Our Royal Family

Our Royal Family

My Boy

My Boy
Age 14

The Countessa

The Countessa
Age 14

The Duchess

The Duchess
Age 13

The Princess

The Princess
Age 11

The Pooch

The Pooch
age 6

Miss Pooch

Miss Pooch
age 2

Monday, November 30, 2009

Friend Makin Monday

Another fun week of Friend Makin Mondays

1. Favorite website Pioneer Women

2. Favorite color PINK

3. Facebook? {Post a link or share your name if you want some new Facebook friends!} NO!!!!!!!!! I was being stalked on Facebook by a former classmate. Be careful ladies!!!!!

4. Favorite Christmas song? Winter Wonderland

5. Christmas tree: Real or fake? REAL!!!

6. Hottest celebrity? Harrison Ford

7. Favorite restaurant? A Local one called Buena Cerra. It burned down a few years ago, but nothing has replaced it as my fav yet.

8. Favorite magazine? Any Scrapbook mag

9. Favorite thing to drink around the holidays? Diet Coke

10. Favorite Christmas movie. A Christmas Story....."You'll shot your eye out!!"

Sunday, November 29, 2009

November 28, 1989

Twenty years ago I was a 16yr old teenager attending a party at the home of my best friends boyfriend. This was our typical Friday night activity. On this particular night a friend asked me what I thought was a very ordinary question.

"Of all the guys here tonight, who do you think is the cutiest?"

I looked around the room and saw, really saw, a guy I had seen dozens of times before, wearing a red button up shirt with a white turtle neck underneath. Pointing in his direction I said "Him."

Little did I know then, that simple question and my response would set in motion the rest of my life.

Later in the evening that same friend walked up to me and said "Here, hold this." handing me a bottle of beer. Yes we drank....shhhh don't tell my mom!!
I took it from her thinking it was her's. It was not, and minutes later I heard Red Shirt boy say "Who took my beer?"

My dear friend perked up and said "She did!" pointing to me.

I spent the rest of that evening getting to know Red Shirt boy, who I had known since elementary school, but had never actual met.

Two weeks later standing on my front porch he told me he loved me for the first time and he has continued to tell me that everyday for 20 years!!

He is my first and last love. He is my other half, He is my heart. He is my soulmate! To be corny and quote Jerry McGuire "He completes me."

Friday, November 27, 2009

I Am Thankful......

To be their mother.

To have him as my soulmate.

To have him as my big brother.

To be her aunt.


To be a part of this amazing family!

I am thankful for my life!

Turkey Day Fun



We spent Thanksgiving Day at my sisters home with lots of family and TONS of good food.....tooo much good food, I don't think I'll be eating for a week!


Our Hostess


My Girlies.


My Boy.


It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a friendly game of football.


The traditional after dinner snooze.


Fun with cousins.

All in all it was a great day! I am truly blessed to have a magnificent family!!

Monday, November 23, 2009

Friend Makin Monday



Another day of Friend Makin Mondays hosted here.

This week it's all about Thanksgiving!!

1. Turkey or Ham? Turkey
2. Favorite side dish? Mashed potaotoes with lots of butter and gravy
3. Favorite dessert. Chocolate cake, I'm not a pie girl.
4. Black Friday: Are you going or not? NOPE!!!
5. If so, what's on the top of your list?
6. Going out of town or staying close to home? Close to home, going to my sisters for dinner.7. Hosting or helping? Helping. I'm in charge of Mashed Potatoes!8. Name one family tradition at Thanksgiving. Hubby and I take the kids the day after Thanksgiving to get our x-mas tree and the kids and I wrap up all our Christmas themed books for our "Count Down to Christmas." We put all the wrapped books under our tree and each night from the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve the kids pick one book to unwrap and read as a family. We wrap "The Night Before Christmas" in a different paper then all the rest so that one is the last bookwe read. The kids love it and get excited to watch the books dwindle knowing it means Christmas is getting closer. It's our own kind of advent calendar.
9. What do you do after dinner? Just hangout and be lazy....sleep
10. What are you most thankful for this year? This year has been emotionally difficult with alot of ups and downs and I am MOST thankful that my husband and I have weathered the storms and are still standing!!!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Living the Crazy Life....


Life has been hectic this past week and I have barley had time to take a breath. Between running Girl Scout Fall Product sales for my daughters Brownie troop AND running it for my younger daughters Daisy Troop and getting ready for the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday I've had no time for blogging or anything else.

Today I'd like to introduce you to the Big Black Beast, our much adored 18month old 80pound black lab. He is wild, crazy, energetic, loving and loyal. When we brought him home last year I could carry him in one arm, now I couldn't lift him if I tried!

He lives for fetching and american cheese......the dog will do ANYTHING for a piece of cheese! Offer him a bisquit and he looks at you with big brown eyes and a tilted head as if to say "WHAT is THAT??!!" Cheese on the other hand he'll sit, lay down, roll over, speak, stand on his hind legs and even do jumping jacks!

Ok well maybe not jumping jacks, but the dog LOVES cheese!!!

PS
Don't mind the mud on his face in the photo, he had GREAT fun getting there!!!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

My Story

Tell about your engagement? How was the question asked, or was the question asked? How long was it between the proposal and the wedding?

The Proposal
In November 2006 The King and I had been dating for nearly 7 years, living together for 2 years, and I was beginning to despair of him ever asking me to marry him.
It was the week before Thanksgiving and I was having my nails done by my friend, Christy, at her house, for the upcoming holiday. For some reason the topic of discussion turned to The King and “When is he going to propose?” This was a question frequently asked by many of our friends and family.
“I have no idea. I’m beginning to doubt he ever will.” I responded to her.
“How do you feel about that? Would you stay together even if you didn’t ever get married?”
“Of course I would, I love him. Marriage doesn’t change that. But truth be told I WANT to get married, I want THAT commitment.”
As the evening progressed our discussions turned to other things and soon enough my nails were done and I got ready to head home. Her parting words to me were “Call me if he proposes!” And we both laughed.
I drove the 15 minutes home with marriage and a proposal far from my mind. My thoughts drifted towards what I was going to make for dinner that night. I arrived home to find The King already home and in taking a shower. I went in to let him know I was home.
“How’d your nail appointment go?” he asked from behind the shower curtain when I entered the bathroom.
“Good.”
“Let me see your nails.” He said peeking around the shower curtain.
I went over and put my hand up and he commented on the “ordinary” color I had chosen. In those days I was always trying out of the ordinary colors; blue, silver, gold, purple ect. That night I had chosen a soft pink.
I left the bathroom and returned to the kitchen to start dinner. I had decided on spaghetti. I started the water to boil and to get everything else out I needed when I heard The King call me from the other room.
“What?” I called to him.
“Come here.” He called back.
I returned to our bedroom to find him standing in the middle of the room wearing nothing but a burgundy towel wrapped around his waist and holding a red fake rose out to me. I laughed and took the rose. As soon as I had the rose I realized the top of it opened. So I opened it. Shining back at me was a platinum ring with a 3carat sapphire and 6 diamonds!
“WHAT is THAT!!??” I yelped. I was shocked I even had a voice at all.
“Will you marry me?” he asked laughing.
“Oh my God! Are you serious?! YES!!!!” I was crying uncontrollably and laughing all at the same time. I couldn’t believe he was truly asking me.
“Yes I’m serious!” he said as he took my hand to place the ring on my finger. “You opened the rose so fast I didn’t have time to get on one knee!” he laughed.
“I saw it opened.” I laughed. I was so happy I was shaking.
He lead me by the hand into the bathroom and he sat on the counter. He proceeded to tell me he had had the ring custom made and had picked it up from the jeweler early that day. His plan was to wait until Thanksgiving and propose in front of his entire family at Thanksgiving Dinner the following week, which was also our 7 year dating anniversary.
“I couldn’t wait.” He said a little sheepishly.
We embraced in the bathroom for quite awhile. He told me all about the jeweler coming to one of his landscape job sites with various stones and hand picking the sapphire, my favorite stone. He told me about working with the jeweler in planning the design. All of this had started 2 months prior. I was speechless!
My first phone call was to my friend Christy. I thought for sure she was in on the entire thing.
“NO!! I had no idea!!” she exclaimed when I accused her of “keeping a secret.” We laughed about how fate works and how bizarre it was that we had just talked about him not proposing.
Later that evening we drove to his parents house and much to my surprise, his mother new EVERYTHING. Although, she was surprised to find he had proposed before the planned date! She was laughing and was just a giddy as I was.
The following week, on Thanksgiving, his mom presented me with a gift. I was shocked to find it contained a cake topper I had fallen in love with several months earlier when she and I had visited Chinatown in San Francisco.
“You have no idea how hard it was for me to find that little shop again!” She laughed. “I knew I had to get it for you!”
It was a dress and tuxedo on headless garment racks. It was made of pink pearl with diamonds inset. I LOVED it the instant I had seen it in that little shop window. It was different and unusually.
Earlier in the week, after telling my mom and stepdad of our engagement, my stepdad had asked that we marry in his family church. I was delighted. It was a beautiful church. Now we had to decided on a date. I had always wanted to get married in September. My Dad had died in September so it was a month of sadness for me. I wanted something happy and joyful to take that sadness from it.
That Thanksgiving night at The King’s parent’s house, we discussed a date. Because I was insisting on a September wedding, which is also hunting season; the King, his Dad and his brother are all avid hunters, the date needed to be in between the closing of one hunting zone and the opening of another. Ultimately our date was based on the availability of the church, just by chance it didn’t interfere with hunting season.
The date was set for September 6, 1997. Just 9 months away!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Everyone has a story



Recently I read an article in Costco Connection about genealogy, family stories and recording family histories. It talked about the importance of recording your story for future generations. Genealogy has been a hobby of mine for many, many years so I understood the importance of recording my mothers story and my grandparents story but I had never really given "my story" much thought. This article got me thinking. I am a mother with 4 children, someday, God willing, I'll be a Grandmother myself. I suddenly realized recording "my story" is just as important as those of my mother and grandparents.
It just so happened that I have been in the process of making a gift for my mother to help her record her story. It is a journaling jar and a journal. I had typed up a list of over 200 questions for her to pull out of the jar at random and simply answer the question in her journal. I said to myself "I can use those journaling starters to write My Story!"
Over the last couple of weeks I have been periodically pulling out a question for myself. I have had so much pleasure going down memory lane and have decided to start sharing "My Stories" here. Come back tomorrow to read the first "My Story."
I encourage each of you to write your stories, feel free to use my starter questions as a jumping off point. And remember EVERYONE has a story!!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Oven Fried Chicken


This is a recipe I got off the back of a Bisquick box many years ago. It is great for picnics and taste excellent served cold (which is how I prefer it!) I've made this dish 100's of times and truth be told I rarly make it the same way twice.....it's that flexable!!

Here is the original recipe:
1Tblsp butter
2/3C original Bisquick Mix
2tsp paprika
1tsp salt
1tsp pepper
About 3lbs skin on chicken pieces thighs or legs are best)
Heat oven to 425. Melt butter in 13x9 baking dish. In a ziplock bag mix together Bisquick, paprika, salt & pepper. Drop chicken pieces into bag one at a time and coat completly with bisquick mixture. Remove dish from oven and coat entire bottom of dish with melted butter. Place chicken pieces skin-side down in dish. Bake for 35 minutes. Turn chicken over. Bake an additional 15 minutes.

Now alternative ways I've made it.
Double paprika for extra spice.
Add 1-2tsp of garlic powder.
Use Kosher salt instead of table salt.
Add 1tsp ground rosemary or other seasoning.
Add a Mrs.Dash seasoning for Chicken.

Like I said I prefer this recipe cold, but my kids and The King love it hot or cold.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Friend Makin Monday


Another fun Monday of Friend Makin Monday. Todays question:
What is your favorite candle scent?

My number one favorite is

Pumpkin Spice

Next Best is

Cinnamon-Apple

Next favorite is

Vanilla

My least favorite is

Anything floral scented. Gives me a headache like you wouldn't believe!!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Out of the Mouths of Babes


Here is a conversation between my 5yr old sometimes sweet, sometimes sour daughter.

After crawling into my lap and looking sweetly into my eyes she said "Your my best Mom ever!.....Maybe."

"Oh?" I replied, "Just maybe?"

"Yes. You are my best Mom ever!.......today." Still smiling sweetly.

"only today?" I asked.

"Yes." Smile still big as can be.

"What about yesterday?" I asked her.

Her smile was suddenly replaced by a very curious, possibly perplexed look as she replied "When was yesterday?"

I love that girl!!!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Managing Laundry

In a household with six people laundry has been a thorn in my side for as long as I can remember. I always felt like I was drowning in laundry....piles to wash, piles to fold, stacks to put away..it never ends!!!
Recently I came up with a system and amazingly I rarely think about laundry anymore. Here is what I do now:
WASHING/DRYING
I always start a load in the washer before I take the kids to school. By the time I return the first load is ready for the dryer and I can put a second load in the washer. I have both loads completely done by 10am, then I don't think about it the rest of the day.
Monday: 2 loads from master bedroom, 1 dark, 1 light
Tuesday: 2 loads from my two older daughters room; 1 dark, 1 light
Wednesday: 2 loads, one from my sons room, one from my youngest daughters room; 1 dark, 1 light
Thursday: 2 loads; 1 towels, 1 linens
Friday: 1 load; All whites
Saturday/Sunday: NO laundry!!
FOLDING/PUT AWAY
I fold all laundry in the bedroom it came from and place it on the bed. My kids are responsible for putting all their own laundry away when they get home from school.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon

Not your average time travel series!
I fell in love with this series during book two...."Dragonfly in Amber"
Diana Gabaldon, who I had the pleasure of meeting during her last book tour for "An Echo in the Bone" (book 7 in the series), has a talent for writing not seen very often. In the course of one paragraph she can make you laugh, cry and laugh again! Her characters are so true to life..and their time, that you become Claire.
I will be honest, these books tend to be heavy in detail, which if your like me I skip over the every detail of a wildflower in bloom, but everything else is SUPERB!!! This series is a must for any reader on your holiday shopping list, man or women!!
The series order:
Book 1 "Outlander"
Book 2 "Dragonfly in Amber"
Book 3 "Voyager"
Book 4 "Drums of Autumn"
Book 5 "The Fiery Cross"
Book 6 "A Breath of Snow and Ashes"
Book 7 "An Echo in the Bone"

Monday, November 2, 2009

Friend Makin Monday


I'm participating in a fun activity called Friend Makin Mondays. Hope you join the fun too. Here's my post for today......

What is your favorite Candy?

Reeses Peanut Butter Cups! I can't have them in the house because I can't NOT eat them!!!


Mounds is a VERY close second!!! Lov'em!!