Amy's Blog

Part ONE of Big Announcement....

2010-06-15T08:20:00.004-05:00

For the first part of my big announcement - I'm changing my blog!
My new blog is http://myoldcountryhome.blogspot.com/
or you can just click

HERE!

This will be my last post on this blog, be sure to come check out my new blog. For the second part of my 'big announcement' you'll have to go MY NEW BLOG! See you there.

Thankful to those who have served

2010-05-31T17:47:00.011-05:00

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Memorial Day. I started this post yesterday but the upload speed on the internet at home last night wasn't what it should have been and I therefore didn't get this post done.

We went to Maple Hill Cemetery in the morning for the annual Memorial Day ceremony. The SV Band march into the cemetery and play a couple tunes and then the VFW held their short ceremony with the presenting of the wreaths, 21 gun salute and taps.

You'll notice in the pictures below that the band is wearing bright yellow tee-shirts. I'm pretty sure my junior year in high school was the last year we wore uniforms to the cemetery on Memorial Day. Our uniforms were 100% wool and it was over 90 degrees that year with high humidity. We had either 6 or 7 kids pass out from the heat, even though the band director told us not to lock our knees - they did and down they went. The last to fall was the guy holding the cymbals who was over 6 foot tall. Once he fell (face forward with cymbals to his side - kind of like a nestle plug to the ground), Mr. Taylor made the rest of us take the uniforms off and I think that was the last year they wore them there.

For those who haven't been back to Sesser since my grandparents headstone was placed, here it is. My grandfather served in the US Navy!

Uncle, Shane Wheatley - US Army Front of the cemetery, entire frontage is lined with flags.....

Johnathon on the baritone.

Delmar Jones presenting the wreath.

21 gun salute (the little black specks are the shells flying in the air).

Stay Tuned....

2010-05-20T15:18:00.005-05:00

I have a big announcement coming next week so stay tuned!!
After this announcement I'll be posting more to my blog too.

Life's been hectic as usual. Junior high track ended about a week ago, of course summer baseball has already been practicing for a month now. Every Sesser team kicks off the season with a home game next Saturday, May 29th. So if you're in the area, drop by the new fields you're bound to find at least one relative of mine there (oh yah, Sesser has 4 new ball fields wooo hooo!!!). I'll be the one behind the camera if you have trouble locating me! I have two nephews (Johnathon and Matthew) and one neice (Katie) playing ball this year. Have absolutely no idea how many cousins, if I happen to see them there great - but don't plan to hunt them all down.

I'm determined to get the pictures from baseball edited quickly and posted to my client viewing website.... http://pfphotography.zenfolio.com in the sports section. Be sure to check out the 1st grade basketball if you haven't seen them already. I'll have this years school junior high baseball posted on the client viewing website soon along with the basketball pictures from this year. Next year I'm not going to take 8000 junior high basketball pictures, they take FOREVER to edit. Speaking of that I've been checking out a few seminars that teach more efficient post editing procedures, I need this training in the worst way. If anyone that reads my blog knows of a good seminar to attend pertaining to this let me know.

I'll get pics posted soon from the Steak & Jazz night (Johnathon plays baritone), Chorus Spring concert and Band Spring concert. Tonight is the junior high awards banquet. I thought about skipping it but was specifically asked if I was going to be there to get pictures of him accepting his awards, so I guess I'm going after all. Sunday night is baccalaureate at the high school and graduation is Thursday. I have a cousin graduating and I'm decorating a party at the church for the 9 seniors from Hazel Dell (one of which is my cousin).

Well, I think that's about all I have to report right now. Burned my thumb on hot glue last night making silk floral arrangements for headstones. Since today is Grandma's birthday I did arrangements in none other than PINK for the two urns on her headstone and did matching arrangements for my dad's parents. Grandma's is getting one of the pink flamingo yard stakes from her birthday party that I still have. Also did red,white&blue arrangements for Shane Wheatley and Grandpa Shurtz for next weekend (Memorial Day). Johnathon will be marching with the band from the 4-way stop in Sesser out to the cemetery. I'll be sure to take pictures of the headstone for those living away from here who haven't seen it yet.

The Mundstocks

2010-04-24T11:25:00.005-05:00

Check out my photograhy blog , just click HERE to see the rest of their wedding pictures!

Reading a Recipe

2010-04-12T17:24:00.002-05:00

I'm glad I had to privilege to learn 'Grandma' recipe language from the Grandma herself. When I asked her for a recipe for her potato salad she informed me what time to be at her house to watch her make it - that was my recipe.

Looking in the fridge I noticed that the leftover Easter ham was still, well leftover. I sent Aunt Eileen a message asking if she knew how to make Grandma's ham salad. Her text back to me:

yep, ham eggs mayo sweet relish and a dash of onion

Now I'm pretty sure most people would ask the obvious question - how much? What kind of recipe is that just telling you what to use. But I knew Aunt Eileen's reply would be.....depends on how much ham you have and when I'd asked Grandma how much mayo she said "until it tastes right", my mother would always say "just add a little more....yah that looks about right".

I found this somewhat frustrating when I was learning how to cook, but after having made potato salad many a time now I realize that it's never the same. Sometimes the potatoes are dry and soak up dressing, the more you add the more they soak it up. I accept that it really does just depend and you mix a little more until it tastes right.

Well, I was able to successfully 'read' the ham salad recipe texted to me and will be having it for supper tonight - thanks for the recipe Aunt Eileen!

Anxiety!

2010-04-07T21:14:00.006-05:00

I'm having slight separation anxiety, okay it might be a little more than 'slight'!! When we were in Peoria for the boys state basketball playoffs, my bag fell off the chair and crashed onto the concrete floor. This wouldn't have been a big deal except for the fact that my 24-70mm lens was in my bag and now it won't turn (change focal length). So I sent it in to get fixed which won't cost me a whole lot but they're estimating 4 weeks before I get it back UUUUUGGGGHHHHH I don't think I can go 4 weeks without my most favorite lens in the whole wide world.

I was forced to use a prime lens on my most recent session which turned out well, but I miss my lens. I had to move all over the place to get the shots I wanted instead of just sliding my lens to the focal length that I wanted :( If you've ever used this lens you understand totally and completely what I'm talking about and if you haven't, well you're missing out on one good lens!

So while depressed and feeling sorry for myself I went looking at my WISH LIST again. If anyone would like to ever buy me a gift I'd like the lens on the left Nikon 400mm, 2.8f for a measly $9,000!

If this is too much the one on the right will do, Nikon 300mm 2.8f for the bargain price of $5,200. I'll be extremely grateful for either!

Taking a stroll down memory lane

2010-03-31T22:19:00.007-05:00

They say a dog doesn't have the ability to distinguish time. Which is why they're always happy to see you even if you just walk into the house and then back out again - they can't quantify the passing of time.

I was at work at 6:15 this evening when I got a call that Dad had fallen down the steps at the side of the house (these would be the same steps Mom fell down this winter, remember the post Here Kitty, Kitty). I immediately shut down my computer and headed home since Johnathon was there by himself. Upon arriving home I learned that Johnathon and Dad had been searching for Gator most of the day. Having visited all the neighbors with no luck, they were pumped when the vet called early this evening telling them someone had found Gator.

In the excitement of finding a lost dog, Dad lost his footing going down the steps and landed on the very expensive knee that was replaced about a year ago and hit his shoulder pretty hard on the pavement. So Mom took Dad to the ER to make sure everything was still as it should be.

When I listened to the vets message on the answering machine after being prompted by Johnathon as to what had happened, I called the # of the person reported to have Gator and asked if I could come pick him up. She said 'of course, anytime' and explained to me where she lived. I guess Gator decided to go looking for Aunt Pat this morning. Unable to find her he walked his old path to Grandma's house. He was a block south of Grandma's when a Valier resident spotted this large dog walking very slowly down the road and enticed him into their yard.

They fed and watered him. Determined to not call the pound, they found the tag on his collar and called the vet (who later figured out to call us....Gator's still listed with Aunt Pat as the contact - grateful for a small town today and the fact that they knew who to call). The couple whom Gator spent the day with was very nice and treated him well, but he was super excited to see Johnathon and I and almost knocked me over to get into the truck.

I don't think Gator was running away, he was just taking a stroll down memory lane - searching for ghosts. They say a dog can't quantify time.......he may have thought when he left this morning for Valier that he'd find a couple old friends.

Dad's shoulder is sprained and bruised but nothing appears to be broken and the knee still works. My parents decided on the way home from the ER that hand rails on the side steps needs to go on the top of the 'To Do' list. Gator's home safe and sound, I don't think he found what he was looking for.

Fifty seven cents

2010-03-30T22:39:00.004-05:00

Johnathon's science fair project was selected with several other projects from Sesser to compete at the regional level today at SIU. He was going to be gone from approximately 7am this morning until 7pm tonight so we sent $40 with him. Money for meals, snacks, bowling, etc....

At around 1 Johnathon called dad and asked if he could buy a video game, they were at the mall and according to him he had enough money. Well, dad told him no which I doubt made him very happy. I mean he's such a deprived child and has hardly any video games (lol!).

While he received a "GOLD" placing on his project today it wasn't selected to compete at the state level in Champaign. Congrats and Good Luck to the few Sesser students who were selected to compete at state!

When Johnathon came home I asked if he spent all his money today. He took something out of his pocket laid it on the table and said "No, I brought home change". He ate an entire plate of lasagna with half a container of cottage cheese and then had one of the cherry turnovers that I made followed by an apple - he acted as though he was starving to death. I thought maybe he hadn't bought much to eat.

When I was getting ready to head to bed I happened to look at the "change" on the table. Now mind you, he is a twelve year old boy and if you give him $40 for a day away from home.......he comes back with 57 cents which I'm assuming wasn't spent to say he brought home change, that or there wasn't anything he could find to buy for only 57 cents!

Boys will be boys!

Oh and on the comment sheet from the judges, the only negative comment they made was on one of the charts that I did........so of course the reason he's not going to state is obviously all MY fault.

Wedding flowers

2010-03-27T18:36:00.006-05:00

This is what I've been up to the past couple of nights and most the this afternoon.
You can see the rest HERE! I'm delivering them to the bride tomorrow afternoon.

Waiting on my parents to get home with Chinese takeout and the two movies I asked them to buy for me while they were at Walmart 1) New Moon (I know most of you probably already have it but I've been sick for two weeks and could have cared less about a move) and 2) The Blind Side. Can't wait to eat some sushi, egg rolls and maybe a little glass of red wine and watch some movies. Pretty lame for a Saturday night, but hey it is what it is.

Free Range No More!

2010-03-21T08:50:00.006-05:00

Well as most of you know my father has chickens. For some time now we've talked about increasing the height of the fence on the coop. The chickens fly out, wondered around the yard (pooping all over the place) and yesterday morning ate the freshly planted lettuce seeds out of the garden. This last act was the end of the line - you don't mess with Pappa Deaner's garden and since it was a warm day, well we tackled the CHICKEN COOP!

In addition to the chickens making a mess of everything outside their coop, dad's only been getting 1-2 eggs a day from all those chickens. I kept suggesting that the chickens were laying elsewhere.....well, we found out one spot yesterday - under the blackberry bush! All kinds of eggs under that thorny, monstrous sized blackberry bush in the back yard. Of course we can't eat the eggs now, but how in the world do we get them out of there so they don't stink to high heaven when the weather warms up a bit? ugggghh

In the beginning......the pen was surround by a once white picket fence. Unfortunately this fence wasn't exactly tall enough to keep the chickens cooped up (as you can see a few escaped ladies).

A few essential tools required for any 'fix it' job.

The building of the door frame.....

Johnathon helping Pappa Deaner set the post, hard work for Johnathon as you can tell!

Johnathon learned how to set a fence post and he so loved helping. He did a great job on the fence posts. Pappa Deaner and I liked not having set them all ourselves. Plus he made a good gofer, well we'll work on the gofer part - has a hard time 'finding' the items he was going for so then I'd have to go show him what we were talking about that was usually right in front of him and exactly where we'd said it was. He'll learn, there are a few more "home improvement" projects scheduled for this spring that he'll get to help with.

In process.....where we were when we took our lunch break
The new door is hung, now we can get into the pen (not sure why anyone would want to be in there, but should you so desire you can get in there easily now).

The new fence/pen is DONE!! And the best part is that this morning there were NOOOOOO chickens in the yard or garden or flower beds or field. All chickens were accounted for inside the coop. WoooooHooooo
....and where we/dad pulled up the old fence that had sunk into the ground and unearthed many a ground worm I learned that chickens LOVE worms. They were quite happy with the freshly tilled dirt and had a heyday with all those worms. The little black and white chicken has hawk eyes, spotting a worm from across the pen and running to retrieve it - somewhat comical to watch.

.....and the chickens! There are yellow, brown (I know these are New Hamp Red's), black, black & white (2 different kinds) and the turkey that showed up one day. No kidding, my parents came home and this turkey was walking around the coop. Dad opened the door, he jumped in and made himself at home. It's not a wild turkey but we're not sure where he came from???
Well, I have a full day so I'd better get to it. Roast is in the oven and is smelling wonderful, need to peel some tators and get them boiling....take a shower....edit a few pictures....arrange some silk flowers for a May wedding....bridal consult at 2pm and finish a baby afghan. I really excited about my to do list, today is the first day in a week that I've felt like well, felt like even getting out of bed. Only made it to work ONE day this week due to a respiratory/sinus/ear infection that settled in last weekend and just wouldn't leave!

I think it's a trick....

2010-03-08T21:52:00.004-06:00

Matthew called me tonight to let me know he "lost his tooth". His dad wanted to see how loose it was but told Matthew that he didn't think he was going to get able to pull it.

Of course when Matt relaxed thinking the tooth was going to stay in another day......his father pulled it.

He did say it didn't even really hurt.
His mother sent me a phone pic to prove it's gone.

I hope the tooth fairy doesn't forget to stop by Matt's room tonight!

Calling the Tooth Fairy

2010-03-06T20:03:00.004-06:00

It hasn't exactly fallen out yet, nor will he pull it. The one in front hanging at an angle isn't going to be there much longer though........so tooth fairy best get ready and be sure to check under Matt's pillow for the next few nights!

Sesser-Valier 1st Grade is Undefeated!

2010-02-20T17:00:00.017-06:00

I got to rise and shine early this Saturday morning to attend a basketball game/tourney for the Sesser-Valier Devils 1st Graders and I thought my bleacher days had ended for the season....well, here is the events of the morning.

If you like to see more pictures from the game (there's only about 300 of them) be sure to check out my photography website - just click here.

Matthew had stole the ball from Waltonville (he's #2 by the way)

Oops, he doesn't quite have that dribble thing down yet and ran past the ball.

Defense, Defense

The one smiling in the front is Matt's buddy Michael E. Not sure what Michael found so amusing but he smiled through most of the game.

What more is there to say?
He was running so hard he couldn't stop and ran into his own player :D

Rebound....
Go Matthew Go

If you remember the pictures of Johnathon playing basketball, well I guess the tongue thing is an inherited trait - notice below that Matt's is sticking out.
Stole the ball

Wild dribble and lost the ball....
Give it to me, give it to me
They are only first graders and can't dibble well therefore they let the kids literally carry the ball. The ref's were really only there to make sure they're going in the right direction. Yet Matthew managed to get multiple fouls called on him.....hmmmmm

Not sure what this move is called
Celebrating Michael E (one of his best buds) breakaway lay-up. Good Job Michael!

......and the awards - each child received a metal (Sesser won both games!!)
Your victorious 1st grade Devils!
Great Job today Matthew and congrats on your two wins!

Outstanding Display!

2010-02-11T20:45:00.009-06:00

So a few weekends ago I spent literally the ENTIRE weekend on Johnathon's Science Fair Project. I didn't have the pleasure of doing one of these in school so I spent an hour researching what he didn't know about the project online. Then several hours researching what he was suppose to research to write the paper and so on and so on. After helping him write the project paper, we got to start the fun part late Sunday afternoon - the display board!

His project was the effect of fertilizer on bean plant growth - exciting stuff!

The prep work....Johnathon planting the bean seeds and measuring the plant growth.

Just in case you were wondering the final results of the experiment......granular slow-release fertilizer grew the best. Which by the way was his hypothesis (pure guess on his part), I would have guessed the liquid fertilizer after reading all the research since we only measured growth for 4 weeks.

The planting, growing, measuring of the beans wasn't really my cup of tea. But once that was done and I got involved, come on -that display board is just a really big scrapbook page! Wish I would have got involved sooner and his display board would have really rocked! This was the best I could do on short notice.

"The Display Board"

Love the header that I hand drew a bean plant on???? You know you love it!

I was a little disappointed that I didn't take into account that the header slipped down on the board and I drew the one bean plant behind the board fold - won't make that mistake again next year. You can't see the roots of the plant on the right and the roots were the best part of the plant drawing.

.....and the results of our hard work - Outstanding Display!!!

When Johnathon called me to tell me how he/we did, after saying congrats my first question was "is that the highest reward given". His answer was nope, so-and-so got Best of Show. My response was that next year we're going for Best of Show then....Johnathon's response - "that's okay, outstanding display was good enough". Way to set goals there Spiff!

He was given a trophy and $20!

If you're friends with me on Facebook you've already seen most of this.....sorry for the repeat, but I had to share the great news again!

Commericals and Good Food

2010-02-07T18:04:00.003-06:00

I'm taking a quick break from Super Bowl food prep to update you on my recent where abouts.
On the menu tonight - Italian Beef with horseradish, artichoke dip, toasted ravioli, teriyaki glazed chicken wings (soooo can't wait for these to come out of the oven), along with chips & dips.

I spent ALL of yesterday doing research on the internet for a couple of upcoming weddings. When I say all day I'm talking from 8am until after midnight last night - my body needed a break from the computer today. I had a consult with another bride today on a beach themed reception - should be fun, hope to get to venture out a little on this one! As of right now I'm booked for May, June, and I believe July along with one in November. I have a few photography events coming up too, but still have lots of available openings for picture sessions.

My real work (at least the one which pays the most) is still extremely busy - first of the year isn't a good time for accountants. Well, I'd better go check on the food and I think I hear a commerical break!!

Stirrer Stick

2010-02-02T08:00:00.003-06:00

Moving around rather slowly this today, I awoke with a sinus headache - again. I made my 1st cup of coffee after arriving to work and set it on my desk to cool and logged into my computer. While completing my morning farming chores (eyes fully on the computer screen) I pick up my coffee cup to take the first drink. Unfortunately I forgot to take the stirrer stick out......as I lift the coffee cup I jam the stirrer stick up my nose!

Couple of lessons learned here:
* always remove stirrer from cup
* take a second to look at what your about to drink
* don't drink and farm

We have SNOW!

2010-01-30T10:35:00.005-06:00

We've had one round of snow and a few dustings this season, yesterday into last night we got about 3 inches of snow. I was a little upset with the front because about 20 miles south of us they got up to 9 inches so not fair that we didn't get it! But I guess something is better than nothing. And I'm glad I don't have to drive to work today. A few weeks back when we had the accum of snow, most people on the road should have stayed at home. It took me an hour and a half to get to work, I usually make it in 35-40 minutes. My top speed that day was 40 mph (which I didn't get to drive very long) - killed me driving that SLOW.

Gator outside the backdoor this morning 'posing' for me!

Haven't felt like venturing out to take pics yet, backdoor was as far as I made it.

The snow is crunchy and light so it didn't stick in the trees and we have three big outside dogs who have ran all over the yard leaving footprints, just ruined all the pics I wanted to take. So I think I'll stay inside today and edit pictures!

Quick Blonde Moment....

2010-01-27T08:42:00.002-06:00

Sitting at my desk at work and reached for my coffee cup - not there??, got up and wondered around the office to see if I'd walked off and left it somewhere - nope. Returned to my desk a little puzzled, looked over and saw that my third cup for the day was still sitting on the Keurig - fully brewed, just sitting there waiting for me to pick it up.

Afraid it's going to be one of those days.

New Business Cards

2010-01-24T20:42:00.010-06:00

New business cards I designed yesterday for my decorating company....

three design - front & back (info on the back is the same on each design)

Johnathon's last basketball game was Thursday night! Yeah!! My rear is ready for a break from the bleachers. Either I'm getting older or those bleachers are getting harder, pretty sure it's the latter and two to three games a week can really wear a person out. I created the business card below to hand out to all the basketball parents Thursday night. Now I need to get the 7000 plus pictures taken this season uploaded to my website so they can view/purchase them.
Johnathon informed me he doesn't like the picture, says he's making a retarded face. Oh well!

I decorated a Golden (50th) Anniversary yesterday - congrats to Bill & Judy Rea. Should have those pics up by the end of the week. It was beautiful needless to say. Aunt Eileen and I have done two bridal shows this month and I decorated a quarterly VFW Auxiliary meeting in DuQuoin the weekend between the bridal shows.

Good News - I don't have anything scheduled for this weekend!!! WooHoo! I don't think I have another decorating venture until May (it'll be a BIG one though) so my mother gets her living room back as soon as I get everything completely put away - needless to say she's happy for the break.

The first of the year is always a blast for accountants, not only am I trying to get 2009 financials completed I also have to get all of my spreadsheets redesigned for 2010 and do I ever use a LOT of spreadsheets! Plus our banks & company owners are requesting a forecast income statement for year-end 2010. Which means I have to look into my crystal ball and interpret the sales forecast into a working P/L, forecasting how much profit we'll have in 12 months based on what they 'think' they'll sell.

So after working late every night this week getting the accounting chores done, I'll be working on finishing Lindsey & Ben's wedding pic edits (better late than never....right?). I have all of the actual wedding done, just working on the formal/after-wedding pictures. I tried to up upload some tonight but my internet is running super slow.....

While editing basketball and Lindsey's wedding pics, I also need to get oh three or four afghans crocheted. I haven't crocheted much since having the carpal tunnel surgery. Hope I still can, time will tell. At some point in time I have to find time to SCRAPBOOK. I haven't been in the basement for 'ME' time in soooo long. If you didn't tell my mother happy birthday Thursday, you missed it - oops for you. Also, very happy to report that my Aunt Helen had a successful 4-bypass heart surgery week before last and is now at home and recovering. Well, I think that's all I have to report for now.

Oyster

2010-01-10T18:17:00.008-06:00

As with most of the nation, last week we saw extremely cold temperatures. The high temp the last few days has remained in the single digits and Wednesday evening going into Thursday afternoon we got about 3-4 inches of snow (basically just a heavy dusting, but still snow!).

So of course with the frigid weather, I made chili!

When I make chili, you'd think I'm expecting my entire extended family over for dinner - haven't figured out how to make a 'little' chili. I've eaten it now since Wed night and took a big bowl to share with co-workers. After decorating this weekend I wasn't in the mood to 'fix' dinner so I warmed up the last bowl of chili.

While dumping Oyster crackers into my bowl I had a flashback to the first time I ate Oyster crackers. About 30 years ago standing in almost the exact same location, we'd gone over to MaMa & PaPa's house on a Friday evening before going to a home football game. MaMa had fixed a huge pot of chili and had these cute little crackers set out along with shredded cheese. Up until this point I'd lead a sheltered life and had never added anything to my bowl of chili. But I decided to try it MaMa's way and 30 years later I'm still eating Oyster crackers and cheese with my chili.......

It's funny how the mind works - I can't tell you what I wore two days ago but suddenly remember details from an evening that happened thirty years ago.

PaPa & MaMa (my dad's parents - Gilbert & Nancy Galloway)

My father purchased his parents house upon their death and while we had to tear down the old and build a new house due to termites, the basic layout of the house remained the same. When I was pouring the Oyster's into my chili I was literally standing about 4 feet from where I stood when first introduced to the cute little crackers.

Book Review: The Devil's Punchbowl by Greg Iles

2009-12-29T18:45:00.005-06:00

As with all most of his novels I give it TWO thumbs up - highly recommend you read it!

I started this book a few weeks ago but didn't actually 'read' it until the last couple of nights. In fact I read two other books after having started this one. I LOVE Greg Iles books which have always sucked me in within in the first couple of pages. The problem I had was that this book didn't do that, in fact it took about 50 pages for me to get hooked - but once I was I couldn't stop reading. I finished it around 3 this morning.

The first book of his that I read was Blood Memory (which isn't for young readers) and it's probably still my favorite. It was on an end cap at Barnes & Noble one day when I was wondering around looking for something to read and the cover caught my eye. I'd never heard of him but figured what the heck and bought it. Once I finished it I purchased everyone of his books that I could find. I read Mortal Fear, The Quiet Game, 24 Hours, Dead Sleep, Sleep No More, The Footprints of God, Turning Angel, True Evil & Third Degree immediately after reading Blood Memory. After reading that many books by one author back to back, it was hard to pick up another author for about a month.

Once I got past the first 50 pages The Devil's Punchbowl - I loved, loved, loved the book and read it in two nights. I truly enjoy reading about the life of Penn Cage in Natchez, Mississippi. If you haven't heard of or read any of Greg Iles books I highly recommend them. All are available at Barnes & Noble!

I'd enjoy visiting Natchez in real life one day to see what of 'Penn Cage's city' is actually a reality. Some of the aspects of the city that Iles describes are so detailed and he repeats these aspects in multiple novels so I assume that they're actual buildings and places in & around the city. I hope that it's not the same as when you see a movie of a book that you love and then can't believe how it just doesn't fit your mental picture of what you read. Which speaking of movies I'm surprised that none of his have been brought to motion picture. Of course if a motion picture follows his book they'll definitely be rated R, as I stated above his novels aren't for young readers. Certain aspects of the crimes committed are described in detail, lots of detail.

I wasn't disappointed or upset with the end of the book but at the same point in time I wasn't happy with it. Any book that he releases I'll read, he doesn't need to 'tease' me at the end of a book to get me to read the next which is exactly what happened at the end of this one. I guess I should walk away happy that Penn Cage will be returning for at least one more novel! But I don't like the thought of waiting a year to find out what happens.........

At least Seven AM!

2009-11-29T06:50:00.005-06:00

I was really hoping to sleep until at least 7am this morning. But of course on the last day of my '4-day holiday' I'm awake at 5:45 as normal (I technically worked on Friday since the early bird shopping was for door prizes for my work Christmas party and since I had to rise from bed at 2:45 to do that shopping - it's definitely considered 'work').

I convinced myself to lay still in bed thinking maybe I'd fall back asleep - NOPE. My mind started to run through everything I'd like to accomplish today so I gave in and got up. Here it is almost seven now and I'm on my second cup of coffee, I have Photoshop open with pictures up and ready to be edited, and I'm almost done with my farming chores!

Go DAWGS!!

I had photo sessions yesterday and didn't get to attend the first round Saluki playoff game, but Dad and Johnathon went. Of course since the Dawgs won and will be playing at home again next weekend Johnathon is pretty sure he needs to go to that game also - we'll see! Dad's having carpel tunnel surgery on his hand on Thursday, but he's pretty sure he'll be okay to go to the game also.

Nothing much new to report, I've had 7 photo sessions this week. Feast or Famine - although I can't say that I've had a week since oh say March that I haven't had at least 3-4 things to do for either photography or decorating (which isn't a bad thing)!

Many people have decided to do pictures for Christmas this year and with Christmas quickly approaching, it's not like I'm on a deadline to get edits done or anything. I have two sessions this afternoon which are both primarily inside sessions - I don't have the room to keep a backdrop set up and practice with the lighting so inside shoots make me nervous. The bad thing with Christmas sessions is that most people want them to be gifts/surprises for family members so it'll be after the holidays before I can even post them on my website. I'd hate to be the one to spoil the surprise for someone!

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and survived the madness of Black Friday (Arielle and I did!). I have most of my Christmas purchased now, actually purchased most of it online before the official holiday shopping season even started. Well I need another cup of coffee and those edits aren't going to happen without me.

Edits Edits and more Edits!

2009-11-14T23:34:00.004-06:00

Amy & Heather - Hawaiian Luau 2006

I've been sitting at the computer literally all day long working on spreadsheets for work that I have to have done by 9am Monday morning and editing pictures. I've tried to go back and forth between the two as to not fry my brain on either at any one given point. In case you missed it I did say ALL day, yes my rear is officially flat!

I have determined that I take way too many pictures at one setting. For instance at the basketball game Thursday night I put in an empty 4gb flash card and when I walked out of the gym I had a whooping 18 pictures left on the card - that means I took well over 300 pictures at the game! Now multiply that by 25-30 games......I'll let you do the math, I've shut down my spreadsheets for the night. I just know it's too many pictures to keep up with edits on a timely basis. Now if I didn't have to work, those edits would be a breeze.

On a good note my cousin called and I heard my phone ringing and was able to answer and talk which ended our two week long phone tag! HOORAY! I had a great chat with her tonight, well talking on the phone for over an hour isn't really just a chat but you get the point. I soooooo wish she lived closer to me. She actually understands my frustrations, sarcasm and warped sense of humor. We have similar likes and dislikes which makes our complaints and gossip that much more fun. If I didn't know better I'd think we're related :) I haven't got to see her recently, hopefully she'll get to come for a visit soon. If not I may have to make a trip to VA, hey when is your next wedding shoot - that would just be too much fun!!

Well since it's after midnight I guess I'd better give the computer a rest and get some sleep. I need to continue working on the edits from a wedding & start the edits from a family session tomorrow along with finishing up the spreadsheets for work, edit the basketball pics and I'm taking pics of a Sesser senior in the early afternoon. Piece of Cake!

Here Kitty Kitty

2009-11-13T20:06:00.004-06:00

Quick side note: the cat pictured below is not the cat with the misfortune of getting stepped on. It is, or rather was one of our cats though and was a pesky little thing that had a habbit of climbing up the railing on the back deck. I snapped the pic as it was meowing and stretching towards me as though I would pet it - ha - to it's distain I'm not a cat person and rarely touch to furry little critters!

Johnathon's basketball game last night was on the south side of Carbondale so I met dad down there after work. As we drove up he rolled down his window to tell me he had to go to Herrin hospital because my mother stepped on a cat as she was leaving and fell down the steps landing on concrete. She luckily had her cell phone and called Frankie who was close by and then called 911. They took her to Herrin hospital and thankfully it's just a sprain - not broken!

After the game I explained to Johnathon what had happened....
question #1) sooo Pappa Deaner missed the game?
(me) yes he had to go to the ER for Grand MaLou
(Spiff) man I scored 10 points tonight and he missed it

question #2) well what about the cat?
(me) do what!?!
(Spiff) well if Grand MaLou stepped on the cat is it dead?
(me) doubt it but I'll be sure to call and find out how the CAT is doing.....

I didn't call last night but have been told that the cat ran up the tree after being in the wrong place at the wrong time and we believe he's still hiding up there. As far as we know the cat will live as will Grand MaLou.

Thankful!

2009-11-11T10:32:00.014-06:00

So very thankful to all the veterans who have served this great country.
Here are just few that are related to me....above is my father who was a mechanic on a C130 in the Air Force

Those in uniform from left to right - Uncle Butch, cousin Wayne, Uncle Doug, Uncle JohnD, Aunt Kathy. Picture was taken at a Shurtz family reunion sometime in the mid80's.

My grandmother (Mary Shurtz) is in the middle along with two of my great grandmothers, Great Grandma Shurtz on the left and NaNa Foley on the right surrounded by my mother's siblings and her nephew who were all active duty at the time of this picture.

Siblings - Jason Shurtz is still active with the Navy and just returned from deployment, Heather Shurtz is now a civilian employed by the Navy (served 8 years active duty as a photographer for the Navy) and the eldest is Wayne Shurtz who just retired after serving 20 years in the medical field for the Navy.
My grandfather, Wayne Shurtz who was a pharmacist mate in the Navy.

Uncle Don Galloway who served during the Korean War in the US Army.

Grandfather, Wayne Shurtz on the left along with my uncle Wayne "Butch" Shurtz on the right.

Uncle John D who retired from the US Navy a few years ago. I believe this pic is from his retirement ceremony.

My cousin Brian who is still serving.

I have many more relatives who have or are still serving but I don't have pictures of them....just to name a few

Great Uncle Frank Shurtz, Navy
Great Uncle Jim Painter, Army
Great Uncle Ralph Galloway, Army
Uncle Shane Wheatley, Army
Cousin Nathan Shurtz, Marines
Cousin Steven Shurtz, Navy (active duty)
Cousin Tim Childress, Air Force
Cousin Kyle Painter, Army
Cousin Edgar Gillock, Army

I decorated the VFW in DuQuoin this morning, they're having a special ceremony for all WWII vets and are serving a meal throughout the day (which smelled wonderful!). My mother is an auxillary member and 'volunteered' me to decorate - based on everyone's reaction I have a feeling I'm decorating next year too. Here are a few pics of the decorations, they don't usually decorate the hall so I kept the decor somewhat simple.
I made the white sleeves around the flowers and glued the emblem from the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines onto the four sides. Ran red crepe paper down the middle of the tables that were covered in white film and cut stars from blue cardstock - stars and stripes. Purchased flag sets that include the American flag in the middle surrounded by the 5 branches of service flags inserted into a black pedestal. The flowers consisted of baby's breath that I sprayed blue, white & red carnations, mini red rose sprays, red tulips, red gerbera daisies, and white spider mums. American flags were added to the flower arrangements.

Go #25......season opener!

2009-11-06T20:57:00.015-06:00

Johnathon forced a turnover by stealing the ball, wish the breakaway was 'in focus'....
..........his lay-up attempt.

The other kid body checked him causing a personal foul...........so he got to shoot 3 free-throws. He missed the first one and made the next two.

First 2 POINTS of the seaon!

Not sure why he looks like he's in pain here.

He and Luke are both trying to get the ball from the JC player.

Missed the best part of this shot (had my big lens on and was sitting WAY too close to the action), anyway he made this basket.....2 POINTS!

Sticking your tongue out at him??? Really!
I'm pretty sure he's looking for his bottle of water....pretty sure! (yah he's the one who's backside is all that you can see)
Game over - Sesser-Valier Devils 7th grade team wins!! WoooHoooo
Keeping stats during the varsity, 8th grade game.
Several of these were out of focus (ugggh), I didn't have the shutter speed set fast enough. I'll pay more attention for the game Monday night. This was the first game of the season and I was just a little off kilter but will be back into the swing of things by Monday!

09.21.09 Update

2009-09-21T08:55:00.002-05:00

It's a rainy Monday morning and I'm back at work after taking off a few days last week. Sorry I'm behind on my blog, I need to find about 4 more working hours in EACH the day!

I decorated another wedding this past weekend, it was a little nerve-racking as the bride and mother of the bride are in the wedding business (they sell wedding dresses). Sorry I don't have my memory stick to post pictures, which I didn't take many due to time constraints - but I do have a few from the chapel after it was decorated to post. The entire evening was decorated in white calla's, orchids & roses and dark, dark purple calla's. Big THANKS goes out again to my crew - Arielle, Brenda, Aunt Eileen, Mom & Staci. I was on auto pilot yesterday, got a few things put away but for the most part just 'moved' through the day. Mentally and physically drained plus one of my bottom wisdom teeth has decided to try to come in again - I know, I know I need to have them cut out. The frequency of their attempts to surface has increased so I may make that appointment to an ortho surgeon.

My 20th class reunion and the Art & Wine Festival at the Southern Illinois Artisan Shop is this weekend. I'm partially decorating and photographing a wedding the first weekend in October and decorating another purple wedding the second weekend in October. After those two weddings I just have photo sessions for the rest of the year!!! I've already started thinking about my Christmas cards this year and since I didn't get them out last year - I should have most of the supplies already.

Junior high baseball is ending this week. Flag football for Matthew and Katie (cheer leading) started this past weekend, unfortunately with the events I have going I'll only be able to catch the last game or two. I think we have a few weeks off before basketball begins, but not many. So between sports and my three jobs I keep busy. I don't understand when people post and talk about being bored - I just don't understand that term any more.

Number 7 [Sesser-Valier Baseball]

2009-08-30T07:48:00.007-05:00

SV junior high boys baseball is under way. The season is going okay - we're 4 in 9 and have won the last two games! Below are a few quick pics that I took. Unfortunately the games are all at four o'clock and since I don't officially get off work until five, I don't get to attend many of the games.

You need to keep your eyes OPEN to see the ball Johnathon!

.....and somehow he caught it anyway
ready to bunt
....prepping to steal a base (batter hit a pop and both Johnathon and the batter were out - Johnathon didn't have time to go back and tag up since he was to second when it was caught)
Diving to catch a ball.
Look how happy he looks here.

Also notice the runner on the right, it was a force out - all he had to do was TAG the base but instead he threw it to first just a split second too late. In his defense, this was the first time he'd ever played third base - not that the rules are different from second to third base.

Needless to say, gum was ban during ballgames after these pictures were taken.

Oh yeah that's during the middle of the game when he blowing bubbles attempting to throw out the batter at first!

If you live in the area and want to catch a game, here is the schedule for the rest of the season (all of the games are at 4pm and home games are at the VFW):

8/31 (Mon) at Unity Point

9/2 (Wed) Home v. Johnston City

9/8 (Tue) Home v. Hamilton County

9/10 (Thur) at Carterville

9/14 (Mon) at Zeigler

9/16 (Wed) Home v. Christopher

9/21 (Mon) Home v. Benton

Weekend Plans

2009-08-15T09:01:00.003-05:00

I'll be headed out the door in a few sec's to take pictures. Three sessions throughout today, great news - beautiful weather - a little hot for me but anything over 80 is hot to me. Met with a new bride last night, now I need to get a quote together for her and make sure everything is in order for the three upcoming weddings in September/October.

Johnathon and the SV Junior-High Baseball team are in a tournament today. Don't know that I'll get to make any of those games, but I'll try if they win the first game which just got underway as I start this post.

Sometime this weekend I need to get the basement put 'back together' after the air conditioner/furnace became plugged up and LEAKED, soaking the basement carpet (just on my side of the basement of course). That job could take an entire weekend since I needed to organize and clean it before the carpet became saturated and dad/I had to quickly get everything up off the floor - which by the way is a lot of stuff. You don't realize how much stuff you have crammed into such a small area until you have to quickly move it all! Lost some of the paper products I had on the floor along with at least one of my shelving units (one of those cheap pressed wood ones - they soak up a lot of water and swell!)

Well, my clients are here so I must go now.
Have a great weekend, I'm off to shoot pic's.

Last Christmas

2009-08-09T10:09:00.007-05:00

I was organizing my photo files, making disk copies of raw files, and starting the process of working on everything I need to edit.

Right before I went on vacation I downloaded all of the pic files from my many, many camera cards into a huge file - basically I just dumped everything there to deal with later. Well it's now later - I was moving these into their appropriate file location based on what the picture is of and ran across these, someone must have taken my camera to the nursing homes for the Christmas party in 2007.

Little did we now how much the world would change after this Christmas.....

Check out Dreanna

2009-08-08T20:19:00.003-05:00

Be sure to check out Dreanna's pictures on my photography blog!

Book Review: Sookie Stackhouse Series

2009-08-07T08:24:00.008-05:00

I've finished reading books 1-8 of the Sookie Stackhouse - Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris. The first book was a little slow getting going as is with many books when the writer introduces the characters and the history that pertains to the upcoming plot. I must admit, upon reading the first book I was disappointed and almost didn't continue the series but since I bought the books in a set I figured I had them already and could muster enough strength to read at least one more.

I'm not disappointed in the decision to keep reading the series, things started picking up when half the book wasn't about the who and what aspect but rather the story in general. After the third book I was able to somewhat predict the general plot in the remaining books though. There were of course things that happened while reading the books that I wasn't expecting but the general flow of the book was predictable, more so in #7 and #8. So I was able to read them quickly.

I'll buy and read the 9th book, Dead and Gone, when it becomes available in softback. My interest isn't peaked enough to pay the cost of a hardcover book - I buy a lot of hard cover books if that tells you anything. Had I not read the Twilight Saga I probably would have found this series more interesting, but in comparison this series just doesn't stack up. Twilight was the first vampire series of books I'd read, I was surprised at the similarities in vampire traits between the two sets of novels.

In all I'd give this series 3.8 stars out of 5, it just wasn't 'enough' to warrant more stars. But on the up side it was a quick, easy read that was entertaining enough to get me to read 8 books in a short period of time. I would recommend reading the books, I just don't think it'll knock your socks off (you won't be calling me saying they're the best books you've ever read).

My other blogs

2009-08-03T15:18:00.004-05:00

Be sure to check out my photography blog and decorating blog.
I was able to get a few new posts up today!

Here's a sneak peak at the photography blog!

I see the light!

2009-07-29T07:40:00.003-05:00

The past two, rather three months have been a little hectic (all my own fault of course). I'll now admit, working full-time and decorating three weddings in two weeks was just a little much :) I have table decor for 12 tables to do for a 50th anniversary party this weekend and two photos sessions next weekend and then I think I'll have a couple of weeks off! I think I may take a few days off from work without having a reason to be off - ME days, I think I've earned a few of them.

My plans for the next month are to get a new dvd burner for the ole computer and start burning the heck out of disks with pictures so I can get them off my computer. It was brought to my attention a few weeks back that I'm OUT of hard disk space on my computer (and I have an 80gig hard drive!) I've been saving the raw pic file along with the edited pic files and I take a LOT of pictures and well my computer is completely full and bogged down with pictures. So I'm going to do some much needed maintenance to clean up the computer so I can edit all of the pictures from this summer.......I'm literally talking about several 1000 pictures - I told you I take a lot of pictures.

And while I'm not sitting on my butt in front of the computer, I've decided to 'make-over' the middle/big section of the barn. My decorating inventory has grown too large for the little garage in front of the house. I've considered renting storage space uptown or purchasing a pre-built storage shed but then realized that I'd spend just as much if not more on those two options and end up with much, much less space.

So I'm going to fix/replace all missing and or broken boards, build some shelves for storing vases/fabric/tablecloths/flowers/etc..., level the ground and pour a concrete floor, run some electricity (someone else will have to do this part - Dad), build a door, and possibly build a loft. The middle section is the tallest, as is with most barns, and there will be a lot of wasted space if we don't have a loft area - well, unless we hang things from the rafters - don't really see that as a option. I'll be sure to take before and after pictures when this project gets started. I love to remodel/redesign and build things and can't wait, of course once it gets started and feels like it will never end I doubt I'll be as excited about the undertaking.

Johnathon starts practice Monday for school junior high baseball. Which means that another series of baseball games (and pictures) will begin in a few weeks - about the time school starts.

My above to do list needs to be done before my next busy time which starts with a wedding on Sept 19th to decorate along with all floral, my 20th reunion (which I'm decorating of course) on Sept 26th which is also the Wine & Art Festival so I'll have to help at Mom's shop some, a wedding on Oct 3rd to photograph and help with some decor, and a wedding to decorate on Oct 10th along with all floral. Of course the quarter ends in September so in October I'll have to have the quarterly financials done once again also.

I have a feeling it's going to be 2010 very, very quickly!

Longaberger 1-Day Sale: TV Time Basket

2009-07-27T11:09:00.005-05:00

This Wednesday ONLY, July 29th you can purchase the TV Time Basket for only $32 ($20 off the regular price of $52) You can easily purchase these baskets on my Longaberger Website or call/email me and I'll be happy to order it for you.

Some suggested uses for the TV Time Basket:

In the Office: store computer disks / organize and store office supplies / keep sales receipts in one, easily accessible location / holds envelopes, address book, note cards, stamps & pens

In the Kitchen: keep near the sink to hold rings, scrub pads, sponges, etc / holds small cookbooks / store microwave popcorn packets, tea bags, coffee and hot chocolate packets / hold napkins, small paper plates and silverware / organize recipes

In the Family Room: holds art supplies / keep the remotes handy by the couch along with TV listings / perfect for storing playing cards, dice and score pads

On the Go: use it in the car to hold cell phone, tissues, pens, paper, change and receipts / perfect for holding passports, tickets, maps, etc while traveling / holds portable CD player, iPod, Nintendo DS, headphones, etc

Don't forget the plastic protector and fabric liner to complete the look of your basket!

Sneak Peak @ Yellow & Black Wedding

2009-07-23T14:17:00.003-05:00

Here is a sneak peak at the yellow and black wedding I decorated (with a LOT of help) this past weekend. Check out my decorating blog to see more......hopefully the photographer took pics once the wedding party arrived - I didn't!

Blueberry

2009-07-22T21:00:00.003-05:00

Look what the UPS lady brought me the other day, and it's not even my birthday......isn't it sooo cute. My cousin Heather sent me some homemade blueberry jelly! I don't know what it tastes like yet but I love the short little Mason canning jar (I've never seen these around here before - too cute)! Oh, Heather's a great cook so I'm sure the jelly is going to taste delicious tomorrow morning on my toast, or maybe tonight on some ice cream :)
Thanks Heather!

Big THANKS!

2009-07-20T15:39:00.003-05:00

Let me start by saying that the two wedding/receptions this past weekend KICKED by BUTT! I didn't attempt to get out of my bed until after 9am yesterday morning (I'm usually awake before 6 and out of bed by 7 at the latest even on weekends) and then moved in sloooooow motion all day yesterday.

Lindsey & Ben's "orange/beach" reception came together as I'd mentally pictured it, so I was happy. My only regret is that I ran out of time to get one of their wedding pictures professionally printed (aka NOT Walmart). Kris, the mother of the bride, was extremely happy and passed along how impressed everyone was with the decorations. The tables were covered in orange satin with sea shells scattered all over the tables and two alternating centerpieces - 1 floral and the other a candle set in sand.

The other wedding/reception this past weekend was the "yellow/lemon" reception set for 350 guests. Holy cow was it ever a LOT of work. When all was said and done though it was worth it - I think it's my favorite 'decorating' job thus far. I'd shown Ashlee & Bryan literally hundreds of pictures of black/white/yellow decorations that I downloaded from the internet, after a couple of meetings we settled on 3 alternating centerpieces and a few other elements to make their wedding special. I must say I think I nailed it dead on.

I owe a BIG THANKS to all who helped prep stuff the week before, setup on Friday, arrange flowers on Saturday, tear down late Saturday night and cleanup on Sunday - Mom, Dad, Johnathon (great helper with lots of energy!), Aunt Eileen (who hand washed every vase for me Sunday even thought I wanted to put them in the dishwasher), Brenda, Staci, Arielle, Bethany, Julie & Nina. Without a great support system there's absolutely no way I could do this! So thanks again!

Sorry there aren't any pictures yet, like I said I was spent yesterday. I did manage to accomplish a few things while moving in slow motion: rearranged the garage a little, segregated out what decorations I'll need for the wedding this weekend, put away a few items I won't be using again soon, and washed about 6 loads of tablecloths (only about 12 more loads to go - which I need this weekend!)

I have a full week but will try to get pictures posted soon.

PostVacation Chores

2009-07-16T07:43:00.007-05:00

I know those of you who have been gone on vacation for over a week understand what it's like to return to EVERYTHING you must get done while you were gone. It always seems to me that I have 5 times more work that needs to be completed when I'm gone from work for a while, haven't quite figured out why that is yet. I realize I still owe you pictures from baseball season, Sesser 5K fun walk/run, vacation and Lindsey's wedding. The day we returned from Florida, Johnathon and Matthew entered into the end of season baseball tournament - like I could miss any of those games.

Then when baseball ended, Uncle JohnD and Aunt Kathy came for a visit from SanDiego. Of course we always eat well when we have company over and we had fried zucchini one nite which is probably one of my favorite foods. I think I can eat 2-3 zucchini by myself. Since they're fried we don't fix them often, so I made a pig of myself and quite frankly don't really care!! Oh did I mention I LOVE FRIED ZUCCHINI!

With not only the month ending while on vacation, but also the quarter and mid-year point as an accountant my full-time job workload has been crazy since I got back. I have to have the midyear analysis done and ready to present to the banks by next Tuesday which = 12 hour work days through the end of this month ends to get it all done. While in the mean time I have two weddings to decorate this weekend and one next weekend!
One wedding this weekend is black/white/yellow with lemons as the accent. here are a few of the 350 candy bags filled with lemon wedge candy that will be given to the guests.

I also had to do 225 orange candy bags for Lindsey's reception this weekend. I filled hers with orange & tangerine flavored 'salt water' taffy to go with the whole beach theme of her wedding in Destin, Florida - pretty smart don't you think.

Yesterday I received several shipments from FedEx and UPS. Actually they've been coming to my house like everyday for almost a week now. You should see my living/dining room - it's wedding central! Yesterday they brought me the following items:

50 yellow & white freesia
20 orange lilies
100 yellow static
120 yellow spider mums
60 white large calla lilies
20 mini white calla lilies
200 mini yellow calla lilies
400 yellow carnations (filler)
200 yellow roses
150 orange roses
50 hot pink roses
20 yellow garden roses
10 white garden roses
330 yellow snapdragons
4 field bunches of tree fern
3 field bunches of waxflower
The orange and hot pink are for Lindsey's reception, the yellow & white are for Ashlee & Bryan's black/white/yellow reception. Of course the all had to be unpacked, ends cut and bottom leaves removed before I put them in 5 gallon buckets of water to hydrate.

Last night in the midst of all the decorating prep, Aunt Eileen brought over Ben for a little photo session. Our first photo session was suppose to be 2 weeks after he was born, but he decided to go to stop breathing and visit the hospital instead - guess he was just camera shy. Well let me just say, taking pictures of high school seniors is a WHOLE lot easier than babies. That was a learning experience last night to say the least and now that he's not just a couple of weeks old he was too big to do most of the poses I wanted to do but not big enough to do the other one's I wanted to do. Plus I wanted to do some outside shots but once again it was raining here - that has got to stop. The sun is shining right now, maybe tonight I can squeeze in a few outdoor pictures?!

Well, that's pretty much what I've been up to since vacation. I'm getting ready to head out to get my hair cut uptown (going to be late if I don't wrap this up soon!) and then tomorrow the real decorating begins! I'm nervous in a good way and can't wait to share pictures of the receptions with you! Have a good weekend - mine will be without sleep, just not seeing where I'll have time for that! Good thing I LOVE coffee.

On Strike!

2009-06-29T11:02:00.006-05:00

I went outside to move my car from the middle of the driveway where I stopped when we finally arrived home late last night to the place I normally park it only to find out it's on STRIKE today and absolutely refuses to go anywhere. After being pack to the rim for a week and 2235 miles driven it wants a day off - so I'm going to give in and let it rest for a day!

Instead of running a few errands as I'd planned to do, I'm going to get some things done here at home. Laundry will be the first order of business and is already underway. I attempted to download some of the pics from this past week this morning only to realize that I'm out of hard drive space on my computer - if it's not one thing it's another with this thing, seriously.

So I'm doing some maintenance work that I should have been keeping up with all along.....copying files to disks so I can get them off the hard drive and backing them up to an external hard drive at the same time. Once that's done I need to complete an engagement session edit from before vacation, 5k Fun Walk/Run pictures, vacation pictures, and Lindsey & Ben's wedding pics. Oh and at some point in time complete all of the basketball and baseball pictures. Plus I need to get them on my blog for everyone to see - I know I'm such a slacker!

For those who didn't get my mobile uploads (taken on my new blackberry which I LOVE), here is a sneak peek of vacation.....Dinsey Animal Kingdom picture of Matt, Katie, Brittany & Johnathon after the face painting - acting like tigers. Sorry I didn't get to blog on vacation, just didn't have time (or energy after loooooong days spent running around)
I need to wash, dry, fold and put away 3-4 loads of laundry and put away everything we took on vacation - my vehicle and the van were packed FULL. It's almost noon and I need to have everything done before 6:30pm so I can get to Matt's baseball tournament tonight..........think I'll get everything done? hehe I don't! Hope everyone has a wonderful week, mine will be busy. Thank goodness we get Friday off!

on the road

2009-06-21T18:27:00.000-05:00

This is my first mobile upload!! I got a blackberry yesterday. We're in route 2 Florida and have stopped south of Macon about 150 miles from the FL border. Kids r in the pool then we're going 2 eat dinner, watch a little tv and hit the sack. Haven't figure out how 2 do pics on the phone and upload them....sorry

2009-06-19T15:04:00.003-05:00

Getting ready to leave work and head home to pack my car up with the items required for a wedding next weekend which I'm providing the decorating supplies for but I won't be here to physically decorate myself.

Then I'm headed to my friends house to help with last minute Sesser Homecoming 5K Fun Walk, Run preparation/car packing. Then I'll be headed home to start packing for the big Florida trip. We'll be heading out early Sunday morning and driving the somewhere in the southern end of Georgia. Monday morning we'll get up and drive the rest of the way into Florida, stopping by the Daytona Raceway before landing in Orlando. Tuesday and Wednesday we'll be spending quality time with 'The Mouse'. Thursday we plan to drive over to Venice to visit my aunt's and take the kids to see "Pop's Beach" (Venice beach that my great grandfather visited on a daily basis when he was living).

Friday we'll drive over to Destin for my cousin's wedding Saturday night and then we'll be heading home. While in Destin we hope to hit the Eglin Air Force Base so Dad can show the grandkids the plane he flew on in the Air Force and visit a local go cart track, any remaining time will be on the beach.

We'll be non-stop on the go, but with an 11, 8, 7, and 6 year old down time leads quickly to bored doom - can't have that. Will have a computer with us so hopefully I'll get a chance to post some pics as we go - hopefully!

Longaberger One Day Sale-Chili Bowl

2009-06-16T15:09:00.004-05:00

Wednesday, June 17th ONLY

This Wednesday ONLY, July 17th you can purchase the chili pottery bowl at a great discounted price - only $10 each. These are available in ivory, cornflower (blue), paprika (dark pinkish/red), butternut (yellow), ebony (black), sage (green) or tomato (red).

These bowls hold 2 cups which is a great size for cereal, dumplins, soup, chili or ice cream!!

I own a couple of these (will own a couple more tomorrow) and absolutely love them - I love the handle, which allows me to easily carry around my Honey Nut Cheerios at night.

You can purchase these on my Longaberger Site or call me (618-218-4031)

and place an order direct!

Ughhhhhhh

2009-06-14T08:33:00.004-05:00

I've basically been without a home computer for almost 2 weeks. My computer started doing weird things and giving me all kinds of error messages forcing a restart every 5 minutes or so. Not being 'computer illiterate' I started running my own diagnosis and attempting to fix the problem(s) with windows (operating system problem none the less - just wonderful).

Well I failed and the more time I worked on it unsuccessfully the more agitated I became. So I broke down, admitted defeat and took it to the computer guru. Who by the way also couldn't 'fix' the problem. He ended up and wiped my hard drive CLEAN and re-installed windows XP. I'm not afraid of my computer and will attempt to make it do what ever I want it to do, but getting a computer with absolutely no programs installed is a little overwhelming due to the sheer volume of programs I load up on it.

I've spent the better part of the last couple of days doing nothing I wanted - looking for program disks, re-installing programs, looking for passwords that I had preloaded, trying to find the websites of programs I purchased digital downloads and installing new drivers. I purchased my computer with Vista on it - hated Vista and loaded XP pro over it. Well, my HP was built with all drivers for Vista and some (way tooooo many) don't work with earlier versions of Windows.

It's just been loads of fun, you should try it sometime!

Weekend Update - 05.31.09

2009-05-31T07:48:00.004-05:00

I know I need to get pictures up, but I just wanted to type a quick post to let you know what I'm up to / what I have going on.

Arielle and Bart's graduation party was a success last night - the room looked GREAT of course - that decorator they hired ROCKS :)!! I'll get a few of those pictures posted the first available minute I have to look at them. We broke down a lot of the decorations last night (thanks again for the help Tamar & Lydia). I brought home a car full of stuff that I need to go unload out of my vehicle. I'm meeting the unpaid 'hired' help in a few to finish the clean up and get everything hauled home and put away, I'm hoping it will only take two more trips to complete the clean up.

When I woke up this morning at my typical 5:30am I realized that I forgot to take a picture of the food table last night, so I'll have to show you the food tags without them being displayed by the actual food. Kind of bummed that I didn't take this picture - if anyone else did let me know please! I'll warn you now I didn't really take that many pictures last night. I once considered decorating and photographing a wedding for someone - bad, bad idea. Once you spend 2 days decorating you're pooped by the time the event starts and pretty brain dead. Lesson learned: you either photograph an event or you decorate it, but never ever both.

I've been editing the pictures of my cousin's twins who turned 1 a few days after I took their picture (taken a little longer than I wanted to edit with baseball starting and graduation and.....). I'll have those done this week and posted on the photography blog - cute 1 year old twin girls, of course you'll check back to see those pics.

I have an engagement session to shoot later this afternoon. I was suppose to do it last weekend but the rain kind of ruined our day, FYI outside pics don't look all that great when the subjects are soaking wet. So far today is beautiful, hopefully it stays this way all day so we can get this session taken (I'm really looking forward to doing their pictures).

So that's what I've been up to this weekend. Hopefully during this next week I'll be at home in the evenings some and will be able to catch up on my photo edits. Summer baseball started a few weeks ago (most games have been cancelled due to the mass amounts of rain we've had this spring) but I do have some pictures to get the season started.

It's Official

2009-05-28T20:40:00.013-05:00

The Sesser-Valier High School

Class of 2009 Graduates!

I don't remember ever seeing soooooo many people in the gym for a high school graduation before, the place was BACKED.

Literally 2 minutes before I walked out the door, I took my charms off my bracelet and put together this for Arielle to wear tonight. I bought these charms 2 years ago to use on grandma's birthday scrapbook (which I haven't got around to yet) and thought they'd be perfect for tonight.

Here's a close up of the bracelet (if you know the Shurtz family you'll understand why Arielle was wearing pink flamingo's at graduation - if you don't know our family, just trust me on this one - it's a family thing).

Arielle and Bethany both received gold "HONOR" sashes for graduating in the top 10 of their class. Arielle was 3rd in her class (this is her getting her honor sash from Kyle). Bethany walked too fast and was partially hid when she received her sash. Bethany, Arielle and Bart all three received numerous scholarships also.

The graduating class all wore purple ribbons in honor of one of their teachers who's battling ovarian cancer.

My beautiful cousin Bethany

Bethany and her father, Darin

(the mass amount of people made the gym and commons area rather warm)
Arielle with one of her friends

6 1/2 G - Lightest Golden Brown

2009-05-28T16:43:00.003-05:00

If I ever return to a hairdresser to get highlights I'll be overly explicit on what I consider a HIGHLIGHT. Twice now when I've asked for a few blond/strawberry blond highlights I've ended up with large chunks of dyed hair. This time I have five distinct chunks of blond with the one next to my head extremely blond (but not the rest of them).

I'm not quite sure when highlights strayed from weaving the comb end through your select strands of hair to add light shade variations as though you've been in the sun.......I don't like the newer version of picking up chunks of hair and haphazardly applying color. I want my hair to have the appearance of looking natural, not like someone attempted to create some masterpiece (gone terribly wrong) on my head.

So before I head to graduation it's L'Oreal to the rescue!

Remember....

2009-05-25T08:01:00.005-05:00

Thank You to all those who have served - past and present!
Happy Memorial Day, I hope everyone gets to spend time with family and friends today. My father took these pictures last year of Maple Cemetery in Sesser. I love when they fly the flags along the roadside, they have them set about every 6 feet apart the entire length of the cemetery.

We're having a few family members over later today for a cookout. I'd better get to it - cooking and cleaning that is. Before I know it people will be arriving and I'll still be on the computer in my pj's drinking coffee :) Arielle requested brats and we're also fixing ribs, hamburgers, cheesy potato casserole, fresh asparagus!!, mac salad (Aunt Eileen), chips & dip, lemon pie and chocolate cake hmmmmm I'm suddenly hungry.

With the overabundance of rain we've had in SoIL over the last couple of months, monument companies have been unable to set headstone footings. So unfortunately my grandmother & grandfather Shurtz's new joint headstone was unable to be placed before Memorial Day here at Maple Hill.

20 Years, Seriously!?

2009-05-24T20:45:00.005-05:00

I just returned home from the Baccalaureate at the Sesser-Valier High School Gym for the Class of 2009. It's rather hard to believe that it's been 20 years since I was the one wearing the white graduation robe and walking down the aisle in front of my family and friends. So much has happened in the last 20 years yet in many ways it feels like it was only a few years ago.

Its a good thing I wasn't getting paid to take pictures tonight because this photographer made a major error. I failed to take my 24-70mm lens, I only had my 70-200mm on the camera (the one I do the sports pictures with). The gym really isn't that big and I was able to get to the center to take pictures - unfortunately I was TOO close for the lens I had on my camera and couldn't focus the darn thing. I snapped one of Arielle walking the aisle but didn't get Bart or Bethany.

I'll be ready Thursday - promise!

A quick shout out - Arielle was keeping it in the family. She had on Lindy Jo's white sundress under her gown and my necklace. I wish I had older cousins growing up. Which talking of 'older' cousins, this one in particular felt old tonight - not only did I take Arielle's senior picture but am also responsible for taking her baby picture which they showed on the slide show tonight - so maybe it does feel like 20 years since I graduated.....

So Proud....

2009-05-19T14:41:00.008-05:00

Last evening I had the pleasure of attending the 2009 Miss Herrinfesta Pageant at the Herrin Civic Center to observe 17 year old Miss Arielle Wheatley from the Village of Valier who was proudly sponsored by Com-Pac International (that's what she's saying in the pic above this).

While she didn't place, this was her first pageant ever and we're all extremely PROUD of her for getting up there. If you know her personality you'd understand how much courage it took for her to do this and she did GREAT!

I'll admit I couldn't do it when I was her age

1) the thought of changing in one open room with all the other girls - no privacy - don't think so

2) walking on stage with everyone staring at just me - nope

3) and then having to walk on stage in a bathing suit - definitely wasn't going to happen!

There are a few more local pagenats that give away scholarship money and we're hoping that with one under her belt she'll be willing to try another one.
Doesn't she look great!

I know she owes an extra special thanks to Lindy Jo, Aunt Eileen, Michelle and Samantha.

Most of her clothing was from Lindy's pageant days in college (Miss Bolivar and I believe she was 1st runner-up in Miss Missouri) and Aunt Eileen was able to alter everything in two seconds flat to fit Arielle like a glove. Michelle and Samantha (2004 Miss Herrinfesta) coached her the week prior on pageant protocol and did her hair and makeup.

I know I've not posted the prom pictures of Arielle.

I'm hoping we'll get to do a fun, relaxed shoot with her friends on Saturday. The temp is suppose to be warm with overcast skies - a photographers dream! Almost every picture I have of her from last weekend has her date in it and after the way he acted at Prom, I just don't want to post many pics of him. So as soon as we get to do a few "fun" prom dress pictures I'll get them up for everyone to see - promise!

Longaberger One-Day Sale

2009-05-11T13:00:00.003-05:00

This Wednesday ONLY, May 13th you can get any one of the three baskets below at a great discounted price. You can purchase these on my Longaberger Site or call me (618-218-4031) and place an order direct!

Teaspoon Basket $20

Small Fruit Basket $25

Small Vegetable Basket $30

Don't forget the protectors and liners to complete your baskets!

Mother's Day Lunch

2009-05-10T10:09:00.011-05:00

There's a local meat market that sells bacon hamburgers and charges you the price of gold for them. So for lunch today I decided to try to mimic their burgers in a cheaper fashion. I chopped up bacon and added it to the burger mixture - there weren't any burgers left over so I guess they were pretty good! I also fixed french fries - I think this was the first time I've done this since I left McDonald's.

Strawberry Cake (not low fat!)
Cake Ingredients:
3/4 Cup softened butter
1/2 Cup vegetable oil
3 Cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs
3 Cups cake flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp strawberry gelatin
1 Cup thawed frozen strawberries - pureed (I don't do this)
1/4 Cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp red food coloring

Icing Ingredients:
1 1/2 packages softened cream cheese
3/4 Cup softened butter
6 Cups powered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and arrange racks in center of oven. Grease three 9 inch round layer cake pans, line bottoms with wax paper or parchment paper. Grease top of paper and sides of pan, then dust with flour (I cheat and use the spray with flour in it).

Beat butter and oil until smooth and creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until very light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Sift flour with baking soda and gelatin and set aside.
Blend pureed strawberries with milk, vanilla extract and red food coloring and set aside.

Reduce speed on mixer to low setting and stir flour mixture and strawberry/milk mixture alternately into batter, beginning and ending with flour. Divide batter evenly among three pans and bake 30-35 minutes or until tops spring back if lightly pressed in their centers. (I didn't cook the full 30 minutes because the sides of my cakes were getting really dark - could just be my oven)

Cool layers in pan for 10 minutes then turn out onto racks to completely cool before icing.

Icing - beat cream cheese with butter until smooth. Gradually beat in powered sugar on a medium speed until light and fluffy. Blend in vanilla and continue beating until frosting has a smooth, satiny appearance.

Spread generously between layers and over the sides and top of cake.

The first time I made this I made cupcakes and used Wilton's buttercream icing. I love cream cheese icing but seriously think it was too much for this cake. I liked the buttercream better.

And this is what I 'made' for my mother......she loves them, what can I say.

The strawberry cake was for me, my birthday that is. I almost always get a strawberry cake on my birthday (different recipe - sheet cake usually), but this year Johnathon had a track meet and everyone got home late - so I made myself one today!

Call me grace

2009-05-10T09:28:00.004-05:00

I must tell on myself:

1) I know I should have taken a picture (yes I have a camera), but it was one of those 'oh man I should have taken a pic' moments AFTER I was almost done cleaning up

2) I started on the strawberry cake (which I'll post a recipe for in a bit). I had to get into the 'seasoning' cabinet for vanilla and red food coloring - no big deal right? The vanilla is a huge bottle of Watkins and right in front, easy to get. The red food coloring on the other hand is on the top shelf and in the middle of a lot of other stuff.

Being a little lazy early in the morning I decided to streeeetch instead of getting a chair. Keep in mind I'm only 5'1". Well needless to say my morning stretch wasn't what it should have been and I accidentally hit a bottle of cinnamon hearts (you know, the ones you decorate cupcakes with). Miraculously these fell directly into my fresh cup of coffee sitting on the counter top.......talk about a MESS.

I had coffee E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E the counter, floor, cabinets (top and bottom), Kitchen Aide mixer that was sitting ready to make my cake, butter ready to be beat, cake pans on stove, package of buns patiently waiting for today's lunch, and all over my shirt, pants & socks. Oh yeah, this day is starting off just swell!

Oh I forgot to mention, my Longaberger coffee cup holds 2 1/2 cups of beverage and 85% of it came out of the cup when the cinnamon hearts hit.....and it was a swoosh - no rim!

Third & Fourth

2009-05-09T23:03:00.003-05:00

Congrats to Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman for finishing 3rd and 4th at Darlington just a few minutes ago. Tony has moved into second place in the cup standings - not bad for a guy who is in the first year of starting a new team.

Unbelievable Weather

2009-05-09T20:44:00.005-05:00

For all my family & friends that don't live close by, So IL was a scary place to live in yesterday. A round of thunderstorms passed through around 1pm yesterday afternoon with a wrap around cell on the backside of the storms. Luckily Sesser was just on the northern edge of the severe storm, we personally just suffered lots down branches - not any different than a typical spring thunderstorm around here - power outages, funky green skies, branches breaking, trees bending, lots and lots of rain.

Just south of us is where the majority of the damage happened which was basically all along IL Route 13 - Murphysboro, Carbondale, Carterville, Herrin, Marion, Harrisburg. It pretty much stretched from Missouri to the Indiana/Kentucky border. There were winds report over 100 mph, that's class 2 hurricane strength! They've enacted a curfew in those counties, no one allowed on the streets after 8pm (4pm in one town!). In addition to the straight line winds, there were 3 tornado's reported in the Southern Illinois area also.

Just 10 miles south of where we live everyone is without power. The last I heard, between the three major electric companies there are appox 85,000 homes without power and they don't expect to have it restored until Wednesday at the earliest because of all of the trees that uprooted (big, healthy trees) and damaged the lines/poles. This does have a little good news to it - I may not have to go to work Monday and/or Tuesday - no power - no work!

The picture at the top is copied from a local tv stations site, 1000's of pictures similar to this are being shown. You know it's bad when Walmart closes. In the town's listed above, all Walmart stores, grocery stores, and gas stations closed when the storms hit due to damage to the buildings and loss of power - nothing has opened back up yet either. Benton had their power restored by 7:30 last night. You should have seen the amount of people from south of here literally flooding into gas stations, Walmart and fast food restaurants - it was unbelievable.

Interesting tidbit we heard on the news, do you know what the number one item purchased from Walmart is when there is a natural disaster...................Pop Tarts, go figure! The Walmart store manager they interviewed said that Pop Tarts would be brought in by the TRUCK LOAD to the area's affected by the storms. More people buy Pop Tarts than water, batteries, flash lights, etc.....who would have thunk it!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's out there reading this.
I'm fixing hamburgers on the grill, french fries, wilted lettuce (out of the garden), baked beans, and layered strawberry cake for Mother's Day tomorrow.

Check back sometime tomorrow, I hope to get some of Arielle's senior prom pictures on my photography blog. Of course she was just beautiful, that person who picks out her formal dresses sure does a good job - I wish she was working at Joyce's when I was in school (and skinny), oh well guess you can't win them all. Also on that note, never under estimate the value of a good seamstress and properly altered dress.

Quick update on the side business, I finally completed all of the graduation/party invitations and Lindsey's wedding invitations - hooray for me! All invitations are in the mail which means in a few weeks I can post pictures. In addition to finishing all of the invitations yesterday, I had to make Arielle's prom flower bouquet/boutonniere ensemble plus two poster boards complete with glitter for my mother for the Little Miss and Mister Rend Lake Water Festival parade that was this morning. I didn't get to bed until almost 1am, my scrap dungeon/basement looks like the hurricane force winds passed through it. Thought about cleaning it up some tonight, but I'm thinking it will wait until tomorrow.

GPS???

2009-05-03T10:41:00.005-05:00

My day job has been keeping me BUSY (worked 109 hours in an 80 hour two week pay period). I had to have the first quarter financials done, the four companies consolidated with ratio analysis and in a professional format to present to our two banks. We had one meeting on Wednesday and the second one in St. Louis on Thursday. Friday was the fist day of the month which starts the month-end cycle all over.....

It rained almost the entire way to/from St. Louis. My directions to the bank are simple in theory, follow US64 to exit 34B. Problem is that US64 is closed at exit 36. So I had to get off on Kingshighway and then figure out how to get to Clayton the 'back' way. Since I don't have a GPS my only other option was to call the bank and ask them for directions. Good thing I did too, it wasn't a clear path from my alternate point A that I was at to point 'B'ank. In fact I took 7 additional roads to get there. That being said, I was only 3 minutes late to the meeting!

I was hoping to find that this had an available built in GPS system....no luck, but I still want one really, really bad - JEEP not GPS. I'm still a little disappointed too that you can't get the remote start with manual transmission. So do I get the remote start or go for the manual trans which I enjoy driving? decisions, decisions

Yesterday and today I'm working on invitations. I've designed, ordered, received and stuffed Arielle and Bart's graduation announcement. Yesterday I designed and printed their party invitation, which is a two part invite (150 on them) that has to be hand cut (both pieces!). When I finish cutting them I have to do some design work to the top part, attach them together and stuff them in with the announcements. Then I need to work on Lindsey and Ben's wedding invitations. I have the general design done for these, just need to work on fonts/spacing, print, cut, adhere to backs and hand-tie on the extra 'decoration'.

Sorry I can't post pictures, too many of you will be gettting both of these in the mail soon! All non-relatives check back in a couple of weeks and I'll post pictures then.

Congrats to Cousins

2009-04-19T21:18:00.006-05:00

Very special congratulations to Jeff and Mary on the arrival of their son

Benjamin Martin Patchett

I stole the pic below from their blog.....he sure looks a lot like his father but we won't hold that against him, he's still a cutie! He entered the world on Easter morning.

Another cousin has started a blog (YAHHHHH) and got her first post up today.

Check out Heather's blog and show some love. She's starting a photography business in Virginia, I'm thinking PF Photography needs to branch out to other states....then when she moves back to SoIL she won't have to change her business name and we can kick some major photo butt together. We already have the same camera and can share equipment/lenses, I think the flamingo founder would get a real kick out of that.

I posted a few pictures from Lindsey's bridal shower today on my decorating blog. It was upstairs in the Sesser Opera House and catered by Dyel's catering (delicious of course). My only job was to decorate the tables.

I gave her a thin canvas print from their engagement photo session last weekend. Love the thin canvas prints. They're only about 1/4 inch wide and have foam blocks on the back for mounting them to a wall which makes it stand out about an inch from the wall.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way they look hung.

I just watched Desperate Housewife's and got a little teary eyed at the end. I somewhat knew what was going to happen but it still got me a little choked up. Now I'm watching In Plain Sight, super excited it's finally back on. Caught up with an old friend from the McDonald's day a few minutes ago on FaceBook - be sure to look me up if you have an account.

Ribs and the weekend

2009-04-10T12:26:00.006-05:00

I went to eat at Chili's last night with some friends and got the same thing I always get there - chipolte ribs, loaded potato's and rita's!! LOVE them. Hungry right now, hmmm Mt.Vernon isn't that far.....

I finally did my TAXES yesterday and as expected getting a nice little check/deposit from the US government. I never doubted that I'd get a refund (I play with my withholding to make sure of it in fact), I don't know why I've put off doing them for so long this year - it wasn't even painful - a little time consuming with my three side businesses but not painful.

I finished most of the photo edits from my cousin's shoot yesterday. Posted them on my PhotoBlog if you haven't seen them yet. Today I need to make a disk for my Aunt to take to their house (Jeff & Mary's) Sunday. We're hoping to hear any time now that she's (Mary) gone into labor and their new little boy is en route - no word yet though.

My first load of laundry is in the washer, I've watched Survivor from last night - can't wait until next week when they'll get to vote (anxious to see which plot attempt works), caught up on most of my blog reads, bought a few new cartridges for my Cricut (they're on sale, most just $30 - check them out), baked two packages of the Easter egg sugar cookies by Nestle for Johnathon, Matt, Katie to decorate later - Mom's watching them later today. I have one more wedding quote to finalize, things to purchase for the shower next weekend and grad party and the upcoming weddings. Two photo sessions tomorrow, it's suppose to be close to 60 tomorrow so I'm hoping to do some outside pics. I need to design the graduation invitation in photoshop and my cousin's wedding invitation next week also.

I must find time to clean sometime in the next 36 hour period, it's time to 'make-over' my bathroom with a new look and would love, love, love to find a few hours to spend in the basement scrapping....not looking like that's going to happen but I'm not giving up on it entirely just yet either. I'm making grandma's potato salad for Easter Sunday to go with the ham and that should wrap up my weekend!

If I don't find time to get back on here.....HAPPY EASTER!!

Movie Review - Twilight

2009-04-05T07:48:00.004-05:00

I finally broke down and watched the Twilight movie. You'll remember from this post that I loved the four-book saga. While I was pleasantly surprised that the books weren't necessarily 'tween' and truly enjoyed reading them, the movie on the other hand was definitely geared toward a younger crowd. I was personally disappointed in the movie, there were so many aspects of it that just didn't fit the 'picture' I'd formed in my mind of how things looked/happened in the book. If I were 25-30 years younger I probably would have loved the movie, but as an adult who's read the book the movie was just okay. I'd only give it at most a B-. That being said, I quite often have the same reaction to most movie's which I've read the book first.

We also watched the Disney movie Bolt - loved it. One of Disney's best for sometime now. My 6&7 year old niece & nephew had trouble understanding the plot and when he (Bolt) was 'acting' and when it was 'real-life', but the 11 year old nephew and I laughed the whole way through.

On a side note, I just put in the latest James Bond movie Quantum of Solace to occupy my time as I edit pictures and I'm pretty sure my DVD player just died. It made a loud humming and vibrating noise - the movie still played but you couldn't hear it for the noise coming from the DVD player itself. I've had it for at least 10 years now which seems to be a long time for electronics these days. Why is it they seem to be disposable, only lasting for a few years?

Bean Counter

2009-03-28T09:04:00.006-05:00

Since it's an ugly-rainy-breezy-cool Saturday, being stuck at work for 12 hours is a 'little' more bearable. We do a full physical inventory count once a quarter at our plant which is just under 100,000 square feet with 30,000 square feet of dedicated warehouse space (racks stacked 3 high)....this adds up to lots of inventory to count. I get the fun job of reconciling every last item counted and making all of the individual adjustments (between 600 & 1000 transactions manually entered and I wonder why my wrists bother me??). I just love these weekends, then again I'm the one who decided to become an accountant - guess 'bean counting' is technically part of my job :)

Holy Cow

2009-03-27T10:00:00.003-05:00

Where has the time gone.....I haven't been able to get on blogger all week (too busy doing other things) and when I logged in a minute ago I have 598 posts in google reader to go through! Too bad we have inventory at work tomorrow, it'll take me an entire day to catch up on all the old posts.

Happy Birthday Tamar! Trust me 35 isn't that bad, 40 on the other hand - not looking forward to at all. But I guess it does beat the alternative.....
Congrats to Tammy and Mike who welcomed their son yesterday, Kyan James.

I'm starting to book up April thru October so if you need me to do something for you better let me know soon. I do still have some weekends open for pictures!

Cool Breeze

2009-03-18T22:20:00.003-05:00

While I do love that it's warmed up some outside thus enabling me to again take outdoor pictures, tonight there's a cool breeze that recently started coming in my bedroom windows and rain showers moving into the area - those who know me know that I'm totally LOVING this evening. That being said, I'm outta here!

Proud to be IRISH

2009-03-17T08:01:00.006-05:00

May the road rise to meet you

May the wind be always at your back

The sun shine warm upon your face

The rains fall soft upon your fields

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

For each petal on the shamrock

This brings a wish your way-

Good health, good luck, and happiness

For today and every day.

Three Options

2009-03-13T09:59:00.003-05:00

I just looked at the clock on my desk and 'The Mouse' (Mickey that is) says it's 7:24.

One of three things is true.....

1.time is moving really, really slow since this is about what time I arrived at work today

2.time flew by and it's past time for me to leave

3.batteries are dead!

New Recipe

2009-03-13T09:19:00.004-05:00

I was surfing blogland the other day and ran across The Pioneer Woman and instantly fell in love with her blog. You should really check it out. She's a photographer/home school teacher of four married to a rancher, aka "The Marlboro Man". In addition to photography and home schooling her children she loves to cook and has step-by-step directions on how to prepare the recipes she has listed - great site, check it out.

I printed out one of her recipes and fixed it last night - LOVED IT! It's an Asian Noodle Salad and you can view her step-by-step directions and print the recipe HERE. It tastes 20 times better than this picture represents.

The recipe makes a really, really large amount but I ate two plates full last night so I think the quantity is a little deceiving. I didn't mix it all together in one bowl either (I knew it wouldn't be eaten all at once since I was the only one eating last night!) - I put the vege's in one bowl, the noodles by themselves with a little oil and the dressing in a separate container. I also left the cilantro separate as I've been told that cilantro will cause food in the fridge to spoil quicker. Not sure why but I've heard it more than once from different people.

Anyway, the salad is made with cooked linguine, baby spinach, purple cabbage, bell peppers (I use red), scallions, cucumbers and lots of cilantro. The dressing is soy sauce, olive oil, sesame oil, brown sugar, garlic and fresh ginger. Hot peppers are optional!

It was delicious, like I said I ate two plates full! I wish I'd brought some for my lunch but I know I'll be having it for supper tonight.

FB

2009-03-12T09:26:00.002-05:00

I'm finally on facebook! I always thought it was like myspace (which I don't like much and rarely log into) and therefore never joined. Boy was I wrong! In 24 hours I was able to talk to a ton of people I haven't seen in years. If you haven't signed up yet, just do it - trust me.

I went in for a trim yesterday and ended up having Tiffany cut several inches off my hair. I love it!! I may even take a picture of myself, or maybe not - but I do love the cut.

In other news....
1. Working on several wedding quotes, not at this exact moment since I'm at my ft job as I type. The only problem with working on quotes is that I don't want to wait months and months to decorate. I start researching and finding ideas/pictures and I want to make it happen - right now.
2. Have a meeting with a new bride tomorrow (black/white wedding with yellow accent - great color choices)!
3. Traveling with my Aunt to my cousin's house this weekend to do pregnancy/family pictures. Be sure to check out the photography blog early next week.
4. So ready for it to warm up just a tad bit so I can start doing outside pictures again - several seniors waiting for warm weather.
5. Dad's doing better but still has weeks upon weeks of recovery/therapy ahead.
6. Track starts Monday (Johnathon) - I'm soooo thrilled, I mean we had like one whole week of no sports!
7. Still working on the 1000+ basketball pictures, I'm about 1/2 the way done.

.....and that's about all I have to report at the moment.

HUGE one day SALE

2009-03-09T11:42:00.004-05:00

Just in time for Spring cleaning....

ONLY AVAILABLE ONLINE

Wednesday, March 11th only

Longaberger is offering the Small Rectangle Storage Basket for only $49, this is a savings of $33! These will only be available this Wednesday and only on my Longaberger WEBSITE.
Complete your basket with the fabric liner, plastic protector, woodcraft lid or fabric bin dividers to organize accessories your way.

Fabric bin divider options:
4 Small
2 Small and 1 Medium
2 Medium
1 Large

Basket Measurements 14 3/4"l x 9 7/8"w x 7 3/8"h

One of those days

2009-03-09T10:37:00.004-05:00

I need to post the period 13 adjustments I received from our auditor in the mail and close 2008. Which isn't a big deal until I have to correct all of the spreadsheets to reflect the new numbers, which is just a little time consuming. Oh, I have to do this for 3 of the 4 companies (4th won't be done for a while). Not difficult or mind boggling - just don't feel like doing it.

I need to get going on the February financials and sales reports. I do this monthly, not a big deal - just don't feel like doing it.

I really, really, really need to clean my fish tank in my office here at work. I feel sorry for my fish so I'll probably do this task even though I don't feel like carrying all of that water.

I need to re-pot my plants in my office. I get NO sunlight in my office so a few of my plants have decreased in size. About once a year I just add a few new starts to the pot to make it 'appear' that my plants are growing.

I need to clean my office, more specifically I need to FILE papers away. I also need to carry all of the 2006 files downstairs to make room for 2009, make binder covers for 2009, shred a huge stack of paperwork and organize my closet.

I wore jeans, CPI logo tee-shirt and flip flops to work today to do some of the messy jobs on my "I need to..." list and now that I'm at work I don't feel like doing any of them. I getting a headache which has been occurring for a couple of weeks now once I get to work. I've noticed that I'm squinting a lot too. Not sure if the headaches are causing the vision problems or the vision problems are causing the headaches. Too much to think about, I think I'll head to Walmart and get bottled water so I can clean my fish tank.....no thought involved in that task. Just a little heavy lifting.

Spring

2009-03-07T06:43:00.003-06:00

Let me start by saying, it's a B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L morning here in SoIL. While I'm hot natured and quite comfortable with the temp in late fall/winter, I do love a cool spring morning and this morning is just about perfect. I slept last night with both of my bedroom windows wide open with a lovely cool breeze coming in.

I'm on my second cup of coffee, the first I drank on the back porch watching the day 'wake up'. I really need to win the lottery or find a rich husband, I could get use to lazy mornings started at my own pace - I don't get many of those. I'm an early riser no matter what the day holds, but not having to get ready to do something the minute I get out of bed is wonderful.

My second cup brought me into my computer. I plan to be at this computer most of the day getting the 1000+ basketball pictures edited and copied to cd's so I can share them with Johnathon's teammates and/or their parents. So if you read this today send a shout out, I'll be here!

Twice in ONE WEEK!

2009-03-06T23:50:00.000-06:00

We learned something new tonight. Dad took a pain pill this morning, home health care nurse and the physical therapist came to visit early afternoon. After the therapy he was a little tired/sore so he laid down for a nap. When he got up from the nap (supper time - I was home) he was in a cold sweat and said he legs felt like they were on fire. He was freezing one minute and roasting the next. Mom called the doctor, left a message and waited for them to call back. In the meantime, I called 9-1-1 (we decided we couldn't wait any longer for the doc to get back with us). As I called for an ambulance, dad start throwing up and got REAL short on breath. We figured he was having an allergic reaction, the EMT's were more than a little worried when they got here - it was that obvious.

1. We know he's allergic to codeine and morphine.
His medical charts state his allergy to these to drugs, this isn't something new - we already know this fact.

2. Immediately after the surgery he was having trouble breathing and asked to nurse what the pain killer drip was......it was morphine. He told them he was allergic and they switched it, problem solved.

3. When he was discharged from the hospital, the doc wrote a scrip for Oxy-Cotton (not sure how to spell it). We get it filled and this is the pain killer that he took this morning.

At the ER tonight we found out that Oxy-Cotton is the man-made version of MORPHINE! The second pain killer they gave him is a derivative of CODEINE, they wrote his pain killer script for not ONE but TWO medicines he's ALLERGIC to. When the ambulance arrived tonight he was going into anaphylactic shock. So twice in one week, the Sesser first responders and ambulance have been at our house - enough already!

The Benton ER was able to reverse the effects of the morphine and after a few tests, several IV bags of different fluids, and 4 hours in the ER things are thankfully back to normal. We learned that any pain killers they offer dad we need to ask if they're related in any way, shape or form to the two he can't take. We can't assume that they'll put two and two together and not give him what he's allergic to.

Unfortunately I didn't make it to SV trivia tonight, which I'm sure is the reason my team didn't win! I mean I answer soooo many of those questions. I really wonder why people know the answers to some of those questions - really why in the world do people know that useless, trivial stuff? Since I also didn't go to the social after trivia, I now have a lot of hot wings to eat myself!! Which reminds me.....I haven't eaten since lunch today and it's almost midnight now. I'm off to find a snack and get to bed, needless to say it's been one long day.

Home from Hospital

2009-03-06T17:00:00.003-06:00

Quick Update before I run back out the door......

They released dad early last night from the hospital and he had his first round of in-home therapy today. The doctor and nurses were amazed at how well he was doing. They all said they don't send patients home in 3 days with a bi-lateral knee replacement.

He may have a different view on "how well he's doing" after the in-home therapists came today. I guess they really worked him over. But in all things did/are going well with the surgery.

I'm about to head out the door for a very competitive trivia night at the SV High School (fund raiser for girls b'ball) - wish me luck! After trivia our team is going to 'celebrate' our win at one of the team members house with cocktails & fingerfoods so don't call me until around noon tomorrow.

Doctors.....

2009-03-02T18:12:00.004-06:00

Brittany went to see the orthopedic surgeon today and they were told that she didn't damage the ACLU. She'll have to wear a brace for a couple of weeks and then undergo some physical therapy but should make a full recovery. Dad's doctor told mom that a dislocated knee is not an uncommon injury in young girls....something to do with the way they walk and the knees having an inward bow to them.

They finally took dad into surgery around 1pm today. The doc came out around 4:30 and told us that everything went as planned. He said that there was identical damage in his two knees. The cartilage was missing on the inside of both knees and the bones were rubbing when he walked. Neither knee had arthritis or ACLU damage and the doc expects a good recovery. He'll be staying at Carbondale Memorial for a few days and then will start therapy at home.

Until he's back up and going, Johnathon and I have to tend to the outside animals (dogs, cats and the chickens)! I just looooove those chickens!

Herrin Bridal Show

2009-03-01T19:56:00.011-06:00

I decorated for a bridal show today. It wasn't one of my favorite color scheme's but I'd decorated a wedding in these colors the previous night and I didn't want to do 2 sets of flowers in one weekend. Everyone at the bridal show loved the colors. Arielle was again in the fashion show and of course the prettiest model in my opinion. The lighting in the theater where they had the fashion show wasn't the best for taking pictures and I didn't have my long lens with me.

Basketball, Baseball & Ambulances

2009-03-01T08:18:00.004-06:00

I was able to complete the decorating of the church and reception hall Friday which just left the fresh flower arrangements to do Saturday morning. My friend delivered those to the bride so that I could get to Johnathon's last basketball game of the season.

Sesser just didn't quite have their "A" game and lost to Carterville. Brittany (Johnathon's sister) came home with us to spend the night. She and Johnathon were in the living room playing Wii when we heard a loud scream. Brittany was "swinging the the bat" and twisted wrong, dislocating her knee.

We weren't able to move her without causing a lot of pain so we called 9-1-1. Not only did an ambulance show up but also the first responders with Sesser Fire & Rescue and a Sesser Policeman. In all there were 5 vehicles for one little girl with a knee cap on the side of her knee instead of in front.

The doc's in Herrin were able to pop the knee cap back into place (after sedating Brit) and she has to see a orthopedic surgeon tomorrow morning. Hopefully he'll not see any damage to the ACLU and she'll just have to hobble on crutches for a few weeks.

Late Thursday Night....

2009-02-26T22:42:00.003-06:00

It's 11pm on Thursday evening.....the fresh flowers are taking a big drink in a couple of 5 gallon buckets in the dining room, my car is 90% packed and the silk floral arrangements to be placed on top of the columns at the church and reception are complete, well until I get up in the morning and tinker around a little more with them!

I took tomorrow off from work (my real job anyway) to help a friend decorate a wedding. The bride purchased most of the decorations that she wants to use at the reception herself, I'm just supplying the columns, head table decor and lights. We're decorating the reception hall and church tomorrow; Saturday morning I'll just have to do the wedding party flowers - the bridal bouquet, 4 bride's maids, 9 boutonnieres, 5 corsages and 1 toss bouquet. All will be made with fresh ivory roses that by the way are super duper thorny - lucky me.

Johnathon had a game this evening in Zeigler and again they won! They won big tonight 56-10. Our coach told the kids to not be so aggressive and give the other team a chance - gotta feel a little sorry for the other guys. After this wedding I should have time to edit and post the 1000 plus pictures I've taken of basketball this season. I won't post all 1000 plus pictures, but I will get some up soon. After I'm done playing with the thorny ivory roses Saturday morning, I have to get to the Sesser gym by 11:30 for Johnathon's last game of the season!! Not that this will end the sports pics. Track starts as soon as basketball is over and then summer baseball and then football and school baseball and then we're back to basketball and the cycle continues.

The wedding is then at 4:00pm and I'll have to of course clean up the church after the ceremony is over. I'm then going to attempt (time permitting) to photograph a cousin who is expecting her second child in a few weeks. She wants some "belly" shoots. Then I'll have to breakdown/cleanup the reception. Sunday I'm decorating a bridal show for my Aunt in Herrin. My only stipulation for this show was that we use the same color theme as the wedding....so all of the stuff from the wedding will stay in my car and I'll be packed and ready to go for the show on Sunday.

Monday my father is having partial knee replacement surgery on BOTH KNEES. Doesn't sound like much fun to me. He'll have to stay in the hospital for a few days before he gets to come home and then under goes weeks of therapy.

So if you don't hear from me for a couple of days you'll know why!

Weekend Recap

2009-02-23T09:29:00.005-06:00

It was another busy weekend around here, no different than usual.

Johnathon had a game Saturday afternoon (Sesser won!) and I spent the rest of the day cleaning and shopping. Sunday was my Pampered Chef party, BIG thanks to all who came. I had a great turn out. Cleaning and partying is the excuse I'm using for not having more basketball pics up. I did get a few edited the other night. Can't wait to post them, there were some good ones in there.

On to the party....in addition to the cheeseburger salad and two dump cakes (chocolate cherry & peach) that my Aunt made, I made a savory sandwich ring, spinach dip with beer bread, and a new Pampered Chef recipe to me....mini faux potato skins. The "potato skins" are made with thawed, shredded hash browns pressed into the mini tart pan. In keeping with the taste of the potato skins that a few fellow Com-Pac employees & I LOVE and eat at least once a week at a local BBQ joint, I put BBQ pull pork on the "skin" and topped it with cheese. They were really quite tasty and super simple. While cheeseburger salad may not sound good (it didn't to me I'll admit it) it was really good. It had a similar taste to the taco salad made with Catalina dressing. You basically use all ingredients that you put on a cheeseburger to make the salad. We even toasted the burger buns to make our own croutons.

My whole reason for having the Pampered Chef party was to get the pots & pans that I've wanted since I first attended a PC party, I can't wait to get the show closed and get my new cookware in route to me!! I'm waiting for a few more orders to come in so if you need anything I'll have the show open a few more days.

Here's to a productive week. I have a board meeting to get ready for on Wednesday and I'm decorating a wedding and a bridal show this weekend.....another typical week with hardly anything to do!!

Sesser Wins!

2009-02-19T21:47:00.002-06:00

The 6th grade boys won their basketball tournament last night defeating Carterville 17-16 in a great game. More pics tomorrow....

Race Day

2009-02-15T11:51:00.005-06:00

Oh yah, it's that time of the year again.....time for NASCAR. I'm a little bummed that my guy isn't in that orange car this year. It's going to be weird to see it and he won't be in it, oh well.

He's now in #14 Old Spice!
Go Tony!!!

Hopefully the weather permits and I'll get to watch the first race of the season in just a few hours.

Go Tony!

2009-02-14T18:17:00.004-06:00

Way to go Tony!! Winner of Nationwide race today in Daytona!

A repeat tomorrow would be a great way to start the season.

Week in review

2009-02-14T09:17:00.014-06:00

I put in quite a few hours at CPI headquarters again this week, but with a little glimpse of good news. I made some major progress on a project I've been working on since the first of the year, I'm really excited about this!!

Johnathon has started 6th grade basketball (Junior High ball just ended). Below are a few pics from the game. He started and played most of the game. Unfortunately they lost though.

#24

His jersey number is 24 which just happens to be the number of his favorite Nascar driver (whom I don't like so I'll not type his name - hehehe)

That's about it for the week....work and basketball. Next week is shaping up to pretty much be the same with the exception that I'm having a Pampered Chef party next Sunday afternoon.

Defense!

Dribbling the ball

That's Johnathon with the ball - he can jump!

A little outsized...

Sorry it's out of focus.....he shoots

Only 3

2009-02-12T07:42:00.003-06:00

The dentist did a new 3d x-ray of my mouth and had a large printout of it on the light box. I was looking at it with him and asked where my other top wisdom tooth was at. To my astonishment his reply was that I don't have one, I only developed THREE not four like "normal" people.

I realize most would get upset to hear affirmation that their body is less than perfect, but this was the best news I'd received in a while. This means I have one less tooth to to be cut out of my mouth and that makes me very happy. I was rather surprised though that I didn't know this before. I have my teeth clean 1-2 times a year as recommended and they take pic's of my teeth at least every other year......why am I just now finding out that I'm missing a tooth?

Hours in the day

2009-02-08T20:10:00.004-06:00

Someone needs to figure out a way to add hours to the day. Mine don't seem to have enough, especially on the weekends and I didn't even go to work this weekend. I haven't begun to get the things accomplished that I needed to.....I did meet with two brides this weekend and spoke with a third on the phone. But now I have three quotes to get done!

I did get everything purchased for the wedding that's the last weekend in February. I got all of my pictures uploaded on my decorating blog which I've been trying to get caught up before I made any links to it and a few pictures edited. I addressed most of the invitations for my Pampered Chef party (Sunday, Feb 22nd!!!) and balanced by checkbook. I met a friend at a local winery Saturday (we shut the place down - they close at 6pm hehehe). I also watched my niece and nephew for several hours today. Oh ya, I fixed a marvelous lunch.....hot dogs, mac-n-cheese and baked beans.....really pushed my culinary skills today! The hot dogs were perfectly boiled.

I didn't get my parents or my own taxes done, finish my photography contract, clean my room (never ending chore), order the proofs for photography business proof book, complete wedding/decorating quotes, work on L&B wedding invitation or work on the spreadsheet for CPI forecast that I brought home with me.

So I guess I'd better get back to work and off of here.

Wisdom???

2009-02-08T11:30:00.006-06:00

Why do they call the last four teeth to enter your mouth "Wisdom" teeth? I know it's hard to believe but I don't have a large enough mouth for my wisdom teeth to come in. I'm in my mid-thirties and I'm still cutting teeth! A tooth is currently trying to enter a space that simply just isn't there.

At least one tooth tries to push it's way in once or twice a year and has for over 20 years now. Today the bottom tooth trying to make an appearance and is absolutely KILLING me. I think I'm going to have to finally breakdown and have them removed from my head!

Does this mean I'll never be wise???

PS....if you're contemplating removing your wisdom teeth as I am don't google "Wisdom Teeth", let's just leave it at not a pretty sight.

New Paper

2009-02-07T08:56:00.003-06:00

I've been playing around this morning.....can you tell?

I was tired of the blue/brown combo. I loved the green that I decorated the bridal show in a few weeks back and used it as inspiration for my new blog color combo.

My photography blog has been changed too - check it out!
I'm seriously considering getting my own domain and combining my blogging into one site. Within the one domain I can have a personal page to keep everyone up to date on everyday life, a photography page for well...pictures, a scrapbooking page!!, a party decorating page, etc....I'm sure you get the point. More to come on that in the near future.

I have a meeting with a potential bride to decorate her July wedding so I'd better get to what I need to get done. Have a great day!

Pampered Chef

2009-02-05T13:33:00.026-06:00

I'm hosting a Pampered Chef party on Sunday, February 22nd and you're invited!! If you're not able to make it to my house but are needing to pick up a few items you can view their catalog on the Pampered Chef Website and give me a call/email and I'll get your order placed for you.

Of course I'd love to have you over for the party, let me know if you can make it or need directions to my house. We'll have good food, a little local wine and learn a few new recipes.....and for those Nascar fans, yes the race will be on and viewable during our party.

Below are a few of my favorite items......

The first is in use ALL of the time at our house. We make our own Italian dressing and this is never, ever empty. Balsamic vinegar & olive oil and the plunger mixes them before you pour it on your salad. I'm thinking of getting another one of these because I've need to use it in the past but it always has vinegar/oil in it. The mini server is the perfect size to serve cake. As large as our family is I need 4-5 more of these for family gatherings.

Icing is soooo much easier with these than with an icing bag for small jobs. I have pictures of the last time I used an icing bag - it isn't pretty, just take my word for it. If you make homemade pizza you need this roller.

If you want a whisk that you don't have to reshape every other use, this is the one for you (I have the mini one too for my scrambled eggs!). This is the best batter bowl around, I like having the ability to see what I'm doing - it's a measuring cup - you can put it in the Microwave or put the lid on it and place it in the fridge to use later!!

I use the skinny scrapper for everything I do in the kitchen. We have 3 of these and I'll be getting a few more at my party because they're always in the dishwasher when I go to use one. If you eat garlic you have to have this press, there's nothing like FRESH pressed garlic.

The small & large micro steamers are wonderful for cooking vegetables in the microwave without the use of butter - less fat - and it only takes a few minutes in the microwave to steam cook!! The salad spinner is great for cleaning your fresh vegetables, then just spin dry. No more patting dry with paper towels or laying out on the counter and waiting for it to dry.

I don't like things over-cooked and hate when the edge of my pie crust is darker than the rest of the pie, of course you need a server to dish out those slices of pie.

I cook most cakes in the bar pan. Whoever came up with a stackable cooling rack should get a big gold metal. I always run out of room when I back at Christmas....these stackable cooling racks rock!

The Loaf Pan Stone is the absolute best for making "beer" bread mixes - really isn't another loaf pan that compares to it and we use the pizza stone for everything that isn't liquid.

Of course I think most have invested in the Pampered Chef ice cream scoop by now, if not you should.....I'm not a consultant for Pampered Chef, I just use their products - daily!

Nina's New Site

2009-02-03T13:17:00.006-06:00

My friend Nina just launched her new website and it's great!!

In addition to the fabulous new look, she's giving away a ton of stuff so be sure to jump on over there and check it out. Below is a pic of her first giveaway for the week....

I can't wait to get the low down on creating you own site as opposed to the blog that I currently have.

Longaberger 1-Day Sale Heart Dish

2009-02-03T13:05:00.004-06:00

Wednesday - February 4th

Heart Shaped Pottery Dish on sale online tomorrow (Feb 4th) for only $20.
You'll get these just in time for Valentine's Day!

Available online only on my Longaberger Website or you can always call me and I'll place the online order for you.

Longaberger Flag Basket

2009-02-02T13:38:00.004-06:00

Longaberger Bonus Buy!!! The Flag Basket is on sale through February 16th for only $44 in honor of America's 44 presidents with an option protector for $7 more. You can purchase these on my Longaberger Website or call me and I'll place the order for you.

Aunt Eileen

2009-02-01T15:51:00.005-06:00

Happy Birthday Aunt Eileen!!
One of my mother's younger sisters.....

Matt's B'day Party Skating Pics

2009-01-31T12:03:00.016-06:00

Sorry for the delay in getting the birthday party skating pictures up. What can I say, the first of the year is always a busy time for accountants!!

We had a ball roller skating. I haven't been on skates since ???high school??? I think. I was proud of myself, I made it all afternoon without falling. Oh yeah I was wobbly when I first started. I think if I was to go back a few more times in the near future it would all come back and I'd be winning the "LIMBO" again!!

I did learn that pictures in a unlit skating rink aren't all that great....but here they are anyway.

Matt & Trey "in" the cake - literally....

Playing "Wipe-Out"

The birthday boy.

This is what pictures look like in a dark rink with a long range lens on without a tripod. The pic is Matthew and Michael.

Johnathon, Peyton, Katie

Whoaaaaa

Siblings.....

Parents of the birthday boy...

Brittany playing "Wipe-Out"

The birthday cake.....

The birthday child gets to "hand-print" the wall, sign & date it.....

Matt printed the wall next to his sister, Katie

The skating rink birthday party was pretty cool. They have "private" rooms that the b'day party gets to use in which they serve you either pizza or hot dogs/chips. Then they serve the cake/ice cream and keep track of all of the gifts for you. They even keep the gifts in a basket with the front counter person so you don't have to worry about keeping an eye on them while everyone is skating. Thanks for inviting me to your birthday party Matthew!!

SNOW

2009-01-28T09:21:00.007-06:00

We finally got SNOW!!!!!!

Below is the "after" picture from this morning.
More snow pictures to come later this afternoon on my photo blog.

Falling from the sky

2009-01-26T22:14:00.006-06:00

Someone isn't listening to me because it's not just snow falling from the sky, it's a mix of EVERYTHING. Here's what it looks like at 10pm......

This is going to go on ALL night into late tomorrow morning, take a small break and then start up again tomorrow afternoon. That front that is showing on the tv stretches all the way to Texas.

I know it doesn't look like much on the ground but you have to realize that very little of it is snow. The weather man just said that the area I live in will have well over 1 inch of sleet along with 4-6 inches of snow all mixed up together - Yeah.

The news channel has had a record number of accidents reported already this evening and are suggesting that everyone who possibly can to stay in until WEDNESDAY at least.....great!

Pretty sure all of my fare weathered relatives are just laughing their heads off about now. I'm sure it's warm and sunny in California, Texas and Florida. But I know the truth that deep down you're jealous and really want to be here!

What will we get....

2009-01-26T19:45:00.003-06:00

The frozen precipitation mix started falling from the sky on my way home from work. Unfortunately it was in the form of freezing rain. I don't want freezing rain or sleet or ice, please-o-please just let it snow.

Between 6-12 inches of snow would be GREAT!! I have several people to take pictures of tomorrow if we get SNOW. Pictures sliding on ice just doesn't quite have the same ring, so please change over to snow.

Selling some things....

2009-01-22T17:44:00.006-06:00

As I told you in an earlier post I upgraded my Cricut and am selling my smaller one. It's the Personal Cricut Cutter and is in excellent condition. I have the paperwork that goes with it but not the box. I do have two cutting mats that are both very slightly used.

I also upgraded my Xyron to a larger size when my old one broke. I like to be prepared and have 4 refill cartridges for the 510 Xyron (which doesn't work) and of course they don't work on the new/larger size Xyron I just got.

(2) 18' Permanent Refills (1) 7' Magnet (1) 18' Laminate

If anyone is interested let me know. Otherwise I'll sell them on Ebay. I'm also going to sell several Stampin' Up stamp sets that I've collected over the years. I have more than any one person needs and I'm downsizing (actually I've outgrown my space and the clutter is really bothering me). Many of the sets I'm going to sell haven't even been mounted yet........yes it's that bad. I semi cleaned my craft room/basement today while waiting for the glass technician. Who by the way showed up and looked at my window and said "yep I know what the problem is". He went on to tell/show me that the "clips" that are suppose to be on the bottom of my window are missing. So he's bringing a new piece of glass tomorrow (with the clips on it).

Also, the Wii fit that I ordered online showed up today.
Now I just have to use it!! Pretty sure it doesn't do any good just sitting in the living room.

Plug for Schwans

2009-01-22T11:53:00.006-06:00

By the time I left work last night I had no desire to go into Kroger's with a hundred other people buying their dinner and decided to head home in hopes of finding something at the house to fix. While my heart was set on rotisserie chicken, the only chicken at the house was this.....
I do admit to living in the country and it is technically a farm and this is our chicken.....this is not however what I think of when I want a whole fryer to cook. I will feed, water, and collect the eggs from the chickens. I WILL NOT butcher and clean them - I'll not eat chicken if that's what is required. I'm not a "farm" girl, just live on one.

So, since the whole fryer was obviously out of the question I dug through the freezer until I found a package of beef tips in gravy from Schwan's. We love these any way you fix them. Last night I turned it into a stir fry with frozen Asian vegetables and rice. Dinner was ready in under 15 minutes and tasted great! You've got to try these.
You can order Schwan's from their website. They'll deliver the food to your doorstep even if you're not home (they pack it in a freezer bag)! How cool is that.

Working windows

2009-01-22T09:41:00.003-06:00

You don't realize how much you use your driver's side window or how much you depend on that little button to make it go up and down until it no longer works. This past summer a rock decided to enter my car via my driver's side window which of course was up at the time. My insurance company (State Farm) was great and had a glass technician out within two days to fix my window. Several weeks after that my window wouldn't work, but later that day it worked and I didn't think anything of it. Weeks later it did the same thing. This went on for several months until right before Christmas it stopped working all together.

Hoping it would just "fix" itself again I let it go for a while until I finally hit a point this week in which I just couldn't stand not having a working window. My brother came out to fix it. He and my father removed the outer door shell and then pressed the window button to see what the problem was....well low and behold my window worked. They played around for a minute trying to get it to not work, put the door back together, made the window go up and down a few more times, and came to the conclusion that I didn't know how to press the button to make my window work.

I got in the car the next morning to go to work and decided to roll my window down for a sec just because I could and my window doesn't work! I tried it several times on the way to work with no luck. I decided to call my insurance company when I got to work to see if the tech could come back to look at the window. Of course the glass company doesn't think they've done anything that will make it not work but are very nice about coming out today to look at it anyway. They think the motor/regulator is bad and suggest I buy one to have today just in case. So I call Saturn and speak with the tech there (who I'm pretty sure thinks I'm quite the idiot - I've called him more than once now with really odd questions). He tells me that if my window worked when my brother had the shell off then there's nothing wrong with the motor, he thinks the window isn't adjusted correctly.....glass problem, not mechanical.

So when I left for lunch with two coworkers I decided to push that "down" button to prove that my window doesn't work and guess what happened.....the window went down! Problem was it went down REALLY crocked. It was so off that when I made it go back up it there was about an inch gap that the glass didn't cover. I had to get out and guide/move it into place. I decided not to hit that button anymore until the tech looks at it. I'm staying at home today until he gets here, knowing my luck thus far with this window if I left he and my father would push the button and the window would go up/down just like it rolled out from the factory.

Hopefully the tech will show up soon and I'll have a working window again!

Happy Bday Grand MaLou

2009-01-21T19:22:00.010-06:00

Today is my mother's birthday. While I won't reveal her age, I can tell you she's 20 years older than me (I'm helping plan my 20th reunion this year)!!

These pictures aren't the best quality, but then again they are rather OLD.......

Mid-week drag

2009-01-21T15:34:00.004-06:00

I just looked at the clock thinking it was almost time to go home and was extremely disappointed to see that it's only 3:30pm - good grief Charlie Brown. I don't typically leave here at 5pm like most but was hoping that we were almost to that point in time just in case.

This day is taking FOREVER.

I was up way too late last night and am dog tired today. Must admit for some reason I have accomplished a lot of work today in spit of that, but man am I ever ready to go home.

I'm thinking a Kroger rotisserie chicken along with a salad sounds pretty good for dinner....and easy, looooove the easy part. I've had Honey Nut Cheerios everynight for dinner so far this week due to the fact that I haven't been home before 8pm. While I need to stay late tonight to get more work done, I really don't think its going to happen.

Chicken, salad, a glass of red wine, maybe one tv show and bed sounds like the order of events for my evening.

Ever After

2009-01-20T22:20:00.010-06:00

I decorated the booth for Joyce's Bridal again this year for the annual Ever After Bridal Show. I think this was the best turn out they've had for the event since I've been decorating. I gave out a lot of business cards.....hopefully I'll get some business from it!!

Above is the completed booth, just didn't have the candles lit yet. With the exception of the mannequins and clothing, everything else was in my car!!

I really should have taken a pic of my car.

I made this sign Saturday night with my Cricut and vinyl sheeting. The longest part of the process was lining all the letters up on the canvas board. I'm happy with the way it turned out.

I love my Cricut. If you craft at all it's a very worthy investment. Actually I just recently upgraded to the largest Cricut and will be selling my smaller one....so if you know anyone interested. It's in excellent condition.

I was told we'd be using brown since it's still so popular and I made the suggestion to put lime/kiwi green with it. My suggestion wasn't met with much enthusiasm but I personally love the outcome of the green & brown. I think all involved were pleasantly surprised at how good the two colors look together. Just think what this would look like with fresh flowers....lime green hydrangea and button poms and green roses and and green goddess calla lily and bells of Ireland....

Arielle again modeled during the fashion show. I was really far away so my pics aren't that great but you'll get the idea. Of course she looked great....

Good news, while Arielle's pic was uploading I checked my email - I have two people who have contacted me from the show!!

YAHHHHHH!

Saturday Morning

2009-01-17T08:31:00.003-06:00

It's Saturday morning and I'm drinking my second cup of coffee, sitting at my computer making out my mental to-do list for the weekend:

1) Wrap presents for Matthew's birthday party this afternoon. (My nephew is having a skating party for his birthday - he was 6 on Jan 15th - Happy Birthday Matthew!!) Oh and yes I will be skating....loved skating when I was younger....haven't been for a while but I'm sure it's like riding a bike!

2) Pack car for bridal show tomorrow (do wish the temp outside was above the single digits for this task - oh well). Items required (3) 7 ft columns, (2) 6 ft columns, (2) 6 ft poles to connect columns, (4) 4x6 net lights to hang from poles, (2) sheer curtains to mask lights,(2) 3 ft columns with mirror tops, (2) column topper floral arrangements in brown & kiwi green, (3) glass pedestal vases, (2) vase floral arrangements in brown & kiwi green, (1) 3" white floating candle disk, (8) mirror tiles, (9) 3" round vases with kiwi green 2" floating candles, (2) lrg round black wrought iron standing candelabras with white candle and floral ring, (2) 5-candle standing black wrought iron standing candelabras with white candles, (4) brown satin bows for candelabras, (4-5) sets of lights for under table's, brown & kiwi satin to swag front table and column's in background, extension cords, business cards, lighter, sign.

3) "Make" floral arrangements for the top of the columns and glass pedestal vases! I guess this should go before #2. Can't pack it in my car until it's done.

4) "Make" a sign with Cricut so that people walking by know that the booth is for "Joyce's Bridal" and the set design is by "Your Event Designer" aka me.

5) Make sure all satin to be used is un-wrinkled!

6) Attend the skating party in DuQuoin @ 2pm today.

7) Tomorrow I'll need to be in Marion by 8am when the event center doors open to start the decorating process. We'll have 3 1/2 hours to have the booth presentable with 1/2 hour to change clothes and make thyself presentable. The bridal show will last for four hours, then break down/cleanup, unpack the car and put everything back into the garage and I should be back in my pajama's somewhere between 7 & 8 tomorrow evening. I plan to get some sushi before I head home tomorrow evening for supper.

8) Take pictures of booth.

9) Take pictures of Arielle who will be modeling at the bridal show.

I had intended to go into work this morning before the B'day party but when I started to really think about everything I need to do today I decided my sanity would best be kept if I stayed at home. Of course now I'm stressed out about what I was going to do at work today that obviously won't get done....need to let it go - it'll just have to wait until next week.

Considering my to-do list, guess I need to get with it and off of here.
Have a great weekend!