Shoe Lovers' Quote

I came across this at one of our local FedEx stores while waiting for Charlie to get his binding and mailing done. It made me think of shoes like I need one now! Well, technically, I need a new pair for Valentine's Day, but I'm too cheap to look for one right now.

"Life is hard enough not to take one step at a time...

In some really cute shoes!"

Have a great day!

MM# 6: Tele-what?

Setting: Last night, around the dining table after a late dinner...

Plot: Jasmine correctly guessed what Ian (or somebody on the table) said.


Jasmine: (pointing to her temple, giggling from pride) "You know Mommy, I'm good. I'm telepathetic!"

Me: (I barely heard it) "What? Tele-what?"

Jasmine: (still beaming) "TELE-PATHETIC! Cause I guessed it right, so I'm TELEPATHETIC!"

Everyone: (Laughed till our sides hurt!)

I think she meant TELE-PATHIC, don't you?

New Blog Name- Same site

Check it out... and tell me what you think!

Tag, you're it!

Ok, so there are many, many wonderful blogs out there, but sometimes you just need to highlight those that make you feel good about yourself. So what do you do, you make them feel good right back!

I miss all my AZ ladies, so this is to help us all reconnect. I'm so excited! This is my very first tag game.

So, here's what you do:

1. From your list of blogs, pick 1 blogger that you know or knew from AZ.

2. Tell a 2-sentence brief history of where you know them and how.

3. Describe them and their blog in 3 cool words.

4. Tag 4 bloggers you know or knew from AZ.

5. Click on the featured blog below then comment to invite them to come see yours.

Ok, so here's mine:

I chose... Three Little Ladies by Anne Hanson!

She was in the Gateway Ward in Gilbert, Arizona and was one of the RS teachers while I was there. She is such an inspiration to me; knowing her address and blog is such a treat!

FRIENDLY, BEAUTIFUL, and SMART!!!

Ok... I tag

Lara, Melissa, Anne, Tasha

Go on, make someone's day and tag them right back! :D

Ok, bye for now!

Brrrr!!!

While parts of California, Arizona and pretty sure Florida, are having some respite from the snow and cold, North Texas is being pelted with warnings of

ICE STORM!!!

Ice can slick up roads to dangerous levels, ground planes and strand cars on overpasses. In short, NOT FUN!

We had no seminary or school today; which is indicative of how dangerous the roads are (our school district has not closed their school until today in years). We spent the day doing laundry and just relaxing... (I mean pjs & winter socks under blankets relaxing) Aaahh... (I even managed to squeeze in a nap, yay!)

NO seminary again tomorrow as our warning extends to tomorrow AM. We don't know about another "snow day" though...

Charlie and I (he's off today, so such a blessing; we're all home!) got some soups and other provisions to keep us comfortable today like chips, chocolate angel food cake, berries, and microwaveable dishes (things we can eat while we are cozy in our blankets!) :-D.

Check these out:

We may not have an all-out snow fest like in other states, but we have, icy rain!!! This is in my patio; marvel at my "coated" table and my "sprinkled" herb pot.

I can't wait to take pictures of my trees again tomorrow morning! (Charlie wouldn't let me take pictures now...) :-(

How's the weather where you are?

FHE: Shopping Spree & Free Pics!

It's Monday again and we remembered two things: Family Home Evening and our 2nd annual January Shopping Spree!

Here's what we got: (Cha-ching!)

Ian- Matchbox Treasure Hunt track set / TRU (under budget, yes!)

Jasmine- Another You & Me doll (of course)- Baby Brother / TRU (under budget, yes!)

Lisa- Band Shirts and long-sleeved shirts /Hot Topic & Pac Sun (under budget, yes!)

Family Gift- Books- 12 books for $36.00!!

Family Gift #2- My Sims Kingdom for Wii / Game Stop for $29.99!! Last month, it was $49.99!

Plus, on our way out, we were asked to help a Kiddie Kandids trainee hone her craft and by doing so, we ended up having three FREE 5x7's!!! Each kid posed and no sales pitch, just a lot of fun poses... Saved $60.00!!!




I couldn't open up the email pictures, so I had to improvise to show proof of the "impromptu" modeling of our children. Note that Ian decided to be a "smile" rebel. He was too hungry and resisted all the way until the very end.

No more Christmas shopping for our little family ever again. January sprees fit our budget so much better. Yay!!!

For FHE, we made sure that we came back with everyone's limbs intact and that we didn't have to stop at any Emergency Rooms along the way. And we taught them selfless service by going all the way to another city to drop off our unused bird playground to the first responder in Freecycle who couldn't drive at night and whose husband just became unemployed. Mission accomplished!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

http://www.giftoflife.org/

From our whole family!

Tina Wilbur- for losing 30lbs. and going to college! Yes!

Lara Neves- for getting that bigger load of voice lesson students! You'll do great! And for all the blog awards! Good job!

Crystal & Spencer Eldredge- for Sage's 6th-month of joining their family. He's adorable!

Debbie Kimball- for becoming a Real Estate Broker! Yay!!!

Audrey Peterson- for getting a blog award. Cool!

Becky & Nate Evans- for making the residency in Ohio and getting a new van. And, for surviving some pretty stressful times. Awesome news!

Lori & Scott Thompson- for their 10th year anniversary! Awesome milestone!

Stephanie & Matt Bean- for Preston's 3rd birthday and having a creative way to appease all the VLPs (Very Little People)! I'll so do that! And for having a great picture of her kids on her blog header. So, so cute!

Mandi & Burke Larsen- for Matthews's 2nd birthday! A new milestone!

Carla and Luc Engstrom- for becoming pregnant again! Yay!!

Can I get a "woot-woot!" with raised hands up in the air for these unbelievable and honorable women? That's it!

"Ring aound da wosie..."

Not much to report, just that I had soooo much fun playing, eating (we had two birthday boys and Sis. Cook broke out the big guns and brought delish choc chip cookies!) and playing in the Nursery with the "cutie" crew. Between the squeals of laughter and the running and spinning around, we got a lesson squeezed in there about the proper way to pray to our Heavenly Father.

All of them know how to pray, mind you, with emphasis on how thankful they are for their Mommy and Daddy and Mommy and Daddy and a pet or two then their siblings if applicable. Toy cars seem to be the #1 on the WANT list. Oh yeah, we love ending our little circle with "Ring aound da Wosie" about 3-4 times.

How can you not looooove such a calling?

My Cheesecake!

I borrowed this picture from gourmetfood.com

So this actually happened last night, but I was too tired to write...

I've only made two to three other cheesecakes in my entire married life, all were no-bakes. Well, after a successful run with the molten lava cakes last Monday, I was spurred on to make a cheesecake! Last night, as a dessert to feed the missionaries. I chose a good old-fashioned New York cheesecake! Only, since I'm a complete buffoon when it comes to reading while stirring, I didn't realize that I was missing an ingredient- great! What to do, what to do?

Well, I couldn't back out after pulling out from the pantry my three size-never been used-springform pans, plus all the other ingredients were already on the table! So I plug on... I even sent Lisa next door to see if I can swap to another recipe, came back with just a squirt of what I needed, so again, I was left to improvise!

(Sorry, there was no time to take a picture, it took over an hour; just in time to give the missionaries after they ate dinner.)

Here's what I did: I substituted milk with sugar for condensed milk and added lemon juice since I only had a squirt of sour cream. The result was a fluffy and light cheesecake! The missionaries and my family all had seconds! If it wasn't a tall cheesecake to begin with, we wouldn't have any leftovers. As it is, the leftover was just enough for one serving. What a great and wonderful accident! (Yes, I was cautious; I only gave each missionary and my family a taste and let them decide if they wanted more.) Mine barely cooled; it was my very first attempt at a baked cheesecake, and I had no other time to let it cool down more. It still tasted great, I was even impressed!

So, I accidentally made my very own cheesecake recipe! How cool is that?!

CANDY'S Cheesecake

Crust:

6-8 graham crackers or chocolate flavored grahams

5 tbsp. melted butter

1 1/4 cup sugar

Batter:

4 blocks of cream cheese (Neufchatel variety)

1 cup of milk

1 1/4 cups of flour

1 1/4 cups of sugar (less if desired)

Fresh juice of 1/2 large lemon

1 tsp. lemon rind

1 1/2 tbsp. sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla

4 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees

2. Crush the graham crackers in a blender; dump into a bowl and add in sugar and melted butter. Mix until all stuck together. Spread flat at the bottom of a 9-in springform pan. Refrigerate until the batter is ready to be poured.

3. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs in with sugar and milk. Blend until one consistency. Set aside.

4. In a big mixing bowl, put in all the cream cheese and whip until creamy. Add in the vanilla and milk slurry. Blend until well mixed.

5. Add in the sour cream, lemon rind and juice and blend until well mixed.

6. Pour in the batter into the cooled crust and place the springform pan onto a shallow baking pan.

7. Place the baking pan into the oven and pour in water to create a water bath.

8. Bake for 75 minutes.

9. Let cool for another hour before releasing from the pan.

You can make this a day ahead and the cooled cheesecake would taste just as good. Remember to heat up the knife before cutting, to minimize the mess.

Don't be fooled by the fluffiness, remember the ingredients that went into it. For you who wants to stay trim, a sliver would be enough. That's all I had, though it took all my will power to resist. It's all about how we savor the flavor...

Nothing Much...

... happened today. We just sent an airline ticket to a friend, walked, had lunch at a local pizzeria/Italian bistro, bought groceries, walked some more, cleaned, did laundry, baked a cheesecake, had a hilarious dinner with the missionaries, tutored, did homeworks, wrote essays and took a quiz. That's it!

Til' tomorrow!