G.P. for supper?

Once again, I was searching on the Tasty Kitchen and guess what happened...

I was in the "search" box so that I could type in "pork chops" because I wanted to find something new to do with them...(which I did find, by the way!)

and you know how sometimes a little drop down box will pop up and show you which things you have previously searched for...

so check out this drop down box that appeared....
third line...
yup, see it?
guinea pig - WHAT?!!?!  and it really wasn't me...I promise and cross my heart...this is a complete mystery.

Who's been on my computer searching Tasty Kitchen for recipes for GUINEA PIG????HUH?
If that don't beat all...
recipes...for guinea pig...well - I never!

How's about guinea pig chops, or guinea pig tenderloin with peppers, or baby-back g.p. ribs, or maybe guinea pig butt roast for dinner!!
eee-uu-wwwh!

I'm sure Tasty Kitchen was really wondering when that query came through!

But hey,
wouldn't it be really super-cali-freaky if there were actual recipe results for that search!!

Done

One project done....next??

Just keeping my promise to show you how this turned out...I like it!
Here I was laying out the pictures to see how the layout looked before sticking them in.

This one below is the finished product...

I thought I was being quite careful about making sure there was an equal number of pictures of all the kids...

and still trying to place them artistically enough to be pleasing...

plus deal with the fact that some are landscape orientation

and others are portrait orientation.

It's quite a job, really!

Yet of course...
the first comment I heard was
"That's not fair...she's in both of the big middle pictures!"

Sigh...life's not fair, dear, suck it up!
But I was a good mommy,  I didn't say that outloud.

On the other hand, if you could listen to my heart...see my face...or read my blog...you'd know what I was thinking!!!!

Scottish decorating

Do you love second hand treasures?  I sure do!  These are the latest ones I've discovered while shopping around at thrift stores, and they fit right into my country-style theme for a quarter the price of new decorations!!!  Love that - it appeals to me-Scottish-side!

Found: Lovely wooden step stool thing...$5.oo and stacking set of 3 wooden blocks...for $5.00 too. The basket was from a garage sale a few years ago for $2.00...funny how I can remember what price I paid for them, but can't remember to turn the burner on the stove off!

Tall mustard colored house with wire mesh and country scenes...$8.50

Wooden star screen...$7.00, Fabric chicken...$2.00, Pig in straw...50cents, Larger wooden cow...50cents, Iron cow...25cents...most of these I've had for a while, but the screen is new...I mean secondhand, so that means it's old, but new to me even though I like that it looks old...whatever!

Adjustable wooden book holder stand...$2.00...and I set it up right beside my laptop so I could look at something other than the computer screen once in a while!

And a wooden photo frame with fold out sides...how lovely...for $14.00...my next project is to get this filled with pictures and then I'll show you when I'm done...Cool eh?

Looks like a fun project for me!  These little treasures make my days happy.

Tell me about some of the ways that you find to make your days happy! I love to read your comments! 

Cuppy cakes

Mmmm, delish!  Yellow cake mix cupcakes slathered with thick, creamy, cooked icing!  I know, I know, a cake mix...slap my wrist...I didn't make it from scratch...but I did try something entirely new...cooked icing, yummy!

The website that the pioneer woman called Tasty Kitchen  is a neat

place to go to get new recipes...I've found several there this summer and have liked them all...go check it out sometime!

 

Decorating the cupcakes to their individual preferences, pleasures, and prettinesses: 

Lots of sprinkles for me!

Lots of everything for me!

What a beautiful tray of lovely cupcakes...and they're so tasty, I just can't resist eating them, even though I should...

but then again, we can't ever afford to hurt LJ's feelings by not eating them...she did do almost all the work after all...so I'd better just eat them 2 at a time!

For her sake, of course, not mine!

Tell me where you've found your most recent "best" recipe...new cookbook, old family treasure box, online, or maybe you've invented one!

Here's a cute song to listen to:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR1zgNHUusE

The Package

It was an exciting moment when this arrived in the mail today!  It contained the schedule of classes for the newbies entering high school...oooh, thrills and chills...

...leading immediately into phone calls to friends..."Did you get your schedule?"  "Are you in my class?"  "My classes are at opposite ends of the school!" "What are you wearing the first day?"  "I hope I don't get lost!"  "Do you think HE will be there?"  "I can't wait to see him!!"

Remember those days?

and "Mom, can you tape my show.  I don't have time to watch it because I'm going to be on the phone all night!" and "Mom, I need $20 bucks for student fees!" and "Mom, I need to go back to the Garage to get that shirt!" and "Mom, if my cell rings, don't answer it!"

Whoo whee...it's going to be quite a year!

New 'do

Have you ever felt like this when you looked at your hair in the mirror?

Ever had a day (or about 3,627 days) of feeling like your hair doesn't quite fit the generally accepted style of the times anymore...

since the big hair of the 1980's is "a long, gone-gone, a long gone-gone, been gone-gone, so long" (name the band that sang that song!) 

Are you wishing someone would take pity on you...

(All Points Bulletion for Nick Arrojo from What Not To Wear!!)

Do you need to be convinced that the hair tools and products available these days are much improved...

since the days back in the 80's

when you (of course, not me!) used crimping irons,

banana clips,

and aerosol mega-hold Vidal Sassoon or Jhirmack hairspray for your (cuz I would never!) side pony-tail?

Does it make you feel sad, defeated, ready to give up, and wondering what you could have possibly done to deserve the hair you were born with?

Do not worry, you are not alone...

See...this is me three days ago...

frustrated,

irritated to the point of hysteria,

seriously debating two things...

whether I need to grab the buzz-cutter,

or need to change careers and try out for the lead part in the musical "Cats" 

Magical Chi wizard, take these curls and frizz awayyyyyyyyyyyyy!

ZAP!!

Hello...

look at me now!

Smooth, sleek, straight and stylin'...

but, just to remind you,  I never did know ( no, not me...) anything about those 80's hairdos that you all seen to know so much about!

Just a quick word of advice to any of you who might be thinking about

buying a flat iron...

                                 

Watch out for burn blisters!!

They sting, they bubble up, they burst, they pus, and they scar...

Be prepared, beauty hurts, baby,

but dang it...I feeel gooood!  Ba-na-na-nah!

Go on, everyone, try a new 'do' for back to school this year!

Word of the Week

I ran across this word on someone else's blog - (sorry, don't remember which one it was) and it caught my attention.

The word is pithy.

I've heard it before and never quite understood what it meant...
I've associated it with oranges for some reason,
and because it sounds like a certain swear word
spoken by someone with a severe lisp
(you know the one...it begins with P and ends with two s's!)
...so I've thought it meant a bad mood!


Since we're all gearing up to learn some new things in the upcoming school year, I thought I'd look it up and share it with you so that we can all expand our knowlege base.  And goodness knows - my itty bitty brain needs does need expanding!!!

"Pithy: 1) full of substance, meaning , force, or vigor as in pithy phrases, or a pithy speaker.  2) of, or like pith.  3) having much pith: a pithy orange. - pithiness, pithily."

as copied from the Gage Canadian Dictionary - the big, fat, red one that has a medallion star in the top right corner with the words ONLY $9.95 engraved on the cover!

Anyways...wouldn't you know...defintion 3 - "having much pith" - an orange comes up.  Funny how that is...still don't know really why an orange is pithy!

Definition 2 - "of or like pith"  - that really doesn't help...WHY do they include definitions like this...? : "of or like pith" -  what good is that when I don't know what pith is?

Definition 1 - "full of substance, force, meaning or vigor" - ok...now I understand it...and here's my picture to go along with it...see, I'm showing you that I understand the meaning now...

He'sth defthhhinately full of pith here...(click pic. to enlarge!)

and maybe justth a touchth of vinegar too!

As I recall, the boys stomped very pithily into the house and with a certain pithiness in their voices announced that they were "mad at supper cuz now we can't play."
And they sure were full of force, vigor, meaning and substance at that moment because supper is so mean to them...don't you know!

Party Faces

We are back from our trip to the lake, and let me tell you, we had a really good time.

First things first...the food, of course!

Now all families have special talents...

some can rope a calf,

cut a rug,

drink you under the table, etc...

but we...?

We can pack a fridge!

No, not as in to carry the fridge, but as in to load it up all tight with food!





Yes, no questions here, within four minutes of arriving,

the fridge was jam-packed full of food,

...glor-i-ous food!

You'll notice how high "nutrition" rates for us - cool whip is dairy, right, and pepsi is...

caffine - that's a food group, isn't it?!



Once that's out of the way,

then, and only then...we can move on to the having fun part,

knowing that our bellies will be all contented,

just as soon as we come back inside!


So, we took out the pedal boat...


Party face #1

Party face #2

Party face #3

And here's party face # 4 - she's also the swimmer who had to rescue all of us by pushing, pulling and dragging the boat back to shore

when the dang pedals fell off!

I can't believe she actually managed to smile!

But, I think she's just showing off a bit here...she's the only one of us who can actually swim worth a darn...

she doesn't even need to wear a life jacket, can you imagine?

And I also think she's just bragging just a bit about her muscles here!

She's still dripping wet from pushing the boat, so cheers to you...our brave, dripping, bragger-ish, rescue-er woman! Party on, dude!

After that wet n' wild adventure, we all went into the kitchen together...

to rummage through the fridge

for just a bit of a bite to eat!

Un-packing the fridge is our other special talent!!!

Modern Technology

Do you believe...Elvis IS alive!?!?!!?


Well, he's not technically, (at least I don't think that was him I saw at the mall the other day!!!)

BUT, thanks to some amazing modern technology,

Elvis' real voice (along with a body look-alike)

teamed up with Celine Dion on American Idol to sing a song together! Don't ask me how!!!

I happened to hear that tomorrow, August 16th is the 32nd year marking Elvis' death...
but here is his new and modern song with Celine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtMnwZKOtwA

called If I Can Dream
Do you think dear Elvis ever dreamed of technology like this? He was such a hunk, don't you think?

A hunk, a hunk of burnin' love!

And love this song---listen to the words!

One thing we CAN all do is dream...and why can't our dreams come true? No reason...If we dream it, we can achieve it!
What are your dreams?
What are you goin' for?
I'd like to read your comments about this!

My dream is to be zanier in my day to day life! Most of my zani-ness is used up on this blog, so now I need to put it into my daily actions!

Oh - and I dream that I would be able to take really cool photos...that would inspire emotion - make people sigh, or smile, or laugh...or cry...or laugh so hard they cry...or smile so hard they sigh...or cry so hard they laugh?...mmm...not sure on that last one!

Here's wishin' all your dreams come true!

Heading to the Lake

Next week, we're off to B.B. for a two night sweet retreat.
We are really going to be roughing it...
Queen sized beds, fridge, stove, deck, satelite t.v., big bath tubs...
Ya, that's my kind of roughing it!

We planned a food menu and one of my assignments is to bring breakfast for 12 munchkins and oldkins...so I got out my fav. pancake recipe and quadrupled it!
That's right, quadrupled it...that means I made a 4 times bigger than normal batch.
There was so much batter...I began hating these pancakes.


It meant I had to be standing over my fryer for a very, very long time...
making cake after cake...
in the pan...
Isn't that smart how it's called pan cake - cake in the pan...
pancake...
pan-a-cake, pan-a-cake, baker's man...
I think I started going nuts towards the end...
I couldn't have started out that way!!


"M-I-C-
K-E-Y
M-O-U-S-E"
Sigh! Got to find some way to keep myself entertained!

Done at last!
Look at that big batch...I was amazed to see so many...I ended up counting them cuz I was just so dang proud of my persistance.

There was 56 gentle pancakes staring up at me with their soft little faces.

I started to love them...wanted to hold them forever in my memory...
so I began to arrange them...

Then I took this bird's eye photo by standing on a tall chair overlooking my counter.
I call this my art.
I call it my "Made In The Pan Cake Mosaic"
Just need to buy a frame now.
I think it will make me famous.


Then I took a photo from a different angle...
How fitting...see them ripples, rolling waves and even some whitecaps in there...all crashing onto the sandy shores of PANCAKE LAKE!
Oh no, the crazies are really coming out now!
Watch out, B.B...here we come!

Field Trip

Kam and LJ were feeling bored the other day, so, since Tough Guy loves any excuse to drive his old Dodge around, we decided to go for a ride.

And, it's just way more fun to ride in the back of the truck! Love this:

Cruisin' down the dirt road....

bouncing on the plywood floor on our butts...

actually even getting slivers in unspeakable places...

until the girls decided to stand up...

holding our faces into the wind and hoping no bugs were flying by!

Here's a summer time joke for you - courtesy of memories of Donald Duck...

How do you know if the motorcyclist is happy?

Count the bugs in his teeth!

It's my all-time-favorite joke! I have a very vivid memory of Donald Duck arriving with several little black bugs in his teeth...he must have been smiling full-on for his whole ride into town that buggy night!

The trail got a little "dodgey" at times, but Tough Guy and his good ol' Dodgie pulled through just fine.
And we arrived!

:)

In a most beautiful field! Told ya it was a field trip! :)

By the way, nice field Pebs...you're doing a fine job.

A Real Man

We spotted a big puddle near the Chevron the other day during our rainstorm, so we parked across the street to take pictures, while we waited for the power to come on again.



We discovered that we could tell the age and sex of the driver by the size of the splash!



Don't get me wrong,

I know there's a lot of spunky young girls who would be flying through faster than you can spit,

but these ladies who were in town this day appeared to be of the high falutin' type, so they puttered through the puddle...or tried their best to circle around it, with their noses held high up in the air, with disdain...

Not even a splish, let alone a splash, from this car...

putter, putter...borrrrring!

Ho hum...Must be an old female!

This looks like a young male whippersnapper driving here...

He's got the cool truck, (bet it belongs to his Dad)...so he still feels nervous, not sure of how to handle his power yet.

He drives on the edge of the puddle, trying hard, not quite cuttin' it, but makes a pretty decent splash.

Ah, a braver male buck...not afraid to get dirty, trying to see if his wipers can keep up with the spray, testing his machinery, he's got the bravado, pretty cocky, but still not quite mature.
Good effort though.

Now here we go...this is it!

Okay, ladies, this one is for you...here's a Real Man driving...
He's simply superb. Full speed ahead, he drives right through the middle of the puddle, no hesitation, no fear, just complete confidence.

Oh yah, that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!

Total stud.

He knows his vehicle, he has the skills, he wants to make an impression, he knows what he's trying to do:

MAKE THE BIGGEST DANG SPLASH THIS TOWN HAS EVER SEEN!

Well now, ladies,

that's a real man for you...
if that don't get your heart a pumpin'...

I don't know what will!

Hero of the Day

This Stranger On A Bike is my hero today!

We had an outrageous rain storm with thunder and lightning and the whole town was out of power, but in the midst of the downpour, there were some very happy people - all thanks to this guy!




Look how deep this massive puddle is.

It's right in the middle of the down town parking lot for our main grocery store and see...it's right up to his sprockets! (that is what they're called isn't it?!)


Look how happy he is - tooling around and around -

in the middle of the biggest puddle in town!

What else can I say...he inspired me and I love him for it!

Here's our version...


Darling daughter, Kam, and I decided follow his example...

LJ stayed toasty and dry in the car and took pictures,

but we danced in the rain...

in the middle of the biggest puddle in town...

in the middle of the parking lot...

in the middle of down town...

for all the world to see!

Look, we're happy too! Smiles all around!


And we've got moves, dude.
Oh, baby..yah!


What a memory! A once in a lifetime moment!

I never would have guessed that I'd end up doing THIS today!

At MY ripe old age????

Thanks Mr. Stranger Guy On A Bike! You're the greatest! Loving you for ever and evahhhhh!!!

Now I've just got to get the smell of wet-courderoy-dirty-parking-lot-rain-water out of my pants...and my car!! :)