It is still raining on my parade

This week shall we say has been a killer.  Without saying too much...the new finance program has caused a few more headahces than anticipated.    The last couple of days have been 13 to 14 hour work days.  In fact, the stress and pressure have been so great that one of my team members had a huge anxiety attack and ended up going home.  Today, being the last day of the month and still trying to sort things out - I hope to get to some of the other assignments that caused the emotional duress so that when this person comes back on Monday - it won't be so bad.

It's all good - things will eventually work out.  Ralph and Riley are missing me and I am looking foward to spending the weekend with them.

So to the person who asked where my Christmas Countdown went - I say....Out the window.  Maybe tonight and/or tomorrow I will work on some- no promises.

Ta Ta for now

Crappy Days

I woke up kind of on the grumpy side today and it just of set the tone for the rest of the day.  My computer had issues and it took until about 3:00 p.m to get somebody to help me get it working.  Unfortunately, I left work without it being fixed.   The ICS guy hopefully was sticking around to complete the clean up process.  Actually I am hoping it is a hardware issue and I get a new computer.  Not likely, but I can hope.

Our new program in less than impressive.  I knew there would be some things I didn't like about, but I will be honest.  I don't like it.  Maybe after a year or so of working out the kinks it might become somewhat useable, but not yet.  The other issue is having the local leaders follow simple instructions - why is so hard???  I know they are just volunteers trying to do their best, but I wish some would apply themselves just a little bit (that was a bit judgemental wasn't it?)

In my time of following blogs - I have followed two seperate families on opposite sides of the country.  having different religious beliefs, go through having a spouse lose the battle to cancer.  Both of them young, (under 50 years of age) leaving behind such cute families.  My heart aches again for the one I read about this morning.  I can't imagine losing my spouse at this stage of life - well really at any stage.  This woman's faith and courage has been absolutely amazing.  My prayers go to her and her family - there is still a hard road ahead and they will need all the support and prayers they can get.  Death of a loved one is so hard to endure - I can't imagine doing it all, let alone without the faith I have in God's plan.

So with that - hug your loved ones - tell them how much you care for them and appreciate them.  Our time here is so short.  And here is to a better tomorrow.

Ta Ta for now

Garden Harvest and stuff.

Summer is definitely over.  Sigh.  With the fall breezes my allergies have spiked this week.  My nose is sore from wiping it so much.  Ralph harvested the rest of the garden and got it ready for all the plants to be tilled under.  I think we will be doing grape juice here shortly, once we have a freeze  - makes the grapes sweeter.  the apples have been harvested and we are scheduled to help press them for cider next weekend.  I am glad we don't have a ton of leaves to rake this year.  The abundance of trees and leaves at our last place of residence was overwhelming. 

It is raining and a bit cold.  The forecast is for colder weather.  My problem is that I don't have any sweats, pajama bottoms, or pants that fit.  This is the time of year when I come home from work - change from my fancy duds to my pajamas and a sweatshirt.  Old Navy should have something cute and comfy - maybe Shop Ko or Smiths Marketplace.  What I really need is a sewing machine and some cute flannel fabric to make my own.

(I feel bad about my neck!)

So if you are wondering...Ralph and I opted for a football game instead of stake meetings.  Even though it was in the rain for the majority of the game it was worth.  I love spending time with Ralph watching football.  This is time we set aside to be together without the stresses of home and other responsibilities.  Church meetings just take a 2nd to certain things.  with all the different colored rain poncho's the stadium looked like a big package of skittles.   It stopped raining by about mid 3rd quarter, but our bums were already wet.  We got home from the game and had hot chocolate and made buffalo chicken wings.  The hot chocolate felt so good going down.  By the time I finished witht he - my lips were burning!  They were so tasty and I even baked them instead of frying and believe it or not they still turned out crispy. 

We did attend meetings today down at the conference center today as it was a multi-stake/regional conference.  Our stake just happened to be one of the many that were invited downtown.  The messages were very basic - go on a mission, be temple worthy and focus on your family.  All of them very timely considering the moral values of the world.  I love 2 hour church!

I am working on starting up a home book keeping business.  One of my BFF's is helping me get on my feet.  No guarantees yet that I am going to stick with it, as it is hard enough to put in 8 hours and come home and do more, but the extra income sure could help us out.  Combine that with some of the things Ralph is working on  - hopefully things will turn out for us.

I haven't stamped much this week - I was trying to get things done for a gal that missed the stamp a stack.  She wanted to take my stuff home and work on it.  Normally that wouldn't have been so bad, but she lives in Ogden and I wasn't ready to part with my stuff.  I ended up stamping all of her projects and assembling a sample so that she could assemble the rest when she gets home.  I have missed a couple of my Christmas countdowns...so I will make it up to you on Friday with some great ideas.

Monday brings a new finance program at work.  I am not quite sure where to start, when I arrive at work, but hopefully things will run smoothly.

So as we have been getting doused with rain, Saturday morning Ralph and I stepped out onto our porch to wactch the rain come down... I left the door open to see what Riley would do, knowing full well that he hates getting wet.  Sure enough he sat in the doorway and barked at us.  There was no way he was coming out in the rain, but he didn't want to get left either.  Then he ran back in and started doing things that gets him in trouble - just so we would come back in.  Funny little dog.  On that note - I am going to take Riley while it is not raining to do his business and then watch the UofU football game again before bed.
Ta Ta for now

Being in Charge

Is definitely not what it is cracked up to be.  All my nursery leaders called in sick today, I have a part member family baptism to plan, a chorister and nursery leader yet to "find", a quarterly activity to plan, leadership meeting to attend, scounting to deal with...  Why can't I ever just show up to church and attend my three meetings and go home on time.  I am trying to find the "fun" in this job. I do like the ladies I work with and starting to develop friendships with many of them.  I know it just takes time.

Ralph and I have had a relatively quiet evening - despite my church work load.  We spent the evening watching movies -  Karate Kid (the new one).  I loved it.  We also watched How to Train Your Dragon again and loved it even more the second time.  We had leftover soup and cornbread, from yesterday, for dinner accompanied by a nice green salad and fresh garden tomatoes.  Gotta enoy the tomatoes while we can. I love quiet Sunday evenings spent with Ralph and Riley.  Riley has been an absolute slug/cuddle bug the last two days.  I like it.  Sunday afternoons/evenings like this make Monday's a little bit more palateable.

I found a new foodblog.  Mel's Kitchen Cafe Shame on you if you already knew about it and didn't share!  She has a section called best recipes - which is totally up my alley.  You go searching for that best recipe looking through hundreds trying to find the one that will be perfect.  I knew after seeing the recipe I use for white chicken chili on her "best" list that this was going to be a spot I frequented.  I mean really - she has already done the "seach" work.  I tried the cornbread recipe and it was a total keeper.  Here it is - not to sweet, doesn't fall apart, good corn taste and moist.  FYI - I accidentally left out the butter when I made mine.  Ralph has asked that I leave it out always - he liked it just the way it turned out.  You can choose.  I am sure it will be good both ways.

Cornbread

½ cup cornmeal
1½ cup flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup oil
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1¼ cup milk

Mix dry ingredients - set aside, Mix remaining ingredients (the wet) make a well in the dry ingredients and pour into the center.  Stir until just mixed (batter will be runny - don't be alarmed!).  Bake in an 8” square pan at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. This doubles perfectly for a 9X13-inch pan.
Give the recipe a try I know you will love it.

Ta Ta for now

We had a Sleepover

Since the kids were out of school this weekend  and there were no soccer games we opted to have 4 crazy monkey's stay over night.

We started with Pizza and rootbeer.  We had lots of laughs and silliness.  One of the monkey's told us that BYU stands for Barney's Yellow Underwear.  Of all the monkeys this one is the most loyal to the blue, so we are not sure how this came up.  It was entirely unsolicited from the Red fans.  Once two large pizzas were almost demolished we decided to watch a movie.
 

I had rented How to Train Your Dragon.  Dream Works never disappoints.  We loved it.  We talked about whether it was going to be a happy ending and if friendships would be formed, which dragon we would want to fly and how much Toothless' mannerisms mimicked Rileys.  They loved the Fat bumble bee dragon.  Ralph decided this is one movie we will add to the collecitons.  YAY!  At this point dinner had settled enough we changed into jammies and had cookies and popcorn as we settled in to watch the next movie - Karate Kid.  Thirty minutes into the show it was a 80% vote to go to bed.  We got teeth brushed and got them all settled in.  At this point we couldn't get them to shut up.  Finally monkey #4 was removed from the room for 5 minutes.  In that time the rest of the monkeys were asleep and we settled the 4th one in.  All was quiet except for Riley's snores.

This morning everyone slowly got up and Ralph and I prepared breakfast...buttermilk pancakes, bacon, fried potatoes and onions and chocolate milk.   I haven't had a heavy breakfast like that in ages.  Ugh - good thing I have the rest of the day to recoup.  Their Dad came and picked them up - and then all was quiet. 

The rest of today will be spent making phones calls, cleaning my stamp area, prepping for opening exercises tomorrow, a little bit of exercise and watching a football game.   Isn't it a shame the weekends fly by?

Ta Ta for now 

Are you Counting Down?

33 days and counting...

We are going to have guests at our house the day it opens and the following week.  I don't care what I have to do - we are going to go see it.  Wahoo!  I can hardly wait.  The soundtrack sounds amazing!

Dilemma -  our Stake/Regional conference lands on a home football game day.  We play Colorado State.  It is the only home game during the month of October.  There are only three more home games left.  Have I mentioned how much I like to go to football games?  This is a time Ralph and I have set aside to be together and experience something we both enjoy.  Who enjoys meetings?  Stake Priesthood meeting starts at the same time as the football game.  The evening meeting starts at 7:00 -would probably just be getting over by then, but we would still have to come home and change.  What to do? What to do? What to do?

Here is the card I made for Miss Mar  - used supplies I had given to me by fellow crafters.  Isn't she fun?  Just like my SIL.

Is it still Dark outside?

One thing I don't like about Fall - probably the only thing I don't like - is waking up to the dark instead of the bright sun coming in my window.   Dont' get me wrong I love daylight savings time and the extension to the end of October.  I am just not a morning person and well ....I think you get my point.  Pretty soon it will be waking up in the dark and going home from work in the dark.  Good thing we have Christ and Christmas to think about in the darkest days of the year.

A good thing about this time of year... have you tried these - oh my goodness they are yummy.  Who can go wrong with caramel, marshmallow and chocolate.  I hear these cute little pumpins come in an assorment of flavors.  Too bad I can't have one every day - if I did I would have to throw in an extra hour of exercise.

The other night on PBS there was a program titled God In Utah.  They interviewed a man by the name of Alex Boye`.  He is a convert to the LDS church and also sings in the Tabernacle Choir.  His voice is amazing!  So I thought I would check out the internet to see what music was available and found this...




Isn't that so true about music,  Anyway - here is a clip of his music singing one of my favorite songs - reminds me of my Dad

On another topic...I have set myself another goal....15 pounds by Thanksgiving.  I can't tell you how hard it is not to make all of the "pumpkin" flavored goodies this time of year.  Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin brownies, pumpkin roll - with cream cheese filling...  That's ok - I am sticking to this with all the guts I got!

Ta Ta for now

Happy Birthday to my Sassy girl!

With a chance of Mar seeing her birthday card before she gets it in the mail - I will post the card tomorrow.  Just wanted to say Happy Birthday Mar!

Work has been "fun"  We have been given an actual date for a system upgrade that will be installed and should be "supposedly" working.  The team has really tried to keep up beat about the changes and talking about all the "fun" we will have trying to figure things out.  Well...I think my feelings are best shown in this video clip from "The New Emporers Groove"  I am fun'd out!


It is definitely going to make for a interesting October and year end process.  Hopefully we are all surprised that everything works.
I have a couple of books I have recently finished to share with you.
My bookgroup just reviewed Beyond the Earth and Sky by Jamie Zeppa

A story about a young 20 something gal who drops everything in her life to teach English in Bhutan.  I am not feeling the 5 star rating with this one that so many people have given it.  The writing is good, but she comes accross so naive and clueless.  I was irritated with her choices.  I did like how she "sort of" integrated herself into the culture by studying budhism.  I thought she was clueless when she tried to teach her "Western World" ways of thought to her students who have been raised with the strong political and religious beliefs of their families and country.  I would have thought in her training they would have warned against teaching western ideas.  I felt like her over romanticized view of the people and country was an over compensation for leaving her fiance and civilized world behind... kind of like her way of dealing with it.  I loved when the teacher from from India brought her back to real life.  Even if it only lasted a few minutes.  The ending left so many holes and so many unfinished stories.   Even though it was well written I don't know that I would reccomend it.

For pleasure I just finished Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman  I felt so sorry for this little girl to begin with.  I know there are kids out there in real life dealing with manic parents.  If I didn't know things were going to improve for her I probably wouldn't have finished reading the book.  It is a story of this young girl coming to terms with what she had to deal with in her early years of age.  Her Mother had some serious mental issues and her Dad did not know how to deal with them so he disappears into his work.  She is taken in by a great aunt and the "help".  I liked the story.  It had some very funny moments.  I wouldn't reccomend the book if you have real issues from childhood - it might hit too close to home.  To anyone else looking for cute story -give it a read.

Well - Things to do
Ta Ta for now

11 weeks till Christmas - 4 days late

Haven't been feeling too chatty these days and definitely not in the mood to create Christmas stuff.  Last night at 10:00 I kicked my rear in gear and did a quick card.  Didn't turn out to bad for being a quicky.

Stamps - Peace on Earth
Ink - Cherry Cobbler

Paper - Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White

Accessories - Gold cord, metallic gold smooch, embossing folder

My stamp a stack went great.  I love having the gals over to hang out, I guess stamping is the avenue I choose to do that.  If I had a more comfy couch and a better TV I would host girls nights all the time.  We would watch chick flicks and eat chocolate, play games, eat chocolate, paint our nails, eat chocolate... and laugh until we pee'd our pants or sent diet coke out our noses.

On that note - I have been in the mood to watch chick flicks.  I recently have watched 27 dresses which was on TV on Sunday and last night as I climbed into bed and started flipping channels I watched The Wedding date.  I haven't seen letters to Juliet yet, but it is on the list to rent along with several other movies.  Do you have a favorite chick flick - please share!
Ta Ta for now

Have Faith, Have Hope, Live like His Son...

Help others on their way. ( I know that my Savior Loves Me - 2010 Sharing time program)

I wasn't going to blog today - but after this morning felt the need to share my thoughts.

This morning on TV CBS Sunday Morning - they were interviewing a famous author by the name of Phillip Roth.  He is described as possibly the best American novelist.  He has a very good chance of winning the Nobel Prize for literature this week.  I haven't read any of his books, but I am in no way impressed with the character of this man.  Most of his stories apparently focus on people being miserable because that is when they are most interesting.  He delights in focusing on sex - because sex plays a big part in everybodies lives, imaginations, and fantasies - which makes it worth writing about.  One of the things they asked him about was God and if he believed in Him.  Mr. Roth replied - and I quote..."When the whole world doesn't believe in God, it'll be a great place."   His books sell.  He reminded me of the very adversary himself.

Conference has been such a contrast to this man and what he writes about.  After every talk I found myself saying ...This one is my favorite or that talk was for me.  I know better than to try and single one out - there are always several favorites and several messages given to me as a reminder to do better.  Messages of hope, faith and gratitude have permeated our home with the spirit - which we delight in.  We have been given a renewed desire to keep our home a place where the spirit can reside always and to TRUST in Him who has given us so much.  I wondered as President Eyring talked about Peter as he was beckoned by Christ to come to him when they were out in the middle of the water.  Would I have the faith to take the first step...the second?

On a more temporal note - I have all the little baskets made for my Mother's RS dinner - I only had to make 25 - not 35 as previously posted.  I will get those in the mail asap. 

Ralph has canned chow chow (a new recipe for us from Emeril) as well as homeade catsup.  We also have beets to pickle but that project probably won't get done until tomorrow.  It appears, based on the weather forecast that the tomatoes picked this weekend with be the last big picking.  We have been blessed as so many others have with a long summer so that we can harvest what we have sown in the garden.

I made cookies yesterday to take to a couple of sisters I visit teach.  As much as I am anti - cake mix, I used one.  I tasted one of these cookies - had too!  They were very tasty and very rich, but a keeper none the less.  And yes I gave the rest away!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies (not my picture - but mine looked exactly the same)

• FOR THE COOKIE:
• 2 whole Large Eggs
• ½ cups Vegetable Oil
• ¼ cups All-purpose Flour
• 1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix, 18.25 Oz
• _____
• FOR THE FROSTING:
• 4 ounces, weight Cream Cheese, softened
• ¾ cups Smooth Peanut Butter
• 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
• 2-½ cups Powdered Sugar
• 3 Tablespoons Milk

For the cookies:
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly whisk eggs and oil in a medium bowl. Mix in flour and cake mix until well blended. Roll into 1 inch balls and bake for 8-10 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet. Cool completely on a wire rack.
For the frosting:
In a medium bowl cream together cream cheese, peanut butter and vanilla. Add in powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add in milk a little at a time until you get the desired consistency.
Spread about 2 Tablespoons (I used the same small size scoop as I did for the cookies) of frosting onto the bottom of one cookie and then place another cookie on top, bottom sides facing in. Repeat with remaining cookies and frosting.

Well I am off to finish my Stamp a stack projects as well as find a few fall decorations that seemed to have been misplaced when we moved. 

Ta Ta for now

12 Weeks of Christmas - Goodbye to a friend

I will be honest with you, as I sat down to make these I felt a little wierd to be making Christmas stuff as we just barely started October. 
These are some Christmas tags they demonstrated at convention - I wanted to try them on my own.  The pictures are not great.  One day I will have a camera that takes great shots.

Here is a picture of all four tags.   
Stamps - Tags Till Christmas
Paper - Real Red, Whisper White
Ink -(Markers)Real Red, Old Olive, Garden Green, Early Espresso, Soft Suede
Accessories - Decorative Label punch, red taffeta ribbon, adhesive pearls.

Here is a close up of the two in back.

 
Well another co-worker has bailed ship.  Today was his last day.  As always this means more work for me and our team, but I am ok with it.  The move will be good for him and a clean start with new challenges.  We had a "punch out" party for him at the end of the day.  Cookies and punch and a chance to say good luck and we will miss you. 

Anyway - I am looking forward to a quiet weekend at home watching general conference and working on my paper crafting projects. 
Ta Ta for now