Michael Jackson

I am so tired of hearing about Michael Jackson. It's not that I am insensitive, it is just that enough is enough. He was a great singer, dancer, and performer but he did not discover a cure for cancer or set an example for children to pattern their lives after him. Now that he is dead, people are putting him up on some kind of pedestal and worshiping him. That is wrong on so many levels. Praise his entertaining ability, but admit that his life was a train wreck! Whether he did or didn't molest those children, he was still a freak. He married a woman he didn't love to have three children that he gave weird names to. The children are stuck with those names for the rest of their lives. He nicknamed one "blanket" and we can only hope that child will be able to rid themselves of that name! I think that's the one he dangled off the balcony. That act alone speaks volumes about his character. He paid his wife off two different times so she would have nothing to do with the children. He had numerous plastic surgeries and then denied having them. He abused precription drugs. He settled out of court with one family over a molestation charge. He was estranged from his family for years. He thumbed his nose at the USA by moving to a country that the US was at odds with. In his professional life he was outstanding, but in his personal life, he was not ALL THAT!

Blog Music

I've added some music to my blog, but you have to hit the play button if you want to hear it. It wasn't that I didn't know how to make it start playing automatically, but I wanted to make it optional. If you want to hear what kind of music I like, push the play button on the playlist, and if you don't, just read my blog. I hate it when I go to somebody's blog and get blasted out of my chair so this way I give you all a choice!

Father's Day

If you read my earlier post, you know my husband was suffering with a summer cold/sinus thingy and was in a lot of pain on father's day, but he did feel better after a long sleep and some advil. I was able to take this picture of him with our daughter although it was taken at dusk so probably not enough light.

When she was little, he would be on the floor playing with her and her toys. When she was a teenager, she taught him how to swim. Now as an adult, I still have to sit between them in church or they would be cracking up. Some things have changed over the years and some things have remained the same! LOL

Blog Award

Thanks to Sandy Windsor for the One Lovely Blog Award! You are such an encouragement (and an enabler).

http://detailsbysandy.blogspot.com/

Rules:
Accept the award
Post the award along with the name and blog address of the person who granted it to you
Pass the award to 15 newly discovered blogs. I've given the award to 6 blogs and will continue giving it until I hit the 15 marker!

As most of you know, I started this blog as part of a class in HTML that I am taking, but I've received so many emails and comments of encouragement, that I am starting to like this new adventure in blogging. Sandy has taken scrapbooking to a whole new level so if you get a chance, go over to her blog and check it out.

Weekend Blips

Here's a peek into what kind of weekend I had. I fell asleep on a raft in the pool. Lucky me, I had sunscreen on and even that stuff called "faces" as my face is pretty sensitive. Just one problem, you don't put the stuff on your eyes. I now have the brightest red eyelids you ever saw!

My husband was suffering with a summer cold this weekend. I guess I didn't know how bad it was until Sunday morning after the choir sang and the service was about to begin. He bent down and whispered in my ear that we had to leave as his head was going to explode! For you to enjoy this story, you have to know that he is the most soft spoken, easy going, layed back, and the kindest person you would ever meet. I volunteered to drive us the 4 miles home to which he quickly accepted. We were about a mile from the church when he screeched at me to pass the "grandma" that was ahead of us. Another half mile down the road he was hollering with his best road rage voice at a truck that pulled out in front of us. We were a mile from the house when he told me he thought he was going to get sick. I asked him if he wanted me to pull over and he quickly replied that it would be great if I could get us home any faster without hitting as many bumps as I had been hitting!! When we got home, he took three Advil and went to bed. He slept from 11:15 until 4:15 and awoke his old sweet self. He has apologized and apologized for being so irate and has beat himself up pretty bad over the whole thing although our daughter and I have laughed about it and told everyone we knew because it was so out of character for him that it was hysterically funny to us. Even recanting the story to our daughter (after I was sure he was asleep) made me laugh until I had tears running down my face.

I did get a couple hours of scrapping time in and here's the right side to the page I posted on Friday.

Hog Hollerin Contest

All the local news and radio stations are talking about the Hog Hollerin contest over in Spivey's Corner this weekend. It's an annual event and attracts a huge crowd to a small community that is no bigger than a crossroads. Parking is in farm fields. People practice all year long and then compete for the championship. Since we are in an area where lots and lots of hogs are raised, it makes sense that our state would have this contest. When we travel, we love to see what claim to fame little towns have. I was raised in "The Christmas Tree Capital of the World"! Spivey's corner is known as "The Hog Hollerin Capital of the World". It is to be 100 degrees tomorrow and the contest gets under way at 11:00 am. In an area where hogs are raised, you know what you are going to smell on a day when the mercury hits 100! It won't be pleasant unless you are one of those who lost their sense of smell using the Zicam product that has been pulled from the shelves recently!!

I have been looking in all the local craft stores for a Martha Stewart border punch called "Drippy Goo". Yes, I realized how funny the name was when my sweet husband, in an effort to help me find it, asked a store clerk in Michaels if he could look through a box of punches that were on the top shelf for a "Drippy Goo" punch!! You could tell she was amused! After exhausting all efforts, I went on ebay and found one. It arrived yesterday and I couldn't wait to use it and get this page scrapped. Hopefully, I will finish the page that sits next to it tonight and post it tomorrow.

Birds

A dove has made its nest in the tree outside my office and has been sitting on this nest on what seemed like forever to us who were watching. Tuesday a bad thunderstorm came through and it was so strong that not only did it knock our power out, but it blew most of the nest away. Wednesday morning we noticed two baby birds on the limb where just a small remnant of the nest remained. I guess that's the bird equivelant of one of those stories where a mother gives birth in a taxi cab!

Here is another scrappy page for the Israel album. Our pastor has a wonderful sense of humor and sometimes during his sermons, we have to wonder if we are in church or at a comedy club. When he laid down on a sacrificial altar just outside of Tiberias, I had to take the picture. He is a big man (not fat but big) which is how I came up with the title.

Comfort Foods

When my sisters and I were coming up, my mom would cook every night. It was a rare, and I mean a rare occasion when we went out for dinner. From time to time, I will be reminded of some of the "odd" things that we ate at home. Last night I opened a package of graham crackers and thought about how my mom would put icing between two of them and stack them on the cake taker. We loved them. My variation is to put marshmallow creme between them. It is fat free and less sugar. Another item was something my dad called "slipperdowns". It was cooked elbow macaroni with a jar of tomatoes mixed in and a chunk of butter. I say "jar" instead of "can" because my mother canned everything that wasn't nailed down. The reason for the name was that this food was so soft that when we had sore throats, the food would just slip down, no swallowing needed. She made this a lot when we were sick. I love slipperdowns and so does my vegetarian daughter so that is a handed down recipe! We always had a garden so we ate a lot of salads but an odd thing she did in the winter time was to take a head of lettuce that she bought at the grocery store and just cut it into six (4children and 2 parents) slices, put a slice on each salad plate, and we would put french dressing over it. That seems odd now, but we didn't know it was odd back then. When I got drinks ready for last Sunday's meal, I thought about how we drank a lot of green kool-aid. Not sure why except that I think Dad liked it. Some of her foods cannot be replicated which is a shame. I will never have another raisin or cherry filled cookie like she made, or have the crispy fried fish that she breaded with corn meal and cooked in the iron skillet but it is slipperdowns for supper tonight!


I wasn't sure about scrapping this page as some people may think my husband is making fun of a beggar, but anyone who knows him, knows he was just trying to make a weary group of fellow travelers laugh after a long day of walking in Israel.

TV

The switch from monologue to digital didn't really effect my family as we have satellite TV. It did however, effect my sisters living in Pennsylvania. Even though one of them has satellite, she cannot get her local NBC station. You have to have NBC to watch the Today show, which we are hoping to be on, when we go to NYC in a few weeks. The hills in Pennsylvania make it impossible for good reception whereas the flat land of good old eastern North Carolina make it easy to pick up stations. I am hoping my sister gets this resolved before our trip. I am wondering how the elderly are dealing with all this change in technology. Some of them can remember life without TV. It must be so difficult for them to wrap their minds around this change.

I've been busy scrapping and trying to get the last few pages done in the second album for Israel. I knew I wanted to include a page for the shabbat elevator and the mezuzah but I knew it would take a lot of journaling and that's my weak area of scrapping. Well here is what I have come up with.

Here are some close ups of the journaling so you can read it.

Phones

Today is my daughter's birthday and she is purchasing a blackberry to replace and update her current phone (her personal one not the work bb) which has been cutting people off recently. The county gives all Asst Principals a blackberry during the school year and then collects them at the end of the school year. She has really grown attached to hers this year and doesn't want to do without it. This is my fault because last year she had no problem with giving it up. The difference is I bought my husband and I each one and I have shown her all the really cool features over the past year. The camera part, having your email with you as you shop, the blackberry messenger, checking the weather, etc. This year I need to teach her about the cool ringtones so I don't have to listen to her phone make that silly noise when it rings. Mine is programmed with cool songs so I can tell who is calling me which determines if I want to answer it. I will run to my phone when I hear the theme to Golden Girls which is the ringtone for my four favorite friends. When I hear "You are my sunshine", I know it is Heather and I know I have the option of calling her back if I don't make it to the phone. My default ringer is "Shout to the Lord" which is abrupt enough to get my attention but not overbearing where I jump. I've been searching for my favorite song, Louie Armstrong's, "What a Wonderful World" but so far no success. If anyone knows where I can find this ringtone, email me or leave a comment here on my blog. I admit that I was the last one in my family to get a cell phone, but now I wonder how I got through life without my Blackberry.

Today's scrappy page is the second page to yesterday's page. They have to sit next to each other in the album without fighting!

Strawberry Pretzel Dessert

I've had three people who have emailed me after reading an earlier blog post, and want the recipe for the Strawberry Pretzel Dessert that I made for my daughter's birthday. Here it is

Strawberry Pretzel Dessert

Bottom Layer:
2 cups crushed pretzels (I crush them by rolling a glass over a ziploc bag of pretzels)
1 tblsp. sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted
Pour melted butter over pretzels and sugar and mix well. Press on bottom of 9 x 13 pan and bake 8 minutes at 400 degrees. Cool

Middle Layer:
1 (8oz) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
8 oz Cool Whip
Mix and spread over cooled pretzel layer.

Top Layer:
6 oz. strawberry gelatin
2 cups boiling water
2 10 oz pkgs of frozen strawberries
Mix the gelatin in the 2 cups of boiling water stirring until well dissolved. Add the two pkgs of
strawberries and stir often. When it is about 75% gelled, pour over cream cheese layer and chill dessert until ready to eat. The gelatin will thicken quickly since the berries are frozen.

This is so good. The pretzels take on a roasted pecan taste and it is a nice summertime dessert!

Wildflowers

I think it's funny how we spend so much time in our flower beds and tend to our pots of flowers on our decks and porches when I see wildflowers that surpass in beauty all of those flowers we look after. North Carolina plants flowers along the side of the roads and in the median. It's a form of testing for the manufacturers of the seeds and bulbs. I enjoy seeing them on my way to work. This week I am seeing day lilies and tiger lilies as well as a section of wildflowers. Now nobody stands out there and waters these plants at night yet they are more beautiful than the ones that I water in my garden. My sister, who lives in PA, just emailed me the prettiest pictures of wildflowers growing on the hillside behind her house. They are spectacular but I am sure nobody goes up there and puts miracle grow on them or waters them when the temps get to 90 three days in a row. We may be gardeners, but we'll never be as good as our Creator.

Here's my scrapping page for today.

Flat Stanley

My dear friend, Jackie, has asked me to take a "Flat Stanley" with me to NYC when we go next month. She is doing a project with her grandson, Michael, and charting where all Flat Stanley goes. For those of you not familiar with this program, Flat Stanley is a little boy made out of paper. He travels around the world getting his picture taken in different places. We will take him to the empire state building, statue of liberty, and a broadway play! I am so glad she asked me to do this for her, because she is doing me a HUGE favor. Our flight for NYC leaves early on Monday morning (July 6th) which means we would have to board the dogs beginning on Thursday, July 3rd, since the vet's aren't open on the 4th or all weekend. Jackie was the only one I trusted with my most prized possessions!! She has agreed to pick them up on Monday and take them to be boarded. This means we can enjoy them over the holiday weekend and it saves us a small fortune as we won't have to pay for boarding on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday! I am sure I will find something wonderful for Jackie while shopping on Canal Street and Flat Stanley pictures will be sent immediately with my Blackberry! A true friend is a friend indeed!


Here's what I've been scrapping lately

and the page to sit next to it...

The Melting Pot

The Melting Pot in Raleigh was quite an experience Saturday night. The cheese fondue was excellent and we loved dipping our bread, vegetables, and granny smith apples in it. Our salads were great. My husband and daughter had ceasar salads which they enjoyed and I had the house salad which had the best tangy dressing on it. My daughter and I didn't have an entree because we thought between the cheese fondue, the salad, and the chocolate dessert, that we would be too full-we were right! Plus it took all three of us to cook my husband's entree. He ordered the shrimp and steak and it came with a plate of vegetables that included red potatoes, broccoli, and mushrooms. There were two types of batter to dip things in and a whole host of sauces for everything. We were each given two of the fondue forks at the beginning of the meal so imagine trying to cook your dinner with just two forks? My husband looked at me like "this is going to take forever" but luckily we figured out that if all of us loaded up our forks that he would have enough food to eat while the rest of it cooked. It was funny as we would each load up the meat, shrimp, potatoes, mushrooms and as soon as they cooked, we would reload. It didn't take much to entertain us!! Then came the dessert. There was so many choices, but we opted for the plain milk chocolate. They brought two big plates of things to dip in the chocolate. There was marshmallows, pound cake, strawberries, bananas, brownies, rice krispie treats, and even a piece of cheesecake that you just drizzled the chocolate over instead of dipping it. It was a blast and a wonderful way to celebrate our daughter's birthday!

Fridays

On Fridays it is hard to tell who will be at work, who will remain at work all day, and who will go home sick. Add to that mix that the boss has taken a vacation day, and I end up the only one in the office today at 4:30. To be quite honest, I wanted to leave a few minutes early to stop at the store to pick up one missing ingredient for my daughter's birthday dessert, but now I must stay until 5 and set the alarm when I leave. I will have to be quick as I don't want her to know I am making the dessert and I wouldn't want her to wonder where I am. Hmmm.

Birthday

My daughter's birthday is a week from today. With all of us working, we typically celebrate it on the weekend so this Saturday is her day. We always give the choice of a restaurant and she has chose "The Melting Pot" in Raleigh. It is one I have wanted to try but for one reason or another, we haven't. Fondue pots were popular back in the 70's so I am wondering what my daughter will think of a restaurant that makes use of them again after so many years. Well, after all, it was her choice! I have bought her a ticket to see the play "Chicago" while we are in NYC next month. Her dad is giving her money to spend on Canal Street. I'd like to find a few little items for her yet. I have a pair of earrings tucked away. I am hoping to surprise her with one of her favorite desserts. Not sure if it will be the Ritz Cracker Dessert or the Strawberry Pretzel Dessert but one of those two.

Here is a page I scrapped to sit next to the one I posted yesterday.

Summer

It hit 90 yesterday and will again today so I think that means that summer has arrived. I love it. It is time for bike rides, long runs, and walks with the puppies. This week we have yellow calla lilies blooming in the garden, day lilies, and the sunflower seeds we planted two weeks ago are about three inches out of the ground! The front yard has gardenias, one last hoorah from an azalea bush, red roses, and tiger lilies are just starting to pop open. My pots of geraniums on the deck are doing well and giving me lots of color as are the mixed flowers on the front porch steps. It was a long cold winter and I am enjoying these flowers even more than I usually do.

Here's another page from our trip to Mexico:

Scrappin again

Okay, my scrappin friends who follow my blog are wondering where my pictures of my pages are. Most of them know I went to a crop night last Friday at my church. It was so much fun although not many ladies came. We had a good time. I wanted to get my pictures of Mexico done and I got a good start. Here are a couple from that group

And of course, you know that I like to do two page layouts so they look in sync next to each other in the album, so here is the right side of this layout

That trip was so much fun. Last night I was able to do a couple pages for my second Israel album. I want to try and finish up Mexico and Israel before we go to NYC in July. Wow, we are fortunate to have our health and be able to take so many trips. They tease me at work by telling me that I work 49 weeks in order to have 3 weeks of vacation! It's true. I love vacations.

Puppies

As most of you know, my little Jasper makes me laugh everyday. He's a peculiar puppy. I don't think anyone else would have kept him as he is so strong willed. He had a bath on Saturday and was barely dry when we went out to the pool. Of course, he can't be too far from the action, so he went under the deck to watch us from a safe distance leaving no chance of him getting wet again. Under the deck, he stretched his clean belly over a nice pile of cool dirt! He was clean for a whole two minutes! With TV being reruns, we rented a couple movies from Blockbuster, one of which was Marley and Me. It was a great film about a big yellow lab. When they went to look at the puppies and pick one out, the one they got, Marley, was on clearance. My daughter quickly hit the pause button for the movie and asked if Jasper was a "clearance puppy". It could have explained so much!