Here we are again… I sit here trying to come up with words to say and yet they elude me. They are not there.
Just a few weeks ago my family was headed to a tumbling competition. Halfway through our drive hubby got a phone call. A friend of ours needed help and we weren’t able to assist. We weren’t home. That was the last time hubby heard his voice. The last time I heard his voice was a couple of weeks prior to that when he came to my house and I loaded him up with freshly made candied Jalapeños.
When they say life is short, that’s truly how it is… Life is short. There are days when I think, oh I can put that off until tomorrow, but there is no guarantee that tomorrow will come. That is a scary thought. (more…)
Let’s just put a disclaimer out here because… I know most people’s feelings about get together this year. They aren’t popular. I would also like to state that most of the people that were here have had Covid. No, we didn’t give it to each other… all at different times… so during this event, we had the immunity and no one got Covid at this event. Now that that is out of the way…
Friendsgiving 2020
So KW’s mom has a picture very similar to this at a Thanksgiving when she was about 18 months of age (so a bit younger than he is here…). We decided to recreate the picture. I really wanted to put the pictures side by side, but after digging through all of Deb’s photos, we couldn’t find Shaye’s picture like this… It also took a little convincing KW that this was okay to do, even though apparently he likes butter just as much as his momma did.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times… there’s something so classic and beautiful about a black and white photo. I recently watched The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Spoiler (but it’s an old movie so…)… at the end of the movie he photographs his brother’s wedding. All the photos they show were in black and white. I’ve always wanted to photograph a black and white wedding. Now, would I only want black and white wedding photos, probably not… BUT!!!!
October 10th, I got to photograph my husband’s friend since junior high’s wedding. It was pretty exciting. And while I edited all photos in color… I turned them all black and white too.
Oh… and if you notice below I have 3 cameras… I’m NOT a professional videographer, but I got to play and make them a video too. It was a lot of fun!
This weekend was special. It is our annual Trails for Kids fundraiser. If you have been here anytime at all… you know that usually, we have this ride in April. Also… this year has been “interesting” (to say the least!) so we had to postpone until this past weekend. All summer long we wondered if it would even happen. I mean seriously…
But the time came and it did, in fact, happen! I can’t give away any of the details on the ride just yet but know, it was a MAJOR success! That would be an understatement!
On Friday night of our fundraiser, we have a bake sale. A few years ago I had a chocolate chip cookie in a cast-iron skillet go for $130. Well, this year I had something go for more than that… but that’s another story for another time :). Yup, I’m mean.
Today I want to share a recipe I’ve shared before… BUT… the cool thing is this is perfect for camping. And since this fundraiser involves camping, what better time to share, am I right?
3-2-1 Cake Mix & Cake
Ingredients for Cake Mix Setup:
A box of Angel Food Cake mix
A box of your favorite flavor of cake (chocolate, funfetti, lemon, you name it!)
It’s so interesting the things that have come about this year. 2020, you’re sure keeping us on our toes. So one of the interesting things is the debate about gender reveals. Some love them and others think it’s wrong. I’m not sure why it’s wrong. I think it’s fun.
A friend of mine put out a Facebook request for cookies for a gender reveal. Someone mentioned me and that friend hit me up. Asked if I’d be willing to do them. Of course.
This poor blackberry bush kind of became a laughing stock at my house. Why? Well… because, here we are in June and I bought it at the end of April. So what? Well… I just planted it yesterday.
I know, I know. It’s been living in the pot that I bought it in. That’s not a good thing really. The root system gets used to that size and then the plant could be stunted. But I wasn’t really sure where to plant it.
Jody came over yesterday and she and I went around planting stuff. We planted Marigolds in the garden as well as a couple of pumpkin plants. And… we planted the infamous Blackberry Bush. FINALLY.
Some things to keep in mind when planting a Blackberry Bush: (more…)
This Memorial Day Weekend we found ourselves back at the lake. Last year we skipped out on the lake and went to KC house shopping, but this year, what is there to do?
We bought a camper earlier this year and had big plans for it. So far, the best it has done was to house my husband’s office when schools closed.
Finally, it got to move… And guess what, it didn’t crunch the cab of the truck! Yey!
And while we had plans to SCUBA dive this weekend, we had more fun on our boat. What? Yup, we got a boat. It’s not new… in fact, I’d call it vintage or classic… do they refer to boats like that? It’s a 1976 Baja. It was my grandpas. He passed away in 2010… The boat had maintenance done to it just before that. We pulled it out of the barn a few weeks ago, hubby changed the gas and she fired up. She has a few issues.
In fact, the drive cable broke. Simple fix and really one of the easiest things to go wrong. I wound up towing the boat back to shore on a kayak. (more…)
Back in 2009 a group of friends and I decided to start what we called Dinner Club. I have mentioned this a few times I know. It was a lot of fun. At that time we had a few “rules,”
A non-chain restaurant
Local – within about an hours drive or so
The dress was business casual or dressier
That was about it. Business casual consisted of the ladies in dresses of some sort and the guys in khakis and at least a polo or button-down. We had a few dinners where the guys wore suits. This is why my husband owns a suit. Although he never wore it to a dinner club.
Friends giving tends to be a newer concept. One that I really only remember hearing about maybe 10 years ago or so now. It’s quite interesting though that it has caught on. I mean truthfully a lot of people celebrated this long before it had a name/concept.
This year we decided to start our first ever Friendsgiving. After the interesting year we’ve had, why not. While the outcome of the year might not be what we all expected, we still have a lot of things to be thankful for.
We started a Facebook group to see who was bringing what. I kind of waited until everyone else picked an item before I spoke up with what I was going to make. At first, I thought I’d make bacon-wrapped green beans, but then I decided to go with the Green Bean Casserole. I found a recipe online to make it all completely from scratch. I didn’t get my green beans thoroughly cooked though, so they were just okay.
You will teach them to fly,
But they will not fly your flight.
You will teach them to dream,
But they will not dream your dream.
You will teach them to live,
But they will not live your life.
Never the less, in every flight,
in every life, in every dream,
the print of the way you
taught them will remain
~Mother Theresa
I truly am at a loss for words. The person who has spent most of her life talking about something… or so I get teased. And while I was shy as a kid, if I knew you, I’d talk your leg off. I’m still shy but I’ll still talk your leg off. Don’t worry.
I have spent the last few days engulfed in a man and his family. It’s hard to believe this man was only in my life for 6 years.
7 years ago January, my husband and I got the chance to try SCUBA diving. Honestly, I was so apprehensive that first day that I almost didn’t go. I thought it was a special thing that some friends were doing because of their family and that we were just inviting ourselves in. Turns out, it wasn’t that at all. We had so much fun that first time, we went the next month to try it again.
In June that year, we wound up going to the lake and helping out during one of their Underwater Safari Hunts. Of course, we weren’t certified SCUBA divers, so we could only help on land, but we jumped in no matter what and helped when/where we could. The next week we were signed up for classes. 2 classroom classes, 2 pool classes, and 2 days in the lake and we were officially certified SCUBA divers. (more…)
