Friday, August 29, 2008

Thank-you!

This is just a quick post to all the ladies in my neighborhood, at book group and "girls night out" who make the effort to be friends with me. When we moved here three years ago we had a lot of people tell us "There are a lot of Mormons there!" (Yes, we actually knew that.) "They'll try to convert you!" (I'm not interested, so they can try....), and finally, "They move in their own circles so don't be surprised if no one is very friendly to you!" Now that one scared me. I'm not exactly a social butterfly, but I don't like being lonely either. And while there are people from my church around here, there aren't that many very close to where we live or that are in the same stage of life Brian and I are.

So to all my neighbors and friends who mostly care that I'm just basically a nice person, (you know who you are)

THANK- YOU!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Image tag

All of my answers are images found on Google images. Guess my answer based on the image below.How much do you know about me and how much do you understand from the pictures?


My Age:







First Name:




















Middle Name: (Good Luck, you may have to just guess!)










My Last Name:










Grandma's Name: (again, good luck!)



















Place I Was Born:




















Favorite Place: (If you don't know why, ask me sometime....)











Place I'd Like To Travel To:







Favorite Thing:









Past Pet:




















Past Love:










Favorite Food:








Favorite Color:









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Favorite Animal:








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Bad Habit:













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What I'm Doing Now:






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I tag: Wrena and Amy (and anyone who wants to participate)
What to do: Use Google Image Search to answer the questions above and have people guess the answers and leave them in your comments. You have to pick from the first page that pops up!

Friday, August 15, 2008

Batteries

Ian just brought me a battery and asked, "Does the pointy end go in the slinky way?" meaning does the positive side touch the spring when replacing the battery?

Husband Tag

This is my first attempt at a tag I hope I do it right.
What is his name? Brian
How long did you date? 1 1/2 years counting the engagement.
How long have you been married? 12 years
Who eats more sweets? HIM really! Truly! Honest! (sigh) Me, he couldn't care less!
Who said I love you first? He did.
Who is taller? He is.
Who is a better singer? Him, ask anyone who's ever heard us. He sings like an angel, I can't carry a tune in a bucket.
Who is smarter? With a Bachelor's in science and a Doctorate in Pharmacy I think he wins.
Who does the laundry? Me, but he has to carry it upstairs!
Who pays the bills? Him, my math skills are not worth the hassle
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Brian
Who mows the lawn? Brian, I don't do it to his exacting specifications.
Who cooks dinner? Me
Who drives? Brian.
Who is more stubborn? It depends on what we're being stubborn over.
Who kissed who first? He kissed me.
Who asked who out? He asked me out first, but then I asked him out to an event that happened sooner.
Who is more sensitive? Me
Who has more siblings? We're equal with a sister apiece.
Who wears the pants? Brian, I only own skirts.
Now you are all tagged! Copy and paste it to your blog!

Monday, August 11, 2008

BBQ Competition


Team name: HQO
Slogan: Gotta have it! Can't live without it!

Wow! What a weekend! We came home exhausted dirty and smelly. And we're ready to do it again!


It's a good thing we were only a couple of miles from home. Most of you know how organized and prepared Brian is for everything, and how I'm not. Well, we loaded up Simon's truck, Ben's trailer and my car and I still had to run home for knives, towels, ice and all sorts of other things.


Also there was the problem of the connection to the tail lights of Ben's trailer not fitting into the outlet on Simon's truck. So I had to follow close behind Brian in my car and hope I could figure out when to brake.


Brian and Ian at camp with our banner.


So we got there and set up camp and soon found out the promised electricity was not there. I had to run out and buy a generator. Having never bought one, or even seriously looked at one, I had no idea what to expect. I went to Lowe's and the cheapest one there was $400! The next two places I looked had them for $550 and $595 respectively. I finally found one at Harbor Freight Tools for $300 and bought that one. Then I had to go get gas and oil to run the thing. Then I had to get more gas because it held 4 gallons and my gas can only held 2 gallons. And still more gas so Brian would have some during the night. And so on!


After all this I thought, "Man, this is not going to work out at all!" Brian slept at the camp and Ian and I went home and the morning started off with me forgetting to get up and Brian calling in desperate need of gas! So I got Ian up we got dressed and ran out the door and returned to the campsite with the gas just as they were closing the road for a parade. The nice officer let me through though.

The rest of the day was marked by a lot of "hurry up and wait" as we would sit around 'till it was time to do something to the meat like turn it over or prepare it for turn in, and then sit around 'till it was time to do something else.

We made all of our turn in times. In fact it was hard to keep Brian from trying to turn them in early! Chicken was at 2:00, Ribs at 2:30, Pork at 3:00 and Brisket at 3:30. Luckily for us Rita and Michelle took Ian swimming with Ellie and Ethan during the turn in times.





Chicken in turn in box.




Ribs in turn in box.





Pork in turn in box.




Brisket in turn in box.


After that we tore down camp then sat around and waited for the awards. They called the 3rd place, 2nd and 1st place in each category, then Reserve Champion and Grand Champion for overall. Then afterwards they gave you a sheet of paper that told you your scores and your overall ranking.


Out of 12 teams we got 8th for Brisket, 7th for Chicken, 2nd for Pork, 1st for Ribs and 3rd overall. We were shocked. We were not expecting to receive such high marks! You should have seen the look on Brian's face when he got the call! And the when he got another one he just sort of sat there in shock!




Brian and Ian Taking their first Place Ribs award.




And their 2nd place Pork award.

So, like I said, we're ready to go again!















These are just some banners and team names we liked. Smokin' Hot Sisters was my favorite!

Oh! I forgot to mention, I get to keep my book! Brian won $100 dollars for his 2nd place pork and $150 dollars for his 1st place ribs! And while that did not quite cover the cost of the generator, he said I could keep my order anyway. Isn't he a nice hubby?

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

First day of Kindergarten

So yesterday was Ian's first day of "big kid" school. Just so you know It was terrible... for me. I went home and bawled. Ian on the other hand, had a blast. He came home asking if he got to go back the next day. When I told him he'd get to go for the next three days before he got the weekend off, he was very excited. I think he got tired of people asking how his first day of school went though, by the time he got to talk to Gramma and Papa about it his answers became positively monosyllabic. Except for about his teacher he came up with some whoppers about him!



He did have fun though. He's been singing some new songs and he shows off his work papers he's done. He says he has a new friend named Kaden, but he can't remember the name of the girl who sits next to him. He'll get it though.
It's hard for me to really look and see how grown-up he's getting. But he seems to be managing in spite of me.




Ian, Sunshine, I'm so lucky you are my kid.
Ready to go!
Marching off to school!
Waiting in line.
Ian's teacher, Mr. Mednick. As you can see, Gramma and Papa, he is NOT green and he DID wear clothes!
Waiting....
Marching into class.
Me: "Bye sweetie, I love you! Have a good day!"
Ian: "Yes"
After school with the hat he colored that says "school is cool"

Monday, August 4, 2008

THIS Is Getting Annoying!

So, I was supposed to start a new cake class today. I got all my supplies together, I made the frosting and divided it up as per the instructions. 1/2 a cup of stiff consistency, 1/2 a cup of medium consistency with 1/2 a t piping gel added, and 1 1/2 cups medium consistency. Hubby got home on time and he and Ian went out for a "boys night out", dinner and haircuts. and I gobbled a jr. whopper and a small coke at BK. Guess what? They cancelled my class and forgot to tell me! ARRGGG! I was very upset!

So I asked them when their next class would be. They didn't know. So I went to Robert's Crafts and asked them about Wilton classes. The first lady knew nothing about them and the second acted like she just didn't care. So I went to Michaels. They were very polite, but had just hired someone to teach their classes two weeks previously and didn't know when they would be starting up. So I went home and called ANOTHER Michaels store and THEY had just started their classes last week.

I'm sad and annoyed, but I hope I can get a class soon, I miss it and I really enjoyed it.

BTW, does anyone need any frosting?

Saturday, August 2, 2008

New Harry Potter Book

There is a new "Harry Potter" book coming out and my husband is entering a BBQ competition. Hang on, there is a connection here.

So, J.K. Rowling wrote a book called "Tales of Beedle the Bard" that is related to, though not really part of, her Harry Potter series. And a couple of nights ago I stumbled across this information on the Barnes and Noble website. I thought "Great! I'll pre-order my copy," since it's not coming out 'til December. Then I thought I'd take a gander at the price on Amazon's website. Well, Amazon bought at auction one of the six hand-crafted originals that Ms. Rowling made and they are offering a collector's edition that emulates their copy for the low, low price of $100. Yep, one hundred dollars. But on the upside this qualifies for free shipping.

I thought "Sheesh! Who can afford that?" I've never even spent that much on a dress, or a pair of shoes! But wouldn't it be nice to own a book like that? Written in J.K. Rowling's own hand? With her illustrations? And some other special extras that the standard edition doesn't have? (Sigh)

Then I got to thinking, Brian is entering a BBQ competition next weekend, and he could win some money. And I'm going to have to help him. There's no way he could do it alone. So if he wins it'll be because of me. I will then deserve a treat.

Yup, you guessed it. I pre-ordered that book. I rationalized it by telling myself that if he loses I can always cancel the order.

Here is the link so you can pre-order yours. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0956010903/ref=amb_link_7226372_2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=02385SP4MGT8RK7WD1D6&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_p=423015801&pf_rd_i=1000179911
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There is no WAY I am canceling that order! He better win!