been tagged

i have been tagged by miss rita

The tag works like this --
1.Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2.Open the book to page 123.
3.Find the fifth sentence.
4.Post the next three sentences.
5.Tag five people.

ok, um can't repeat this book, or this one - JUST KIDDING LOL!!! well, maybe
actually, the closest book to me is not one of mine. It is Double Fudge by Judy Blume

"i remember." he looked up at me. "how about you, pete? where you ever famous?"
ok, so that is four sentences, but i had to finish the quotes!! I tag - missy, jolene, mary, valeri, and jen!!

Older Layouts

i thought that i would post some of my favorite older layouts. i have many more than just this, but this is what i could get to quickly. there is a surprise in this slide show for missy!!! i have been getting my cute little punchart girls and boys from missy for a long time - all the way back to the jangle.com days lol! she is such a talented artists and i just love her paper piecings. i have purchased other paper piecings online and unfortunately never remember who they came from, but i can always tell one of missy's. now she is also making the cutest tear bears. i do have a post somewhere on this blog with pics of those that i have gotten from her. missy has an ebay shop, and if you want to visit her and get any of her gorgeous tear bear creations, here is her link http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=missymadeit
in the above slide show, there are layouts featuring a gingerbread man, a baseball player, raggedy ann - missy style and a little happy birthday dude. like i said, this is not all i have from her - i will post more as i get them ready!


also, in the news - lol - my friend mary has started a new blog which she will be reviewing some of the books that she is reading. i will also be contributing to this new blog with reviews. and since we both work in a book store, eventually, there should be a lot of reviews on this blog. mary typically reads cozy mysteries and i have been a bad influence on her and have gotten her hooked on paranormal romances - sorry mary - NOT!! lol!! she also keeps more up-to-date on author happenings and releases than i do, so if you are wondering about something - check out her blog and she may have already posted an answer. http://booksmaryfindsinteresting.blogspot.com/

new layouts for the week

these are the layouts i did this week - the grumpy so fits dh!!!! the sarah is for my bom - book of me - i want to do a page with each of the kids. and i know the first two in this post might seem a bit odd, but they are also for my bom. in an effort to start feeling better, i have decided that whatever lifestyle changes that i can make, i will do. and since the dishes were so yummy i had to scrap them. i am trying to journal on a daily basis how i am feeling and thought that this would be a good idea to remind me that is not hard to eat healthier. i have not journaled the names and details yet, but i thought i would add the recipes to the back of the page. and yes, i did make all of those dishes myself. we have been eating a lot of whole wheat pasta and shrimp lately. and i also found that when i made the fried rice, if i serve it as shown i don't need to have anything else with it. my kids thought it was cool to eat it like a taco in the romaine leaves. hey - whatever works - cuz eventhough we love egg rools and crab ragoon - i know we don't need the extra calories and fat. the marinara on the shrimp is a recipe from tyler florence at foodtv.com and actually the fried rice is from there too. it is from robin miller's show. of course i did have to change them a bit to fit our tastes - and boy did they taste good lol! the dish on the 2nd page is a recreation of something that my dh got at the outpost health food grocery store. if anyone would like the recipes, leave me a coment and i will post them in the next week.

this is going to be a very short post tonight - i have to go pick up my kids at the movies. s came home from work tonight and decided to take ty and al to the movies - how sweet!

almond blueberry cookies for valentine's day

so, dh and i were supposed to have a lovely romantic lunch for valentine's day and then he was going for a root canal - but they moved his appointment up to right after work so we had to postpone our lunch. he asked for it last night, but i would not make it because he could barely chew cottage cheese, let alone steak and i had gotten a bottle of wine - which is extrememly rare for us - and he was on pain meds, so i did not want to mix the two. he has already called me this morning to make sure that i was making it today lol. anyway i had already started this new recipe that i saw on everyday italian on food network, so i had to finish baking them. when i was making the dough i was drooling all over because they smelled soooooo yummy. i changed the recipe slightly, so if you want the original, you'll have to look it up on foodtv.com, but i don't think i changed it enough to change the taste from her recipe.

one of the changes i made was the amount of lemon zest - i could not find my zester, and my hands were not working well enough to cut it into small enough pieces.

next was toasting and chopping the almonds. mandi gave me the papmered chef chopper last year for my birthday - it is the most awesome thing for things like this - and if you don't chop toasted almonds often - it is easier to chop them after you have toasted them. they are at a softer stage while they are still warm.
you can see i couldn't the lemon zest very small, lol - but dh said it did not matter.


these come out to be pretty big cookies so i only put 6 on at a time. i used the big scoop from pampered chef and it makes the perfect size cookie - about 3 1/2 inches - YUM

and here is the final product - lol - they are almost gone - only made about 18 cookies, but that is ok. i like them because they are very fresh tasting with the blueberries and lemon. the only tip that i have is to use frozen blueberries - which i did - but i think using them less thawed out would be better. when folding them in mostly thawed, your batter will turn purple and that looks kinda funny. so i put mine in still half frozen. the batter has to sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes before baking, so they even if they do not completely thaw - your still sticking them in a hot oven. so here is the recipe the way i made it - like i said - not a huge change - only the extract, milk, and the addition of lemon juice. i also used a large scoop so i baked mine for exactly 15 minutes.

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg york

1/4 milk

1 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoons lemon zest

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/2 cup chopped almonds, toasted

1 cup frozen blueberries, just slighlty thawed and drained

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In another medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar using a hand mixer. Add egg and beat to incorporate. Add milk, almond extract, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold in the almonds, then the blueberries. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. When to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Dollop mix onto cookie sheets. Bake until golden brown around the edges, about 15 minutes.

what i am reading now

i am currently reading hunting the demon by jaci burton - awesome books - for any paranormal romance readers out there - you have got to pic up this series. you can find her books here - http://jaciburton.com/

this is book 2 in her demon hunters series and if you are a fan of sherrilyn kenyon, lora leigh, nalini singh, kelly armstrong, angela knight, shiloh walker, etc. you will enjoy burton's demon hunters. typically, she writes erotic romance for ellora's cave, which is where i first noticed her. i do read the ellora's cave books if they are a good story - just because they are paranormal does not mean i am going to read them. for those of you who do not know, ellora's cave is a company that is owned by jade black - who herself is an awesome paranormal author - and "specializes" in romantica. now don't get me wrong, there are greatly talented authors who write for her, but sometimes i want to tone/slow down the "extracirricular" activities. there are sometimes when too much is too much. i figure when the authors make it to mainstream publishing, that they won't have too much "extra"

leigh, knight and walker also write in the erotica/romantica genre but have many "mainstream" paranormal romance mass markets as well. burton has joined that group with surviving demon island - book 1 in the demon hunters series- i loved this book too - not too much "extra" but a very good story, and the "extra" that is there, is well, just hot. it has been one of the few para/suspense/romance that i did not know how it was going to end or who the bad guys/demons were - she did a wonderful job creating separate characters who added to the story - each held there place and were not there for just filler - in fact, there is no "filler" in this book - everything that happens, happens for a reason. and she continues the storyline in hunting the demon - including the same characters - for familiarity - but expanding on other characters and creating a new storyline. eventhough it is obvious that burton's plot is about hunting demons in both books, her stories flow in completely different directions, with different twists and turns that are mostly unexpected. in book 2, however, we go in knowing who the demon is that the hunters are watching, however, it twists from there - nothing is too predictable and that is one reason i will pick up anything else that she writes in this genre.

so everyone always asks, why paranormal romance - well, my answer is - why not - i need to relate at least a little bit to the story so most historicals are out for me - i can't stand most of them - although there are a few authors that i will read the historicals they pen. contemporary stories are good as long as they are from a favorite author, but i always end up feeling cheated that i never found a guy like that - who, by the way - only exists in those books lol - so in enjoying paranormal romance - i get the suspense without the scary - i get the fear without the horror - i get the romance without the "sigh" - i know that when reading about an uberly handsome and gorgeous and hot and sexy lol vampire i will never compare him to my dh lol haha - mine might bite my neck and he might be hot and sexy -(at least i think so) lol - but he his never going to walk the streets at night - be afraid of the sunlight and need blood to sustain his life - well other creatures blood lol

i do read other genres as well, but typically it is the para-romance or urban fantasy. i do love evanovich, carrington and some other mystery writers as well, and will post on them as i read their books. additionally, i really like fern michaels and debbie macomber - michaels writes a very empowering - woman can take care of themselves - type of plot - i.e, marriage game - will definately read more from her

working in the book store has afforded me the luxury of seeing all the books that come in and knowing what is hot and what's not - still on my reading list is

dream chaser - sherrilyn kenyon

a thousand splended suns - khaled hosseini

the food you crave - ellie krieger

happy for no reason - marci shimoff

hard to handle - lori foster

extreme danger - shannon mckenna

the audacity of hope - barack obama
don't bet against me - deanna favre

You Are a Strawberry

You are friendly, outgoing, and well liked by many people. You are popular, but there's nothing you ordinary or average about you. You a very interesting person, and you have many facets to your personality. Sometimes you feel very conflicted. Your different sides of your personality pull at you. You are a very sensual and passionate person. You are fiery... you can't help it. In general, you keep your passionate side under wraps. You are only wild in private.

What Type of Fruit Are You?

feeling old and sad :(

ok, so not technically old and sad, but have come to the realization that my kids are growing up toooo fast. i guess i never really noticed it with mandi because she has always been so grown up but my little sarahbear - i am not ready for that - ok, she has had boyfriends in the past but never anything that i even really thought about - they would just im each other or talk for 5 minutes on the phone - (i really lucked out, neither of my teenage girls like to be on the phone - sarah uses maybe - at the most - 20 minutes a month on her cell phone) - they never went anywhere or to each others houses. BUT tonight, we are sitting here watching jurassic park and at 8:45 p.m., my doorbell rings, and it is a BOY asking for SARAH - so i was like yeah she is here and then remembered that she was not home because she is working.

so why do i feel old, because my 14 year old baby girl is 1)working and 2)having boys come to the house for her lol. so this poor kid must think i am nuts because i was like yeah she is here and then i said she wasn't. i really thought he was asking for mandi who is 17 and i am used to people showing up asking for her. so then i looked at this almost 6 foot kids and said "who the hell are you" and then felt even older because he was like "i'm mike z. one of the twins who lives like 5 houses from you." OMG i felt stupid, i will just blame it on the fact that it is kind of rainy/snowy outside and that i was half asleep when the doorbell rang AND the fact that the last time i saw this kid he was playing basketball with jj and they were the same height and now he is probably 6 foot if not taller.

so then i asked him what he wanted with sarah this late and it was actually kinda cute lol - he wanted to know if she wanted to go bowling. ok, sarah is almost 15 but i am sooooooooooooo not ready for the whole dating thing. this is a kid that she grew up with, but never hung out with. he is a year older than her, and i know his parents and his two brothers, he does not drive and the best part - i know where he lives. sarahbear did mention that the twins were in one of her classes this semester and she thought one of them was cute - they are identical so i am not sure how she thinks only one of them is cute lol.

so how do i go from hey mike, the kid who used to play with my boys to hey mike the guy who wants to go bowling with my daughter UUURRGHHHH what would you do????

winter storm 2008 and some other stuff

what a winter storm! we still had about 8 inches from the storm on the 1st, and we had another 16 inches dumped on us yesterday - not that i mind much - i'm not going anywhere anyway lol - and living here all my life i - thankfully - know how to drive in it if i have to. i don't like driving right now becaue i can't turn my head far enough to see the blind spots in my truck so i have limited myself to take the kids to school and go to the grocery store. so these pics were taken during the day when it was still light out - we still got another 4 or so inches after these. it was so bad that the plows did not even go by because they were too busy keeping the main roads clear. we all knew we were going to get hit hard - all the malls were closed - most places did not open. the resturant that my girls work at, called at 9 in the morning to say they were not opening. the subdivision next to ours was out of power, but thankfully ours was not, however, we did lose cable and because we have the package cable deal - that meant our internet and phones were out for a while too - no big deal -we had other things to do - napping was good lol

in the top picture dh is actually snowblowing the street! he worked a 12 hour day before they finally shut down the airport, but they still had not plowed our street by 4. he got stuck in the middle of the street and mandi's bf was here and he pushed him out to the other street and then he had to snowblow the street to get to the driveway - you can see his car in the picture up against the curb - and then he and jake had to get the car unstuck from that spot to get it in the driveway - i think we got about 14-16 inches in all - there were some places just west of us that got over 20 inches.

so on tuesday night, ty had a spelling bee to attend - i was so proud of him - it was for students grades 5th -8th all competing against each other - which means the 5th graders were spelling the same words as the 8th graders. he did not win, but i think he did an awesome job - he came in 11 out of 43 and i can't even tell you the word he could not spell, because i can't spell it either lol - i have to be honest - we are a huge sports family - basketball - jj is on 3 teams - ty is on 2 teams - and al also plays - baseball/softball - both boys and sarah play little league and tournament ball and we can't forget football! so when ty said he made the district spelling bee, i thought it would be kind of boring and take forever, but i was soooo wrong - it was almost like being at a game - it was very suspenseful and i felt bad everytime a kid spelled something wrong - actually worse then when my 150lb 11 year old sacks a quarterback lol

had my 3rd mri finally on tuesday morning - had to postpone it once because i had a cold and could not stop coughing and then when i went at the rescheduled time i was still coughing so they sent me home - this time i took some nyquil when i got up and had a cough drop as i was walking in - made it through ok, the tech would stop between scans so i could cough and clear my throat so the exrays came out ok. i was hoping for some better news but i will go into that later :(

saturday was grandpa bob's birthday - he turn 66 - so we celebrated on superbowl sunday which was great because then i didn't have to cook - my mil got papa murphy's pizzas. we had not had them before and they are really good - they don't taste like delivered pizza - much better - i think we may start going there for pizza - there is one on the way home from dh's work so he can pick them up :)

i have been doing a little scrapping - nothing too fancy - mandi just brings a few things up and i work with that so if the papers look the same on more than 1 layout - they proably are lol - i also have not added and handwritten journaling yet. my fine motor skills still are not good - so my handwriting is almost unreadable - it is frustrating because even the typing is bad - i used to be able to type about 120 wpm and now - not - can't even hit a letter key and the shift key at the same time - i am really hoping that the b12 therapy works faster than they said it would cuz this is getting really old - although on the upside - i don't have to shovel lol

what flavor margarita are you

You Are an Orange Margarita

At first glance, you are very unique - but deep down you are still quite a traditionalist. A margarita may be "too fancy" for you, but you'll never turn a free one down.

What Flavor Margarita Are You?

new scrapbook pages

what year do you belong in

You Belong in 1998

With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good!

What Year Do You Belong In?