I will post more about our vacation later (don’t worry Mom – I’ve got lots of pictures!), but right now, I have to appologize to Vanessa – I’m a little behind in getting the word out (even though my readers read her blog anyway and have most definetly already voted).
This month’s submission: Key Lime Basil Cupcake with White Chocolate Basil Buttercream
Does that sound delicious or what?
To vote for her, click here and scroll until you see Vanessa Contessa in the right column.
Go Vanessa!
I’ve decided that a 6 hour plane ride that starts at 10:45pm, together with a 2 hours layover in Atlanta, another 2 hours in the plane to Cleveland and then 5 hours in the car driving through Pennsylvania and New York isn’t the best way to spend Day 1 of Vacation.
Alas… it is too late.
I don’t even think I can count high enough to tell you how many hours I’ve been awake. I just got my fourth or fifth wind so I thought I would post some pictures from today’s adventures.
I don’t have any of the guy on the plane sitting next to me asleep, slumped against the window with his mouth wide open. I don’t have any sound bites of the guy THREE ROWS in front of us that was snoring loud enough to keep bears awake. I don’t have any of me in Atlanta, asleep on the bench, drooling on my sweatshirt. Hm… Jon might. I’ll have to check.
We drove all the way up to Palmyra today. It’s beautiful up here. I love how green everything is. The leaves are just barely starting to show their fall colors so every once in a while we passed a tree that was construction-cone-orange. Here are my favorites from today:
Tomorrow we’re going to go to the Sacred Grove and then head back to Cleveland. Then it’s Kirtland on Saturday!
I might even qualify as queen…
I’m supposed to be packing right now.
When I got home from work I was supposed to get my lesson ready for seminary tomorrow morning. Instead, I read a book. Then I made myself stop reading to go prepare the lesson and got distracted by the dog for just one second. Or maybe it was two.
Ok – now it’s REALLY time to work on the lesson. I think I’ll practice the piano.
Peel myself from the piano to get the lesson ready. After all, I still have to pack and eat dinner. All in time to be in bed by 9. Lesson first. Let’s go.
Ellie wants to play. Ok, but just for a minute. Or 10. Could’ve been longer.
Lesson time! Get to it!
Lesson’s done. Just in time too since Jon is just getting home. Late night for him. Must pack.
What’s happening in blogland? I’m here anyway – might as well check it out.
I’m hungry… I think I’ll go have dinner now. As long as I’m packed and ready to go by the time I leave for seminary in the morning, I’ll be ok.
I hope my alarm goes off in the morning…
I LOVED this book.
I’m not really sure what made me pick this book up off the table at Barnes and Noble, but I’m so glad that I did. It might actually be my favorite book right now.
I loved the easy flow of the story. This is not a quick easy read. The pages are large, the type is small, and the margins are puny. There was little space wasted on these pages. And well worth every slow page turn.
I liked the way the club came together and how each person was unique and yet similar. Each had their own story to tell and the only thing they had in common was the club. I also like that the focus was on the store itself. Georgia was in the forefront but only because she was the store’s owner. Each other character was only focused on to the degree that was needed to add depth and character to the store.
I think Georgia was my favorite character. She did things just because they needed to be done. She also followed her heart and paid close attention to the way that she felt about things, not letting her brain get in the way; not for too long at least.
This is a story of forgiveness. Of letting go. Of being yourself and loving who you are. It was a story of gratitude and love. Love for family, for friends, for enemies.
The story could have done without the occasional “f-bomb” or other lame swear word. It held its own without them.
I give this book 5 stars and two thumbs up!
Wow. What a week.
Seminary started last Tuesday with a bang. I have the Freshmen/Sophomore class again which is awesome. I have 30 kids in my class, give or take 5 on any given day. I had to be more creative with how I set up the room because of the limited space. I could move to a bigger room but there are issues with all of the possibilities. My cabinet isn’t big enough either but I scored one from the stake center this morning, I just have to get Jon to go get it for me. Unfortunately it doesn’t lock though so we’ll be losing scriptures this year.
I don’t know how people sleep at night after having taken someone else’s scriptures. It’s like tracking mud into the temple. You feel terrible.
Anyway, so yeah, 30 kids. Thirty. Three-zero. The biggest class in the stake. Lots of names to remember, not enough supplies for everyone (yet, I’m working on it).
Something interesting happened too. Noticeably different. Last week we spent the first day getting to know each other (which took the whole 50 minutes), the second day talking about expectations that we have for each other, the third day getting to know all of the study helps that will help us learn more from our scriptures, and the last day talking about the Plan of Salvation.
Monday we were ready to really crack those spines on the fresh sets of scriptures (for the freshmen anyway) and I kid you not – there was less goofing around, less talking out of turn, less distractions as soon as those books were pulled out of their cases. All 30 kids were participating, answering questions, trying to beat Kayla ’cause she was answering them all so fast, and really looking for things. It was a completely different experience from the week before. The week before seemed like complete chaos compared to Monday.
So, the moral of the story, at least for me, is that when their books are open, their mouths are closed and the Spirit will be their guide. That’s all there is to it.
Don’t you wish that you had a check engine light on your forehead? Or maybe in a less conspicuous place like your arm? One of your friends could walk by, notice that your “engine” needs some tuning and send you to the dealer (aka the spa or just a night out) for a tuneup. Maybe the light could come in different colors – one for when your engine just needs a rest and another for when you’re sick. Then someone could make you some chicken-noodle-soup and rub your feet for you so you could get some actual rest.
Oh well… until we come with glowing lights in our arms we’ll just have to be content with Visiting Teachers! They’re probably better anyway.
My friend Vanessa has entered the Iron Cupcake competition and has submitted a DELICIOUS cupcake recipe. Go vote for her! We want her to win!
Yes, I have tried this cupcake. It’s more than awesomely fantastic!!
Here’s the link to go vote: http://mkecupcakequeen.blogspot.com/
Hers is The Vanessa Contessa (like the 4th one from the bottom of the list).
VOTE!
Here are the pictures of EmaLee’s bag. I love the blue!!
This past week we learned how to make tote bags in our sewing mini enrichment class. I was surprised at how simple a plain, unlined bag was to make. I was also motivated enough to figure out how to make one lined.
I invited EmaLee and Lani over today to try and make one with me. We were going to have to figure it out as we went because none of us had done it before. Lani found a tutorial online and we got started.
Because of the Prop 8 canvasing, we didn’t get started until around 2 or 3 this afternoon. It took some time to get everything cut out because we had to keep rereading the directions and all the measuring and because there were three of us all taking turns.
The finished product was awesome! I wish I had thought to get pictures of EmaLee’s and Lani’s bags before the left. Maybe they’ll send me one (hint, hint) so i can post it. Here’s mine:
I hate shopping for new pants, especially since I got married and put on, almost literally, a ton of weight. Based on some of my postings I suppose it’s not hard to tell how THAT happened.
I’ve had the same jeans for the past 2 years. Four pair of them:
Pair #1: Too short and too big. I have to buy them long or else they fit into the “Noah” category. Noah built an ark – I buy my pants too short. We’re both getting ready for a flood. I also bought these ones a size bigger than the others so that just in case I got fatter I could still fit in something. I never got big enough to truly fit in these jeans (thank goodness) but I wear them anyway when the others are dirty.
Pair #2: Also too short but fit just fine. These ones look fine with a pair of flip-flops but with regular tennis-shoes they look ridiculous. There’s a line in a movie called Hard Ball that is fitting for my “too short” jeans. It went something like, “Why don’t you invite your pants down to your shoes so they can have a party?” Every time I put a pair of jeans on that’s too short that line goes through my head.
Pair #3: Also too short (they were seriously the only ones I could find at the time) but fit just fine. They also have these strange pockets on the back that used to snap shut. They got left a little too long in the washing machine once and the snaps stained the jeans with rust. One of the snaps fell off and the other one is bent beyond being usable. No idea how that happened?? I still wear them. I don’t really have a choice. And they do fit pretty well.
Pair #4: These jeans are long enough, almost too long, but too big. Whenever I wear them I look like I’m, as my mom would have put it in my teenage years, carrying a load in my pants. I don’t know how they got to be so big. They used to fit just fine. I even started putting them in the dryer (which I NEVER do with jeans) so that they would shrink down just a bit so I could wear them. They fit fine in the morning when I put them on, but by lunch I’m constantly pulling them up and wishing I had worn something else.
I’ve been putting up with these jeans for far too long. It wasn’t an issue until a couple of weeks ago when I took a new position at work that requires that I go out and check the production lines to quality check the product being made. I’m not going to wear nice clothes to do that. Not to mention the fact that a pair of nice dress pants looks pretty silly with a pair of sneakers. I’m not going to even apologize to anyone reading this who might dress that way. There’s nothing you can tell me that will convince me that sneakers worn with slacks is acceptable. Ug.
ANYWAY… I went to WalMart today to buy some new jeans. Ironically, WalMart is the only place in the entire country so far where I’ve been able to find pants that are (1) long enough and (2) not cut for someone with a waist the size of Texas and hips the size of New Hampshire. Don’t retailers know by now that women usually have smaller waists than hips? Or maybe it’s just me…
Gosh, again, ANYWAY… I pulled three pair from the rack, or stack, whatever. I pulled two in the size that I wanted to fit into (because they’re a size smaller than the ones I already do) and 1 pair that I thought was going to be the one I would have to buy. Then I wandered around looking at other things, putting off the inevitable encounter with the “fat mirror” that lives in every single dressing room in America. I finally went into the stall and tried on the slip I’d picked up. It fit. And there was no more time to put it off any longer. I grabbed the first pair of jeans and yanked. Or rather gently pulled. SERIOUSLY?! They totally fit! I was so shocked I just stood there contemplating whether to tell the crabby dressing-room-attendant to call 911 because I was surely hallucinating.
I waited for a couple of minutes, double checked the tag and when I was sure I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing, I took them off and pulled on the other pair. Surely this was just a fluke. HOLY SMOKES! TWO IN ONE DAY?! What are the chances?! I didn’t want to find out what the odds actually were. I quickly pulled them off and ran to the checkout, then out to my car, sped home and stuck them safely in the laundry hoping that they still fit when them come out.
I WENT DOWN A JEAN SIZE!!! WOOHOO!!!
(I know you can’t see me, but I’m jumping up and down!)