave for CHRISTmas. The old one recently started making weird noises.

The Best-est Banana Bread Ever!

This messy recipe card has worked very hard in my many kitchens, faithfully helping me bake hundreds of loaves of super yummy banana bread since I was a teenager. (I didn't know about sleeves that keep the cards clean back then) This is THE best banana bread ever! I lost the recipe several years ago in one of my moves. I looked & looked for it many times then would give up & try a different recipe. Every one left me disappointed. Finally, this winter, I stumbled across it (yayee!) while unpacking yet another box. (unpacking seems to be a neverending process LOL) I want to publish this recipe just in case I lose it again, cuz I'm like that. ;)

1/2 c oil
1 c sugar
mix
2 eggs
3 very ripe mashed bananas
beat thoroughly.
in a separate bowl mix:
2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
add flour mixture to banana mixture & beat well
3 Tbs milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 c nuts(optional)
add to banana/flour mixture & mix well.
Bake in greased loaf pan @ 350 for 1 hour.

Christmas Day

My CHRISTmas day was wonderful! I went with my brothers and their wives and kids to see Sherlock Holmes (we all liked it) then we headed over to our parents to hang out and eat way too much super yummy food. It was my first CHRISTmas without Shayna. We both made it through. :) The boyz were with their father as usual except this year they opened presents at my house while I was gone. Ronnie is still in Virginia...hopefully he will come home for a visit someday soon (that reminds me of SomedaySoon. LOL remember him?) The picture of Deanna, me, and Jackie was taken at the movie theater. It is nice to not be the only nerdy one in the family that takes pics with weird and random objects. We are a wacky bunch. :)

Bash's Birthday Party

We celebrated Bash's 14th birthday with friends and family at our home on Saturday. Our home is tiny so it was a full house! Bash had to work hard at putting his candles out. They were sparklers and kept relighting. Jim prepared mini mexican style snacks for everyone that were super yummy. Bash went with my brother and s.i.l. to spend the night before all of the guests left so we continued partying without him. We missed him but managed to have a good time anyway.

Bash Decorating His Gingerbread House

Z Decorating His Gingerbread House

I Love To Be Kneaded

My dog loves to be "kneaded." He loves to be petted just about every other way too. LOL

Is "He loves to be petted." or "He loves to be pet." the proper way to write that? I've seen it written both ways and always wondered.

Gayle took this photo and added the caption, "I love to be kneaded." I just wanted to give proper credit.

I emptied the nook that holds the fire wood so I could paint the walls. The wood supply was very low and needed to be replenished soon. I had the brilliant idea that I should put a few coats of polyurethane on the raw wood floor before we replaced the firewood and brought more in from outdoors.
Late last night I put the first coat of polyurethane on the floor, then the second coat this morning. Our dog loves looking out the window next to the nook so I strategically put a trunk and a stool out to prevent him from walking on the wet floor. That silly dog went behind the hot wood burning stove to walk on the wet floor and to look out the window. He left large puppy paw prints in the wet polyurethane! I am happy to report that the floor was still wet enough to touch it up. When the floor was dry and I moved the hutch back I noticed a few puppy prints that I missed. Now we have partial dog foot prints on our floor. Cute huh!

Our Thanksgiving Week

We had a wonderful week.
We put up our tree. Bash has been promoted to family tree assembler! As the youngest, Z puts the angel on the top of the tree.
Thanksgiving day we went to my brothers house for a very relaxing and pleasant dinner with his family. After dinner we laid around and watched "Up."
When we came back home we made Grandma Browns Chocolate Torte, watched movies, played video games, laid around, talked, ate, and enjoyed one another.
I have been missing Ron and Shayna a lot this year.
Friday I did a little CHRISTmas shopping with my friend Gayle. I still have more to buy but we had fun.
Saturday we cleaned and played. I fell asleep when I sat down to take a quick break. I hadn't realized I was tired until I woke up. I was a little blue/grouchy so I sent the boyz to play in Bashs room in the evening and rested on the sofa while a movie played.
Tomorrow we will go to church. I missed not going on Wednesday because they canceled services so people could cook or whatever.

Pie Auction Fun

We had a blast at the pie auction. Sadly the boyz were too old to participate in the kids auction.
We had $20 to spend on a pie, but I let them go up to $22.50. We were outbid every time.
A boy at the table next to us asked if we wanted to share a pie if he contributed his money. We had $5 more to bid. We continued to be outbid.
A third kid decided to add his money too. We were finally able to get a pie for $52! I think they felt sorry for us because the pastor pointed out that they were bidding against children. LOL
The kids got forks, a knife, and a few plates and shared the pie. Many people shared their pies with everyone and we were able to sample different pies, including some unusual ones. We tried a Ritz cracker pie and a friend gave us the rest of a mystery pie that reminded me of a pecan pie with no nuts. It had coconut and pinto beans in it. I could not tell there were beans in it either. That sounds awful but it was quite yummy.
We had lots of fun!

Dandylions In November?

I don't remember seeing fluffy dandylions in Michigan during the last week of November before.

Annual Pie Action

Tomorrow is the annual pie auction at church. The auction raises money to pay for scholarships for kids and teens to go to summer and winter camp. It is a crazy-fun event. Some of the pies go for hundreds of dollars! There is a special part of the auction for the kids so they can bid on pies at kid prices. The boyz are very excited to participate.
Sebastian and I made a pumpkin pie. Z and I made an apple pie. We had fun but we really wanted to eat the pies. LOL

Boyz At The Beach

The boyz spent last week with their father. They are sweet to send me great photos of their adventures while they are away visiting with him. They went to the U.P. for a night or two. Z found a live clam and they had a blazing bonfire on the beach.

Pretty Pink Clouds

Lettering

This is my first attempt at lettering using a bottle with a tiny tip. I watered down my paint almost to the consistency of ink. I am happy with the results and am excited to try this tecnique in other designs.

Trial T-Shirt

This is my first attempt at making a fun shirt for the boyz. It is intended to look sort of...messy. Bash loves it. I will probably repurpose this shirt into a cool laundry bag.

Tree House Beginnings

Boyz are in the tree preparing the branch for a floor/foundation.

Yummy Chili Bowls

We found these neat little loaves of bread 3 for $1 at our local grocery store. They inspired me to make chili bowls. The boyz suggested that we get chili from Betty Lou's restaurant because it is "the best." This meal was delicious, filling, fun to eat, and pretty to look at.

Mobile blogger was not working again. I am not sure what posts came through and what didn't. Please forgive me if I post things more than once. I will delete duplicate posts when I have time to go over them at the library.

Turkey Shoot

Z did great in the turkey shoot at church. We find out Sunday evening at the pie auction if he was one of the top four shooters to get the prize of a (frozen) turkey. We are all crossing our fingers. Yum!

Origami

We had plans for a sleepover on Friday. We did not know that the boyz father would be in town and they would be visiting him when we made these plans. We were all very dissapointed.
K decided that she would like to spend the night with me even though the boyz would not be here.
Her mom and another girl friend hung out for a while. The four of us had a fun girls night. We went out for Chinese and came back to my house and talked for several hours. K and I made yummy chocolate chip cookies.
After the grownups left we watched movies and did origami. She is better and faster at making things than I am. We made a box, a cup, a crane whose wings flap, and a cootie-catcher. It was fun taking turns playing the cootie-catcher game. I haven't done that since junior high.

Something Odd In A Bush - Part 4

We thought kids must have thrown it out the window of a moving vehicle and it broke on the pavement then this half bounced its way into the arms of the bush.
A friend shared that she recently watched an episode of Myth Buster and they used various methods to break bowling balls. This episode revealed that bowling balls do not break in half when thrown from a vehicle. It also showed that the only way to get a break like the one we have on our ball is with explosives...or precision work with a sledgehammer, which is quite difficult.
This found and broken bowling ball is a real treasure!
LOL

Something Odd In A Bush - Part 3

After a bit of a struggle (not really but it makes the story more interesting) the bush finally gave up its treasure. We are now the proud owners of a broken bowling ball!!!

Something Odd In A Bush - Part 2

We couldn't tell what it was. We headed down into the ditch to get a better look and were quite surprised when we learned what it was. Z dug around a bit and finally set it free.

Something Odd In A Bush - Part 1

Z and I were walking along the road across the street when I spotted something odd in the crook of a bush. Can you see what it is?

Floating Frog Comes Back To Life

Z found this lovely black frog floating upsidedown in the icy creek water. He thought it was dead until the warmth of his hands got its blood (?) moving again. Now he has a better understanding of cold blooded creatures in cold weather. His previous experiences were limited to insects.

GIANT Seedless Grapes

We found these monsters at the local grocery store. They are bigger than globe grapes, and are really seedless. They are quite firm and feel almost like a plum when bitten but with the flavor of a grape. Yum!

Z Was Baptized

Sarah, Pastor Kirks wife, took photos of the baptisms before immersion, as they were being immersed, while they were coming back out of the water, and after the baptism was finished. The church is going to develop the photos and give them to each person that was baptized.

Bash Was Baptized

Pastor Kirk, our awesome youth pastor, baptized Bash and Z during the Sunday evening service this week. My parents (their grandparents) came to the baptism and stayed for the dessert reception.

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Z's Lunch

One of Z's favorite lunches is a turkey sandwich and a dill pickle. He will probably enjoy a handful of crunchy Cheetos, and then some Oreos and milk for dessert.

Bash is spending the day working on the farm. It is a beautiful day and perfect weather for working oudoors!

Z and I will wash laundry at the laundromat then dry it at home. I can't wait to be able to wash laundry at home again. :)

Bandit loves warming himself in front of the fire. He looks so cute laying there.

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Butterfly Face Facepainting

This butterfly face looked amazing with her purple princess dress and purple wig!

Baby Leopard Facepainting

Baby leopard facepainting at Halloween party.

Tiger Facepainting

Tiger facepainting at Halloween party.

Clown-Kitty Facepainting

Clown-Kitty facepaint at Halloween party.

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Facepainting On Girls Forehead

Butterflies and ladybug facepainting on a girls forehead at Halloween party.

Z's Candy Stash

Z's Candy Stash

Bash's Candy Stash

Bash's Candy Stash

Z In His Skeleton Pirate Costume

Z In His Skeleton Pirate Costume

Bash Wheaties Box Costume

Bash Wheaties Box Costume

Shayna

Sissy Bash and Z

Sissy, Bash, and Z
We had a great time visiting with Shayna. She was able to come up from Texas for a day. We miss her.

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Bash

Z

testing....testing....1...2...3

testing....testing....1...2...3

testing....testing....1...2...3

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Blogger Messed Up Again :(

I'm sorry about the "jibberish" posts. It seems that when the system isn't working properly it will repeatedly post the same message, which means several posts show up here at the same time. I reset my phone with Blogger. Hopefully it will continue working for a while. I am sendng a test post from my phone using both the SMS and MMS systems.

Ya Gotta Love Dads!

Dad's orange cream soda. Dad's blue cream soda. Dad's root beer. Yummm!

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This picture was taken from the window in Z's loft. Yesterday, most of the trees had plenty of leaves. Today was very windy and rainy. The rain darkened the trunks and branches of the trees so they appeared almost black creating a stunning contrast against the bright yellow leaves. The wind relieved the trees of most of their leaves. Especially long gusts of wind created spectacular shows of leaping and fluttering leaves that covered the sky as they danced to the ground creating a golden blanket to warm the earth below. The brush under the bare trees is still a brilliant shade of green that reminds me of spring. One can also see the dark wandering line where the creek divides the yard from this window. The ground beyond the creek does not share the same golden blanket as the rest of the yard because it is thick with an entire summers growth of unmowed grass and weeds. A trio of deer
visit these unkept grasses often. It is always a treat to watch them graze.

Z saw the doc and he said lots of rest and fluids. He said it is good to bring the kids in even though it doesn't seem very serious because there are crazy illnesses being spread around these days.
He shared the H1N1 is a possibliity but could not know for sure because the docs are beging told not to test any patients presenting symptoms unless they are high risk or pregnant.
OK...that doesn't make any sense at all.

He also looked at my ear while we were there and did not see anything in there. He said that the noise and weird feeling is fluid, but it's not infected. He said that when I get feeling better that should clear up too.

Z is sick. We are heading to the doctor right now. They can't fit us in but we can go and wait until he can see us.

Back yard this week.

Half way finished!

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