A ray of sun!

Today at work I had the most awesome ray of sunshine on a cloudy rainy day! My friend Jenna came in to get a cup of iced green tea. What's so remarkable about that you ask? Jenna hasn't been in the store more than maybe 5 times in the last 4½ months because she is battling stage IV metastasized breast cancer. Wednesdays are usually some of the worst days for her because it is the "hit day" post chemo on Mondays! She drove herself in today (she said it was only the 2nd time out alone!) and she looked GREAT! It made my day to see her and to know that she is doing so well despite and in spite of this thing called cancer! I know she is doing the best she can to support conventional therapies with good nutrition and quietness and a very strong, positive attitude. I applaud her and continue to wish her the very best and am thankful to be a part of her circle of friends as she fights this! It truly made my day to see her so perky today! What brightens your day? Pull up a chair, grab your cup of tea, or coffee, or hot cocoa, or diet Coke and share!

So much fun!!

What a FUN evening we had! Gordon, Ivona and kids came for a "small" dinner! We had nachos, salad, enchiladas and "killer" blackberry (and raspberry) crisp! (Oh, and Lainey -- I think I have to hate you again! That crisp is too good!!)
How I LOVE those little ones! They are so cute and so sweet and the closest "niece" and "nephew" we have! Since Ivona has no closer sisters, we claim each other as sisters and thus we claim our children as nieces and nephews, too! Tiana and Emily had fun playing dress up in some of Tiana's old clothes that are now used as doll clothes, or some that mommy just couldn't get rid of when they were outgrown! As we were cleaning up the dinner dishes, all of a sudden we heard the most "beautiful" music coming down the hall way! And who should appear?...



Later while the girls kept playing some more, Jonathon entertained us with his bright blue eyes while he played on the blanket in the living room.


It seemed the evening passed so quickly. Guess that means we need to get together more often! I'm thinking there are a few other babies around that we don't know well either -- hint! hint! J & T!!! Oh, but 'til almost soup weather so we'll be able to start the fire and have soup dinners! AHHH! I LOVE that part of fall! Hope you'll be able to join us!

To see the full evening's entertainment, click here

So, whatta ya think?

Should I update this blog or leave it as is? Alright, an update is in order. What a busy couple of weeks! School has brought untold little things -- more supplies, open house, babysitting 3 nights a week, drama, you name it! And it's getting worse! Tonight it involves shopping before open house so that next week's Spirit Week Twin Day will truly allow 2 girls to be twins! Oh, boy! The weather has been so much nicer than during the summer and that means the girls are wanting to be at the park all the time -- um, what about homework?!?! Thankfully, the homework load has been fairly tolerable so far -- at least that's what we are being told!

A couple of weekends ago I had the AWESOME first-time-in-over-13-years privilege of a couple of days (mostly) and a night alone by myself, no hubby, no daughter, only a bunch of other girls (AND DAD!!). WOW!! I might have to make a "habit" of that! It was rather refreshing to say the least. I drove to Mom and Dad's and helped mom with Amy's bridal shower. What a fun night and happy occasion!!



Must also tell you about my crazy dad that weekend! His company was having a Western Themed company picnic, for which costumes were encouraged. So, my dad built this stick horse on training wheels out of plywood and frayed rope. The horse's name is Sliver (no, not Silver) and Dad's cry was, "Hi Ouch Sliver!" And (please, don't take offense here -- it's really a funny pun!) he said that Sliver was a narrow-minded (read: single sheet of plywood!), pain-in-the-butt (hence his name!) horse!! Dad also wore his Pixie (dachshund) shirt and put a piece of tape on it that said "Loong little doggie"! (Said, of course, with a western twang!) What a goofball! Here he is riding Sliver!


The next week found Kent flying to California to help his mom pack up her things and move to central Oregon to be near her sister. Tiana and I then drove down there on Friday after school to help with the unloading and unpacking. That let Tiana have time with some of her favorite cousins and we got to enjoy time with them, too. We got mom moved into her cute house (notice I didn't write "little" here! It's bigger than our's!!) and even somewhat unpacked! It was a busy weekend, but wonderful and the fellowship was as sweet as the friendship!




Now we're back to the grind stone. I really need to do the mundane laundry bit, make some cards, MAIL some cards(! Funny how many get made and then sit around forever!), make some zucchini bread (bless those whose gardens produce!), and get a walk in. Only 2 weeks until the big half marathon again! Oh, and gotta make some more plans for that! Wow, the pressure is on! Anyway, hope all is well with you and we look forward to hearing from you!

Oh, and, as a post script to the bridal shower -- Congratulations to Amy and Larry as they start their new lives together!

School Days

I smell a difference today! I think it is the start of a new school year! Alarms went off this morning in every room of the house, it seems, and then sister left with a huge brown growth on her back! She left kinda early for her, too! I'm not used to seeing her out of bed before about the middle of the day! The cool thing -- it means breakfast a little later, or maybe just consistently about the same time every day! In the summer I have to eat SUPER early if dad feeds me (mom wouldn't dare wake me up as early as she's up!!), or super late if everyone sleeps in! Now my tummy will be happy!

It's been a long time since I was here! Boy, let's see, I've chased a TON of squirrels, barked at lots of people and dogs in the park, tasted a few of the blackberries that are ripening all around us, played with Pixie when Grandma and Grandpa came to visit this last weekend, rode in the car to the hamburger place (they forgot MY order!), slept -- A LOT!!! Seems sister had her friend here a lot, too, so that gave me a new face to lick! She's also going to have another little friend visit a few days a week after school. I'm so excited! I really like the younger set! Their faces are closer to my licker!!! WooHoo! Funny, though, mom gets after me! I don't get it!

Well, I don't know what else to say. Seems summer is gone and fall is beginning and maybe you just need to see these pictures to know what I'm talking about:


Typical pose -- phone at the ear!



"Oh, MOOOOM!! Do we HAVE to do this?!?!"



"Don't make me laugh!"

Loving Summer Fruit Desserts!

Maybe you are enjoying the seasonal berries as much as I am! I found this recipe, tried it once, turned it upside down one too many times, and so HAD to try it again! I took this on our camping trip, but it didn't survive the drive up, it ended up turning upside down one more time -- all over our stuff and in the back of the truck! Bummer! What could be salvaged was so delicious that I KNEW I had to make it again! Elaine liked it, too, so here -- I share it with you! And it comes from Cooking Light so it can't be bad for you!!

Summer Fruit Upside-Down Cornmeal Cake

1 c. (¼-inch-thick) nectarine slices
1 c. blueberries
1 c. raspberries
1 tsp. lemon juice
Cooking spray
1 Tbs. butter, melted
1 c. plus 1 Tbs. sugar, divided (I use less than the full cup and it's fine!)
1¼ c. flour
½ c. stone ground yellow cornmeal
1½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
5 Tbs. butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350º. Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl; toss gently. Coat a 9" cake pan with cooking spray. Brush pan with 1 Tbs. melted butter. Sprinkle pan evenly with 1 Tbs. sugar. Pour nectarine mixture into pan in an even layer. Set aside.

Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in a bowl, stirring well with a whisk.

Combine remaining 1 cup (or less) sugar and 5 Tbs. butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well combined. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture to butter mixture; beat just until combined. Spoon batter evenly over fruit mixture.

Bake at 350º for 40 minutes or until cake is set and light brown. Cool in pan on a wire rack 5 minutes. Place a plate upside down on top of cake pan; invert cake onto plate. Serve warm or at room temperature. Yield 12 servings.

Calories: 221, Fat: 6.8g, Protein: 3.2g, Carb: 37.4g, Fiber: 1.2g

Still Alive!

Yes, it's true, we're still alive! Not that you'd know by the lack of evidence here on the blog, but we are! It has been a very busy last couple of weeks (has it really only been 2 weeks?!?!)! After our lovely camping trip we came home to turn around and leave again the next weekend for convention. Between the camping trip and convention I was originally scheduled to work a whoppin' 2 hours! I was fine with that, but my manager decided that wasn't fair to me and so he gave me 9.5 more and that really put me a bit behind! Oh, well, we managed alright! Convention was absolutely wonderful, as always, and I learned that I have A LOT to work on! Thankfully, there's plenty of grace and strength that comes with the changes that need to be made. While there I got to meet Katrina and her family and that was just lots of fun! I hope we can get together sometime and spend some time drinking coffee and playing with paper! Not sure what the men and kids will do, but I'm sure we girls will find lots of fun stuff to do and talk about! We also brought home a "stray" family who were visiting from southern California. They are good friends of Kent's good friend from his younger years. It was fun to have them and their 3 kids here. They shared some of their wonderful home-grown fruit with us and also included Tiana on a Boeing plant tour. After they left, we also had the privilege of helping Bonnie and Larry during his hospital stay by taking their houseguest from Kazakhstan out to dinner. It was good to see Amir again. He'd been here before and in Meeting with us. That was also a very busy week for both Kent and I at our jobs. I worked a number of early morning opens and he worked ALL day from Wednesday on, so that Paul could go to convention that week. I did manage to get quite a bit of crafting done -- something I hadn't had the time to do for too long! I'm still a bit behind, but not as far as before! Now we're just trying to get some last minute stuff done before school starts. I have some sewing on the agenda (why oh why?!?!), some cards still need made, and I really HAVE to get walking before that half-marathon that's fast arriving! We tried to walk, Lainey, Towa, T and I, but it just didn't happen today (I think the girls may have prayed for a deluge!), but that doesn't mean I shouldn't do something about it soon! Rain or shine!

So here's a bit of the creative side of things that have happened:




This was for Larry who was hospitalized with, what his daughter Michelle suggested, Squirrel's Revenge. Larry is doing better, so the card, from this Bandit Squirrel, said "i seek revenge You may have won this time, but I will be back! -- Squirrel" Pretty fun stuff!

Camp Cooking

Hobo Meatball Dinner (or Barbecued Meatballs)

3 lb. ground beef
1 c. oatmeal
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 (12 oz. ) can evaporated milk
1 c. cracker crumbs
1/2 c. chopped onion
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. chili powder

Combine all ingredients (mixture will be soft) and shape into walnut sized meatballs. Place meatballs in a single layer on a waxed-paper lined cookie sheet; freeze until solid. Store frozen meatballs in freezer bags until ready to cook.

For barbecue sauce:
2 c. catsup
1/2 tsp. liquid smoke
1/4 c. chopped onion
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

To make sauce, combine all ingredients and stir until sugar is dissolved. Place frozen meatballs in a 9x13x2 pan. Bake at 350º for 1/2 hour. Bring out of oven and drain off any grease in pan. Pour on sauce and continue to bake for another 1/2 hour. Makes 80 meatballs.

For Hobo Dinner:

Place on foil square:
1 potato, diced
1/4 c. coarsely chopped onion
6-8 baby carrots
6 meatballs
salt and pepper to taste
other seasonings -- let your imagination soar!
1 can cream of celery soup
1 packet dry onion soup mix

For 6 Hobo packets mix 1 can cream of celery soup with 1 packet of dry onion soup mix and place dollop of soup mixture on top of each packet. Seal packets well (maybe even double the foil) and place in the hot coals of the campfire, carefully turning frequently. Cook for 15 minutes or so until potatoes, carrots and meatballs are done! YUMMY! Just experiment -- it's camp cooking!

Tortellini with Zucchini/Pepper/Onion Sauté

Boil water in fire-proof cast-iron Dutch oven. Add packaged tortellini (Trader Joe's is really good!). Meanwhile, sauté zucchini, red peppers, onion, garlic and fresh basil in a bit of oil in another cast-iron skillet, stirring frequently to avoid burning the vegetables! Double yum!

I have to say, you have to work out the details of how to drain your pasta, which jar of sauce you will add, etc., but this was what yumminess we played with!