Carole's Thoughtful Spot

Facebook Fun (or not so fun?) and Games

2012-01-23T09:39:00.000-05:00

Angel and Frieda Enjoying Milkshakes From Snoopy's Street Fair

My daughter sent me this "Snoopy Snap" which you can do from the game "Snoopy's Street Fair" which is a very cute game, although like SO many other Facebook games it always offers lots of tempting options that cost REAL money. I mean, I can't blame them, but some games are kind of "worse" than others with what they let you do for free and what they want you to pay for. I mean, I don't expect to be able to customize Snoopy or Charlie Brown's house down to a choice of JoAnn's or p kaufmann fabric, but sheesh, at Christmas time I don't think there was one "free" decoration for the Christmas tree. But it's fun enough to play for free, and it's very cute. These companies have to make money and cheapos like me aren't helping them pay the bills, lol.

So I mentioned in a previous post that I was enjoying Words With Friends. Well, I'm not enjoying it as much anymore, lol... I *thought* I was a fairly well-read, intelligent person with a pretty good vocabulary, however, in the first week or two of playing Words With Friends I could not believe how many words people were playing that I had never seen or heard of!! Ok, I know since I hit 40 the brain cells are starting to die off but, wow! I am much dumber than I thought!! Well, finally somebody kindly tipped me off that there are apps and computer programs that you can use to make the best words out of the letters you have - even helping you maximize DL and TL spaces and the like, as well as lists of obscure two and three letter words to play, etc. etc. etc. :-/ Ok, #1 - Um, isn't that cheating? #2 - If I were playing you face to face I would not, on my turn, turn to my computer to find my next move - would you? #3 - That doesn't really seem like fun to me - to let your computer figure out some of your moves? But I guess that's just me. I'm also not super competitive, so maybe that's part of it. #4 - The least you can do if you're doing this is LET YOUR OPPONENT KNOW so you can BOTH play with "help" because it's not really very fair to use your computer to help you make words no one's ever heard of while I'm only using MY BRAIN, now is it?? Sheesh! Blah. Whatever. (Btw, I *know* not everyone is doing this, but I'm kind of put me off the whole game - I can't keep track of who seems like they're getting help and who is just playing brain-to-brain with me - it's sucked the fun out of it.)

Have you tried Zynga's Drop 7 game? That's a lot of fun, but once I figured out some of the strategy the game can last a looong time...although I still am not very good at getting rid of the "1s" - I end up eventually with the bottom rows filled with them...

And of course I'm still playing Farmville. There's a rumor we may finally be getting "shared storage" across all the farms, but I'll bet that will cost Farm Cash (= real money). Don't forget to check under the game window for the occasional surveys you can do for a couple of farm cash - I did one today for Turbo Tax, took about a minute. Over time those Farm Cash add up! Also, in case you don't know, there is an official Farmville Blog where they publish the "Quest Guides" so you can see what tasks lie ahead and plan accordingly. And regarding all the quests lately - it got too stressful for me to try to complete them all, so I just look ahead to what prizes are offered and I don't even bother with the quests unless there are prizes I want. The game is much more enjoyable now. I have enough stress in my life, I don't need to be worrying about my blueberries withering, lol!

What Facebook games do *you* like that I should try?

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More Thoughts Too Short for a Whole Blog Post

2012-01-21T12:55:00.000-05:00

This is me when I was a baby. Looks like I was already having more thoughts too short for a whole blog post, eh? :-)

The Husband refuses to join Facebook - which I can understand. He's heard too many horror stories of stupid things on Facebook hurting people's careers, so he lives vicariously through my Facebook. (Although, he told me the other day that there's this whole other secret site called UnFacebook where all the people go who don't want to be on Facebook.)

We ran out of Italian Seasoning and when I was grocery shopping I was going to purchase more until I saw the price - $6.10!!!!!!! For a "vial" of Italian Seasoning???? Are they putting gold in Italian Seasoning these days????? That was McCormick brand btw - they didn't have a store brand or any other brand. We are just going to have to live without Italian Seasoning for now cause I'm not paying no $6.10 for it!!!

The Daughter got Just Dance 3 for the Wii for Christmas and it has this great feature called "Just Sweat" for exercising (thank you btw to all those who gave me suggestions on how to get rid of my Christmas Blubber - I'm still looking into/considering ideas). So far my fave song to dance to surprisingly is Lenny Kravitz's "Are You Gonna Go My Way". I can get 4 stars on that one. :-D

Besides the show "Gold Rush" I am also now hooked on "Flying Wild Alaska" - I've watched all of Season 1 on Netflix and tried to watch as much of the current season as I could remember to. The Husband is getting worried with my fascination with Alaska and he's already told me we are NOT moving to Alaska, and not to get any ideas - the Adirondacks is as far north as he's willing to go.

Now that the Husband and I have hit our forties, our inability to remember things at times has become quite amusing. The other day the Husband couldn't think of the word for a particular item and called it, "the fart balloon thingy" (whoopie cushion).

Speaking of being in your 40s...I went for my first mammogram the other day. I can't decide whether to blog about it or not. I'm pretty sure my description of the ordeal I went through would give you a laugh, but on the other hand it just might be tmi....lol...

Speaking of laughs...I am reading a book by a local Hudson Valley author called, "A Real Piece of Work". It's a detective/mystery/thriller story - I'm three quarters of the way through it and so far I'm really enjoying it - not too gritty, just great storytelling THANK YOU! I happen to follow this author on Twitter and he occasionally tweets lines from the book, such as this, "Briefly I wished I were that other detective, Spenser, who could make a gourmet meal out of vitamin C tablets and an onion." As I was reading, I came across this gem I think should be his next quote, "I rolled over a drift and scrambled behind a tree, my thighs as nimble as two frozen hams." This books has some very witty lines, lol. The only thing I'm worried about regarding this book, is that there is a sequel - already written - but the author (Chris Orcutt) won't release it until he sells 1,000 copies of *this* book - gah! I have no idea how close he might be, but if you want to check it out here's a link to the Amazon page - it's in Kindle format (you don't need a Kindle btw to read it - you can download an app to read it on your pc or ipod/ipad) and it's $4.99 - Chris Orcutt's A Real Piece of Work.

It's actually snowing here today in NY - hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!

The End.

Anyone Know of a Diet that Really Keeps the Weight Off??

2012-01-12T15:18:00.000-05:00

Ok, ok. I know *no* diet will "work" - it has to be a lifestyle change.

Ok, so does anyone know of a LIFESTYLE CHANGE that actually makes you lose weight and keep it off, and isn't torture and doesn't involve eating 10 bowls of cabbage soup a day, or diet pills or anything weird?

I have done Weight Watchers countless times now. It works to take the weight off - I am able to succeed in that endeavor time and time again. The problem is, the weight creeps back on and it seems like now every January I have to go back on it to re-lose the weight again and I'M TIRED OF DOING WEIGHT WATCHERS. I just am. And clearly once I lose the weight, I don't maintain it. Because I like to eat. That's the problem ya see.

So here it is January, and I have the usual Christmas Blubber I want to lose and I just don't know what to do this time. I really don't have the motivation or desire to do Weight Watchers again...but all the other diets I've looked at require you to eat in a way that I'm sure I won't be able to stick to for the long term.

The *only* thing I can think of is to exercise a lot. But if you know me, you know I *hate* to exercise and I *hate* to sweat.

Quite a dilemma here.

I need some ideas, inspiration and motivation. I even thought of "bribing myself" with a new purse or new rustic furniture for our cabin if I could lose 30 lbs. But I don't even know how to lose 30 pounds other than Weight Watchers.... :-/

If you have any suggestions on how you lost weight and kept it off, I'd be interested to hear what worked for you - please share!!

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More Thoughts Too Short For a Whole Blog Post

2012-01-11T07:44:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the lousy picture - didn't think to take one until we'd nearly eaten the whole thing.

Our daughter recently celebrated her 13th birthday and she wanted a vanilla and strawberry ice cream cake (like from Carvel or Dairy Queen with the "chocolate crunchies"). Which you totally can't get this time of year (a custom ice cream cake). But then I got to thinking about it. And I decided to try making a homemade ice cream cake and the "crunchies" myself. It turned out to be quite easy, and it was REALLY YUMMY! Maybe I'll post the recipe/instructions on my other blog (www.sensiblehomemaker.com) if anyone's interested.

We are addicted to the Discovery Channel show, "Gold Rush"!!!!

I forget if I've mentioned it here, but my Dad is getting married, so I am getting a Stepmom! (My Mom passed away over 10 years ago.) They already went and looked at diamond engagement rings and picked one out, and I believe they will be marrying some time this year. Funny how life can be so full of surprises. If I had told my Dad 5 years ago that he'd be remarrying he would have told me I must be smoking crack.

OMG this cold I mentioned in my last post is still doggin' me. BLAH!

I know I mentioned I got an iPad2 for Christmas, but now that I've had it for a little while I thought I'd share some of my favorite apps, and maybe you will share some of yours? I think my three fave apps so far are: Flipboard (this is AMAZING - it turns your Facebook, Twitter, News, etc. into a sort of magazine you can flip through and see all your "stuff" at once), AppStart (saves you the trouble of searching out the best apps for whatever you want to do - super, super handy), and Words With Friends (I am "Carolesthought" on there if you want to play with me). If you're interested in more great suggestions for iPad/iPhone apps, there's a list at The Older Geek - Must-Have Apps for the iPad.

Now that the Adirondack Cabin project is done (it will be a year this month since it was finished, I can't believe it!!!!) and we can't go visit there until spring, we're finally back to doing some geocaching. The Husband's latest "quest" is to try to find a cache a day for as many days as he can to set our "personal record" for longest cache finding streak. I think we've found a cache for 16 days in a row so far.

We are currently waging a war against mice in our basement. We are using mousetraps, which have been intermittent in their effectiveness. The Husband uses peanut butter as bait. Sometimes we get a mouse, sometimes the traps are licked clean with no dead mice to show for it, and other times we've caught mice in the already "licked clean" traps. Last night a mouse was caught right after the traps were set. The Husband went to dispose of it, and I guess since the mouse had been caught so recently it was, er, floppy. The Husband, who is not normally squeamish said disposing of mice after rigor mortis has set in is a lot less "gross". He definitely prefers disposing of "stale" mice over "fresh", lol.

Got any good mouse trapping techniques to share?

The end.

I'm Still Here...

2012-01-06T11:46:00.001-05:00

Our daughter got some "fashion" color duck tape for her recent birthday, and my niece made her a pair of sandals out of it - pretty cool, huh?

Sorry for the lack of posts the last week or so. Between getting back in the swing of things, I had a couple of nights where I hardly got any sleep and I ended up coming down with a virus that's made me feel like doing nothing the last two days. You should see what a disaster my kitchen is from neglect.

I didn't really make any New Year's resolutions, per se, however one thing that I want to focus on going forth is paying more attention to people's actions and making judgments based on those, rather than words. Talk is cheap and I tend to believe the talking, rather than what is actually going on in front of my face and so many times I've ended up feeling like a naive idiot. Maybe it's even denial - that I don't *want* to believe what I see...I gotta wake up and smell the coffee better. They say wisdom comes with age...I'm 41 - I wonder when my shipment is due?

Did you make any New Year's resolutions?

The end.

West Bend Stir Crazy Popcorn Popper

2011-12-28T15:43:00.002-05:00

Besides the iPad2, this was another really cool gift I got! It's a new fangled popcorn popper!

When I was a kid, hot air poppers were all the rage, but I never really liked the popcorn it made. The hot air tended to make the popcorn ever so slightly most and chewy. It was never as good as the kind you made in a pot on the stove, but, it was a a lot easier and something a kid could make.

Then came the advent of microwave popcorn. Which seemed fine and dandy until that report came out about how you're not supposed to breathe in the steam when you first open a bag of it. Because it causes cancer or something terrible like that! (Doctors are going to have to take out Medical Malpractice Insurance just to guard them against mis-diagnosing popcorn cancer!)

??!!!!???

Not to mention, have you ever noticed the amount of fat and calories in one normal bag of microwave popcorn? Popcorn - something that used to be a healthy snack??

I got to thinking that I'd like to get away from microwave popcorn. Besides being totally unhealthy, it's expensive! It's WAY cheaper to make popcorn just using popcorn kernels and some oil. The one problem with this is that I am terrible at making popcorn in a pot - I always seem to burn the popcorn in the bottom of the pot, and that pretty much takes the fun out of the whole thing.

However, they make this new-fangled West Bend Stir Crazy Popcorn Popper that uses oil and kernels to make it for you! It even has a mechanism in the bottom that stirs the kernels around! It's really cool! You can even melt pats of butter on the top which melt and drip onto the popcorn below as it's popping. Then when it's finished, you invert the whole thing and voila! A bowl of buttery popcorn that isn't 3,000 calories, won't give you cancer if you breathe in the steam and cost pennies to make! Sweet!

We just added a little salt and it was super yummy! Just like making it in a pot, except it wasn't black on the bottom, ha ha!

How do *you* make popcorn?

The end.

Cat Clothes

2011-12-28T15:19:00.002-05:00

I've had a few pictures on this blog now with Angel Kitty wearing "Clothes". But this is by far her cutest outfit - it's a little pink button down sweater!!! It's SO CUTE!

She doesn't seem to mind wearing "clothes". I actually looked around at Christmastime hoping to find some "clothes" for cats, but I could only find dog clothes. The clothes we've put on Angel are mostly Build a Bear clothes, or doll clothes. We have a little Santa hat that we actually put on both the cats, but I didn't take pictures (I know!). I bet she'd even look cute in some Roberto Cavalli Sunglasses! She is really the sweetest, most tolerant kitty. :-)

I'd love to find clothes that are actually designed for cats...Do any of you know where one could get clothes for cats? A website? A pet store?

The end.

Caught Ya!!!

2011-12-28T15:12:00.001-05:00

Ok, this isn't as bad as smuggling la flor dominicana cigars or weapons on to a plane, BUT I caught the Husband sneaking my carrot wheels before dinner was served!

GUILTY!

He thought he was so clever hiding behind his laptop at the counter, but I was on to him! In his defense, he was hungry. :-) You should have seen how many forks of mashed potatoes he had too, lol...

Actually that is something I have such a hard time with - refraining from eating the food I'm cooking before I even sit down to dinner! My grandma was notorious for this, lol. Must be in my genes, so it's not really my fault, right? :-D

The thing is, sometimes you *do* have to taste the food you're making to make sure the seasonings are right. You just have to have the self control not to go past the "testing" phase, lol!

Do you eat the food you're cooking while you're making it?

The end.

Angel Kitty Enjoying the Fire

2011-12-28T14:58:00.000-05:00

Here in the northeast we haven't had any real snow since the October snowstorm. However, the weather this week has been really dreary and gray. The Husband has made some fires for us, to cozy up the joint. There's Angel Kitty in her little shirt, enjoying the warm, crackling fire. Cats just seem to love heat. In our old house we had a wood burning stove and our old cat Basil used to nap pretty much UNDER the woodburning stove while it was ON! Used to scare me, but as much as I'd pull her out of there, right back she'd go.

Do your kitties love the heat too?

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My First Homemade Christmas Dinner!

2011-12-28T14:52:00.000-05:00

We always used to travel to someone's house for Christmas, until a couple of years ago. Then we started spending Christmas at home, just the three of us. Which is fine because it eliminates any drama, hurt feelings, or wondering where we are going to go for the holiday. Much simpler this way.

We used to just have appetizers and whatnot all day, which was great. But for some reason, this year I had the urge to make a roast beef dinner.

I have a really good recipe using and eye round roast. It uses bacon.

Look! I didn't overcook it! It was a Christmas miracle! And there was bacon.

I even successfully made homemade gravy. I made (homemade) mashed potatoes and "wheels" (fresh carrots cut into circles - it's time consuming but it tastes better because it's made with love). (We only had to wear a holter for 24 hours afterwards to make sure our hearts kept beating after all that red meat and bacon, ha ha!!)

What did you have for Christmas dinner?

The end.

Oldie But Goodie - Deviled Eggs

2011-12-28T14:34:00.000-05:00

We often are asked (or expected, lol) to bring the deviled eggs to family gatherings. These are the deviled eggs I brought for Christmas Eve:

I even have a really great Pampered Chef dish that has rounded forms to hold the eggs, AND the holder itself is an icepack, which keeps the eggs nice and cold.

If you look for deviled egg recipes you'll find all kinds of funky things people add - pickle juice, relish, vinegar, dried mustard, you name it. Recipes just can't be simple anymore - everyone's gotta add their "take" on it.

Well, our recipe - which everyone raves about - is just egg yolks, salt, pepper and mayo. THAT'S IT. Can you believe it?!?!?!?! The way grandma used to make it! Don't be adding new fangled crap to put your own "twist" on it - IT DOESN'T NEED IT! :-P

(Of course when "grandma" used to make it, one would be out in the fields later working off all those calories. Nowadays you'll have to find a gym in richmond or your own town or whatever to work off those deviled eggs, ha ha!)

Ok, tell me how you make YOUR deviled eggs. I promise I won't berate you. :-)

The end.

Don't Make Christmas Breakfast Before You've Had Your Coffee

2011-12-28T14:18:00.000-05:00

Because you might forget an ingredient. In this case it was the CHEESE!

It was still good, but would definitely have been better with cheese, because what isn't better with cheese?!?

That's a brand new pan I even bought to make it. My old 11x7 metal pan bit the dust and became a grease catcher for our BBQ up at our Adirondack cabin. I haven't had to buy a metal pan in ages and I don't know what kind of metal this one is made of, but it seems very sturdy. Almost like the feel of the kind of metal they use on metal buildings, like for storage or whatever. Hopefully it won't rust for a long time.

Anyway, there was some leftover and when I reheated it I put cheese on top. Because what doesn't taste better with cheese on top?!? :-)

What did you have Christmas morning?

The end.

Baby Jesus in His Manger

2011-12-28T14:11:00.002-05:00

Just thought I'd share this shot I took - I noticed after I took it that there was an angel hanging on the tree right above him!

Ok, so I love my iPad, but Jesus is DEFINITELY the BEST present! :-)

The end.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-28T14:05:00.000-05:00

I hope those of you who celebrate Christmas had a wonderful holiday! I have lots to share with you from our celebration.

Just to sort of finish the broken Christmas tree saga, here is our Walmart $88 "Donner Fir" in all it's cheap glory on Christmas Eve with the presents under it:

You can kinda see Baby Jesus at the front in his cardboard manger, wrapped in a 1970s afghan. Hey, I did the best I could with what I had!!

Christmas Eve is traditionally spent at my Dad's house. My brother and his family come over, and this year my step-mom to be was there as well. It was a very nice evening. My gift from my Dad for Christmas (and my next birthday and...lol...) was an iPad2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My favorite app so far is "Words With Friends" and it has been a veritable "Words With Friends Festival" around here the past few days. (If anyone wants to play with me, apparently my user name is this: Carolesthought.)

Christmas morning was really nice. The daughter is older now and instead of just ripping all the paper off and making a gigantor mess (that I'd want to hire cary cleaning services to clean up!), we go around in a circle, taking turns and kind of "savoring" each gift, and having the chance to see what each of us got.

What was your favorite present that you got for Christmas?
If you have an iPad, tell me your favorite apps!

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What I'm Making for Christmas Breakfast

2011-12-24T14:16:00.002-05:00

Picture from http://alskamom.wordpress.com/

I saw this at the At Home in Alaska blog (although she apparently got the recipe from Pillsbury). It's called "Bacon Cheese Pull Aparts" and it's what I'm making for Christmas breakfast. Alaska is always baking the most appealing, mouthwatering stuff - if you like to bake you should definitely check out her website! I gain five pounds just visiting her blog, lol! I go right from her blog to Weight Watchers or bike racks at cracksandracks.com to try to balance things out, ha ha!

We never used to be that big on Christmas breakfast until a couple of years ago when we started celebrating Christmas at home and I was looking to start some new traditions. Our usual plan for the day is after breakfast and presents, to shower and change into new Christmas jammies and play Wii all day. This year I'm even going to try to make a really nice dinner, rather than just snacks and appetizers - I'm making a roast beef from a good recipe I have. Just praying I don't over or undercook it, in between MarioKart and Just Dance, ha ha! Oh, and also a chocolate cake for dessert. Recently I had the best chocolate cake I've ever had, and I was lucky enough to get the recipe. I am already thinking about that chocolate cake.... :-D

What are you making for breakfast Christmas morning? How about Christmas dinner? Do you have a traditional dish, or do you like to change things up every year?

The end.

Something Tells Me This Kitty Isn't Getting Anything From Santa This Year

2011-12-23T10:39:00.003-05:00

What a heart warming holiday photo!

I bet Santa sure has some fascinating stories to tell about things that have happened to him while visiting with children and pets. And there probably isn't even any insurance that covers things like children vomiting all over your suit, cat scratches or ear-splitting screaming children. That Santa sure is a tolerant guy to sit through all those holiday photos.

Speaking of holiday photos, did you hear about the Eagan Family Christmas cards? The Eagans are a family from Minnesota that dress up (even as adults) for Christmas themed photo cards every year. The Mom makes the costumes and the pictures are hilarious, but so well done! I think my favorite one is of all of them as snowflakes - they are all such good sports! If you haven't seen or heard about them, here's a link to a news segment and they show a whole bunch of the cards they've done over the years: Eagan Family Over The Top Christmas Cards. If you're experiencing holiday "stress", this will give you a much needed laugh!

The end.

More Thoughts Too Short for a Whole Blog Post - Christmas Edition

2011-12-21T16:03:00.001-05:00

Our $88 Walmart "Donner Fir". All decorated, it's not too bad, is it?

I was at a liquor store the other day to pick up some items, one of which was grenadine. I couldn't find it so I asked a grandpa-age gentleman who worked there and he led me to the shelf where they had a few different brands. He started explaining about each one, but I quickly interrupted him to say, "Oh, it's just for Shirley Temples". He immediately reached for the cheap, vat-sized bottle and handed it to me with a wistful smile. "Gee, can't remember the last time I got to make a Shirley Temple". Awwww.....

When our daughter was little, Santa used to wrap and leave gifts for Moocow too!

Speaking of Moocow, she laid in the manger while we put up the tree to keep the cats out of it until we could put it underneath. (She said it was very nice and that Baby Jesus will like it. :-)

Each Christmas, the Husband and I address the tags on the gifts we exchange with one another with all kinds of silly names and nicknames. Half the fun Christmas morning is picking up each package to see what the Husband has called me. (Or what name I've called him!) For example, early in our marriage the Husband used to complain that when I'd get out of the shower, the carpet and floor would be all wet, so he started calling me "The Watermonger" - and no doubt I will be getting a present addressed to "The Watermonger" this year.

In my travels as I've been Christmas shopping, I've been wishing people the politically incorrect "Merry Christmas!". SO THERE!!!

One year a neighbor who dresses like Santa Claus offered to come to our house in the wee hours of the morning so our daughter could "catch" Santa at our house delivering gifts (the real Santa had some earlier in the evening). So "Santa" comes in the front door, jingling some bells, stomping his feet a bit with some hearty "Ho Ho Hos". I'm standing outside the daughter's bedroom, watching for the moment when she awakes and realizes Santa is here. Nothing. The dog trapped in our bedroom is now barking up a storm, and I hear a few more louder "Ho Ho Hos" from downstairs and....nothing. Our daughter sleeps on. So I decide to go in and gently shake her and I say, "Santa's here, Santa's here!". Nothing. Finally I start shaking her vigorously and I start shouting, "SANTA'S HERE!! SANTA'S HERE!!" Finally she awakens, although by the look on her face I can tell there is zero comprehension of what is going on. "Why is Mommy shaking me and yelling in my face in the middle of the night??" I'm sure she wondered. Downstairs "Santa" jingles his bells again and lets out yet another few "Ho Ho Hos" and I finally see by our daughters face that SHE FINALLY HAS WOKEN UP AND REALIZED THAT SANTA IS HERE! Usually Santa has to sneak around quietly when he's delivering presents, but not at our house, sheesh!

Someday when I am ruler of the world, I am going to dispatch teams of people to go collect all copies of the songs: "Happy Christmas" by John Lennon, The Christmas Shoes sung by Alabama (or anyone else for that matter - TOO SAD!!!!!) and "Do They Know It's Christmas" by Band Aid. Then I will take every last cd, record, cassette and mp3 of those songs, pack them into a rocket, and shoot it to the farthest corner of the universe. This action will inevitably result in saving mankind from alien invaders as no life form would want to come here if that's the kind of music that will be playing. You're welcome.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! :-)
The end.

End of the Christmas Tree Saga

2011-12-19T22:07:00.000-05:00

We did get a Christmas tree after all.

"Donner Fir"

We were out and about on Saturday and took our lives in our hands and went to Walmart in search of a cheap, artificial tree. (Pretty much the only thing I can think of that's worse than trying to buy a Christmas tree the week before Christmas is trying to buy maternity clothes when you've reached the size of a whale.) They had one we thought was decent for $88. The way we looked at it was that a live tree usually cost us about $50, so if we bought this fake tree and used it at least two years, it was basically a wash.

I figured that if some ornaments and love could make the Charlie Brown Christmas tree look good, maybe the same would be true for our $88 Walmart special.

We put it up on Sunday and it's really not half bad. I'll take some pictures of it now that it's decorated and you can see what you think.

I tucked our little manger underneath it, all ready and waiting. (I didn't want to leave it out in the open - I am a tiny bit worried one of the cats might not know it's a manger, and instead mistake it for a type of "box" they're more familiar with. Better to be safe than sorry I always say!)

The only thing I'm a little worried about in regard to this tree is that the name of this particular tree is "Donner Fir". Which reminds me of the fateful "Donner Party". I hope that there is nothing about this tree that has anything to do in any way with that terrible story! Like, I hope we don't have some terrible blizzard Christmas week, and run out of food and resort to...well, nevermind!

The end.

Christmas Came Early!

2011-12-15T21:20:00.003-05:00

You might be expecting that with a title like that, I'm going to be telling you I got some great early Christmas present. Well, I did - but not in the way you are thinking.

You see, I find it so hard to keep my focus on the "reason for the season" during Christmas. So much busy-ness, so many gifts to buy, cookies to bake, house to decorate, family friction to deal with, and parties, parties, parties. I've noticed that I'm not thinking about Baby Jesus while I'm waiting on line at the crowded mall, nor do I feel much of a divine spirit of peace and joy while singing "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" in the car while I'm sitting grumbling about the holiday traffic.

It's hard to experience the real meaning of Christmas in the midst of it all. For me, anyway.

However, about a week ago I went to a local coffeehouse to hear a friend of mine and her group perform. Admission was free. I happened to discover some other friends of mine were there, and they made room at their table for me. The first half of the concert was worship music and songs from the group's CD. The second half was a Christmas Carol sing-a-long. As I sat among friends, I realized it had been a long time since I really, really listened and took to heart the words of the Christmas carols I'd sung hundreds of times. And then I had my Christmas moment. Like the Grinch said, "It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!" Singing songs praising the good news of Jesus' birth, and thinking about how all that the prophets foretold had come to pass, a baby born who came to save us all - appreciating the greatest gift God could give us - His son. And what that means to me. In the famous words of Linus: "That's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown."

So as you know if you've been reading my blog lately, we currently don't have a Christmas tree (the new one we bought turned out to be defective and we had to un-decorate it and return it. Yeah, I was *so* pondering the real meaning of Christmas during that whole nightmare, NOT! lol...). I got to thinking, I wonder why in the world do we put presents under a pine tree for Christmas anyway?? (YES I KNOW I COULD GOOGLE IT AND FIND OUT but the point is, it's some age-old tradition whose meaning has been long since forgotten.) If anything, wouldn't it make more sense, if we're going to put presents under or around something, to put the presents out for Baby Jesus instead of stick them under a pine tree??

So, although I'm sure we'll still get a tree (don't get me wrong - I love all the fun Christmas traditions just like the next person), I decided that I was going to make a manger to put by the tree, to help us to remember - it's not all about the presents or the tree - it's about Jesus being born! I rather tentatively told my (almost) 13 year old daughter about this idea, and instead of her all-too-common-lately response of rolling her eyes at me as I'd expected, she thought it was a great idea! Once I regained consciousness at the surprise that my "tween" thought I in fact actually had a good idea, my daughter and I found a suitable cardboard box. I made it into a manger using glue, construction paper and packing tape (I was an art major in college you know, although believe me I won't be out looking for business funding to start a Mangers-R-Us or anything). We filled it with raffia to look like hay. Then we went into the basement and dug out her bin of old "baby dollies" and picked one out to be Jesus.

So whenever we figure out what we're going to do for a tree, we're going to put our little manger by the tree - empty, waiting. And Christmas morning I'll put our Baby Jesus in the manger so in the midst of the wrapping paper, ribbons and tags, we'll be sure not to forget He is the best present of all! :-)

The end.

My Bakery Crew

2011-12-15T19:10:00.003-05:00

Here was my bakery crew:

That's my daughter, American Girl Gwen, and Moo Cow (of course). (Baking is hard work so a little slice of pizza was in order, before we started.)

Two days and lots of messes later (but only one unplanned visit to the grocery store!), the finished products:

That should be enough for three people, huh? LOL....

The end.

My Homemade Cookies Actually Look Homemade

2011-12-15T15:44:00.000-05:00

Not that that's a good thing, ha ha!

Well although we are in modern times, at least the cookie cutters still have the old fashioned familiar Christmas shapes. (Well, maybe not the cow so much, but c'mon, you know *my* family would have to have a cow cookie cutter!) Wouldn't it be funny to come out with "modern" cookie cutters? And they could be sponsored by companies too! How about a "Toshiba Laptop cookie cutter", or "The iPad 2 cookie cutter" (time to throw out last years 1st Gen iPad cookie cutter), or "lg phone batteries cookie cutter", or the "Directv Satellite Dish cookie cutter", lol!

At least thank goodness some thing stay the same!

Oh and let me just show you one of the cookies the Daughter did - I thought it was particularly nice...

Moo Cow approved. :-D

The end.

Vegetarian Gravy???

2011-12-15T15:28:00.000-05:00

I am constantly amazed by the things I don't know about.

I saw a post earlier today on a message board I frequent. It was asking for a recipe for "vegetarian gravy".

???

Ok, first of all, isn't some sort of "meat juice" like, the main component of gravy? But ok, ok - I can imagine there must be some creative ways to make gravy without meat...

However, what on earth would you put "vegetarian gravy" on??? Isn't gravy generally for...MEAT??

I shouldn't be surprised. I couldn't believe it when Discovery Channel came out with the show "Gold Rush" and I found out that there are actually people still looking for gold in Alaska! (Love that show, btw!)

I couldn't believe it when I found out people make a living out of scouring beaches with things like garretts metal detectors - and how much stuff they find and money they make! (I don't want to link any sources here, but if you google making money using a metal detector, you will be amazed at what people are doing.)

I remember when I was first married and I couldn't believe that the potatoes are included in the box of "Scalloped Potatoes"! That was a good one...

So, does anyone know what you'd put vegetarian gravy on? Tofu? Tofurkey maybe? You know, that is just too much trouble. If you're not going to eat meat, then don't go through all this effort to make fake meat and fake gravy. That is just TOO silly.

The end.

Do You Ever Wonder if What You Do Matters??

2011-12-15T07:57:00.002-05:00

Hey, be glad I took a picture of the *clean* laundry piled up instead of the dirty! :-)

Sometimes I look around at my friends' and family's accomplishments...Whether it be in their career, or Christian life, or even as parents (I have two friends that have FOUR children AND homeschool them all for Pete's sake!), I think to myself that my "accomplishments" sure seem mundane. Gee, I got all the laundry done...made dinner...picked up the Daughter from school...took some senior citizens shopping...uhhhh.... Presumably when our daughter is older I'll go back to work but I don't even know what I want to do! Go back to being a secretary? Look into Nursing Aide Jobs? Go to the employment agency and take my chances?

I don't feel like I'm a "Superstar" at anything, and I'm not sure I'll ever be one...

Well lately there's been this song on the radio that makes me feel better about the "little" things I do. Whether you're a man or a woman, working on Wall Street or flipping burgers, if you ever wonder if what you do matters at all, maybe you'll like this song too. (At the end is a link to a YouTube video that plays the song and displays the lyrics, if you'd like to hear the actual song. The video is really nicely done, and it's a really good song, to boot!)

Steven Curtis Chapman - Do Everything

You’re picking up toys on the living room floor

for the 15th time today

Matching up socks and sweeping up lost

Cheerios that got away

You put a baby on your hip and color on your lips

and head out the door

And while I may not know you I bet I know you

Wonder sometimes does it matter at all

Well let me remind you it all matters just as long as you

Do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you

Cause He made you to do

Every little thing that you do to bring a smile to His face

And tell the story of grace

With every move that you make

And every little thing you do

Maybe you’re that guy with the suit and tie

Maybe your shirt says your name

You may be hooking up mergers, cooking up burgers

But at the end of the day

Little stuff big stuff in between stuff

God sees it all the same

And while I may not know you I bet I know you

Wonder sometimes does it matter at all

Well maybe you’re sitting in math class

Maybe on a mission in the Congo

Maybe you’re working at the office

Singing along with the radio

Maybe you’re dining at a five star

Or feeding orphans in Myanmar

Anywhere and everywhere you are

Whatever you do it all matters

So do what you do and don’t ever forget

to do

Everything you do to the glory of the One who made you

Cause He made you to do

Every little thing that you do to bring a smile to His face

And tell the story of grace as you do

Everything you do to the glory of the One who made you...

Click Here for the Video with Lyircs

The end.

Artificial Christmas Trees Made in the USA

2011-12-15T07:05:00.001-05:00

My sister-in-law, upon reading our Christmas tree plight, recommended to me the company that her artificial tree is from - she said theirs is a "Mountain King" tree, which is sold by uschristmastree.com. She said their tree is very life-like and beautiful and in great shape - and it's over 10 years old. Also, she pointed out to me that the trees from this company don't contain lead - this wasn't even something I realized I had to worry about. Their trees are made from recycled materials, and of course provide jobs for Americans.

(On a side note, in some of the testimonials, I noticed some people were commenting how lightweight the trees are, and that they appreciated that. After manhandling the defective Martha Stewart tree, and practically needing to attend a Back pain seminar afterwards, I can now appreciate that too!)

Anyway, I am going to call them today just out of curiosity, to see if they could still ship one here in time for Christmas, in case this is what we decide to do. But I figured after buying a tree that broke in less than 30 days made in China (surprise, surprise), I thought maybe like me, some of you would be interested in checking out an artificial tree made in the USA (this isn't a paid post, btw).

In the meantime, I have made a manger our of a cardboard box, glue, and packing tape. I'll explain what that's all about in another post.

The end.

2011 Gingerbread House

2011-12-14T19:18:00.000-05:00

Every year I am a lame Mom and instead of doing a homemade gingerbread house, I buy a kit and my daughter makes that. (It's ok because the pre-baked kit one probably has a far greater chance of success than if I tried to make one myself, ha ha....) Anyway, if you've ever thought of trying one from a kit it's fun and not terribly time consuming. The last few years I have bought the Wilton gingerbread house kit - it's the best of the ones I've tried. Anyway, here's the before:

And here's the after!

And incidentally, I un-decorated our defective Martha Stewart Christmas tree and returned it to Home Depot this morning without incident. Not sure what we're going to do for a tree.

The end.