The Cake MASTER!!!

I’m sure you’ve seen Ace of Cakes and the Cake Boss.  I watch those shows and think that that would be my DREAM JOB!  My sister decided the other day to just try making her own fondant and put together a cake and VUALA!!  What do ya know?  She’s a cake genius!  Now she’s an addict LOL.  All of her cakes are made from scratch and taste amazing (or so I hear).  She’ll be moving to NC this year (if we can find her a place) and will be taking orders!  In the mean time you’ll just have to enjoy LOOKING at them.

Cake #1…Not bad for a first time?

Cake #2…Even better!

 

Cake #3…um, now you’re just showin’ off! =)

 

Cake #4…..Meet “Charlie Horse”!

 

Cake #5….and my favorite, by far……

My Favorite…..Items I can’t live without….

Okay, following up on last weeks Favorites, here’s a list of my favorite products.  This isn’t ALL of my favorite products….just the ones I can think of right now….

 

Totally Toddler

“Totally Toddler® is scientifically formulated to gently remove the most stubborn stains and odors from clothes, bibs, diapers and bedding. The combination of mild detergents and natural enzymes eliminates stains and odors while remaining non-toxic and safe for use around children and pets. Use the product safely on clothing, mattresses, carpet, upholstery and other water-safe surfaces.”

Totally Toddler is my FAVORITE!! Five Stars all the way.  This stuff gets out almost anything, especially if you get it right away.  It has an enzyme in it so it eats up organic stains and there’s no rinsing required! That means you can use it on you carpet, dry cleaning, upholstery, and your bed mattress.  Perfect for all those midnight baby accidents and it smells great!  Just spray it on, rub in with a cloth, & let dry.  Stain gone!  I NEVER had to throw away a single baby outfit for either of the girls.  Yes, it works on PET STAINS, too!  I have only found it at Babies R Us but I know you can buy it online and a few other places around town.  I buy it in bulk and keep the stain wipes in the diaper bag.

http://www.totallytoddler.com/

 

Folex

Folex is a carpet stain remover that I buy at Lowes Home Improvement.  It has gotten out every stain I’ve ever tried it on, even red Kool-aid!!  Just spray, rub, and let dry.  It also has an enzyme in it and requires NO RINSING which means you can use it anytime on the carpet, upholstery, mattress, and even on your laundry.  I give it 5 stars!!

http://www.folexcompany.com/index.html

 

 

Pic Fly Window Traps

 

 

I HATE flies.  There’s just a certain time of year that they fill up my house and it makes me INSANE!!  I could spend hours chasing them or paying the boys to catch them but a friend recommended these window traps and I LOVE them.  Just stick them to a window corner where you see flies land sometimes and wait.  I often catch a fly within seconds of applying.  Flies die quickly.  Now, you will have a sheet of fly paper in your window covered in flies so I suggest sticking it in a corner that you don’t have to look at very often.  When full (often with over 50 flies) just remove & throw away.  I get mine at Walmart.

 

 

Pikstik

I am short.  I can’t reach anything on high shelves.  Thus my love for the Pikstik.  It reaches and holds onto anything!  I use it to reach things in the back of our under-stair storage that I can’t reach.  I use it to pick up the toys in the living room when I’m too lazy to keep bending over.  I use it to pick up trash outside (and wash it, of course), I use it to do all sorts of things!  (Ryan even used one to catch a squirrel in our attic once.)  You can pick one up at any medical supply store.

 

Apricot scrub

People tell me, quite often, that I do not look my age.  I blame that on 2 things.  I have chubby cheeks and I have a skin condition on my face that requires that I use a facial scrub & expensive moisturizer to keep from looking like I have leprosy.

Every time I wash my face (for the last 10 years or more) I use St. Ives Apricot Scrub (or the Equate brand) and follow up with Oil of Olay moisturizer.  This stuff scrubs so good that I think it’s kept the lines and wrinkles away….now if I could just scrub a little harder around these crows feet!

7-5, 7-12, & 7-19-2009 - 3 Weeks in Review

Where have I been?  Why have I been such a slacker?  Well, part of the "problem" is that I have 4 kids not in school...the other part is that I'm actually starting to make some money taking pictures!  So, now I will attempt to catch you up on the last 3 weeks!

Mon Jun 20

Corben starts karate camp and the World Karate-do in Knightdale.  He spent the whole week doing karate, watching fun movies, going swimming, ice skating, and a ton more!!  -- That evening we spent time in our fun yard.

 

Fri Jul 3 was our Elder’s quorum Pig Pickin’.  There are no pictures as I had my hands full chasing children.  That Sylvie has gotten REALLY fast!  We were blessed to have some friends of ours come and join us that evening and have them meet all our great friends from church.

Sat Jul 4

We went to Rolesville this year for fireworks.  It was Fantastic!  Free face painting, watermelon, cotton candy, lollipops, etc.  The kids had a GREAT time!  Ryan rolled in our bench seats from the van so we were sitting in style the whole time.  My kids LOVED the fireworks.  Ella spent a great deal of time playing with sparklers and trying to stick them in the ground.  No fear there!

Sun Jul 5 – rabbit in our yard…..

Mon Jul 6

This week was packed full of Dr. appts….I’m exhausted remembering it…..BUT here are some other things that were fun.

We got to see baby deer in the yard….

 

My awesome SIL, Heather, came with her kids and had Family Home Evening with us.  We had S’mores (of course) made with Reese’s PB Cups!! YUM!!

Thurs Jul 9

We drove to Chapel Hill on Thursday to meet up with one of my best friends since Elementary School.  She and I found each other again thanks to Facebook.  She told me her pool had a slide….I had no idea!!  There was also a water park for the little kids with fountains, etc. and a diving board for the big kids.  The saline water was really nice, too!  Thanks, Thu-mai!!

Fri Jul 10

This day was PACKED FULL!!  We had to miss the playgroup to Pullen Park, there was just too much to do!  We started off with a Dr. appt in Cary, drove home just in time for Dade to get picked up by his grandparents and whisked off for the weekend, I then took pictures for a friend of mine who makes and sells stuff on Etsy (She makes great aprons for kids, key chains, bags, crayon holders, tissue holders, etc – http://Ivonne3576.etsy.com), ……….

 

…….we then rushed off to the Harry Potter Party!!!  There was Harry Potter karaoke (Corben and I sang “Tom will, Tom will Shock you!  Shock you!)  a wizard’s duel, and tons of other fun games and deserts.  Everyone LOVED the Butter Beer and Every Flavor Beans…well not everyone, though I hear Skunk beans weren’t all that bad!!  We ended by watching a Harry Potter movie…..we’re all so excited the 6th movie is out!!

   

Sat Jul 11 – Sat was time with my family & extended family.  My brother and his wife joined us with their cute kids for some fun at the house.

Sun Jul 12 – Sunday we joined some good friends for dinner.  It was a really nice night and there was tons of YUMMY bread.  I did, however, manage to get over 50 mosquito bites & thought I was going to die….but I didn’t.

On the way home we stopped at my BIL’s for just a moment.  This was the scene outside of the car….

This was the scene inside the car…..

…luckily we were soon on our way home.

Mon Jul 13 – Corben spent another week at camp this week.  (It’s a day camp only.)  He went roller skating, swimming, and got an amazing tour of the News and Observer.  He was very excited and is ready to start our own family newspaper….not that there’s anything you all don’t know already =).

Tues jul 14 – Finally got the girls out on a playdate – Thanks Natasha!!

wed jul 15 – Me = sick!! YUCK!  Still, ran Dade and a friend to Apex to join their friends at the Temple.  Yeah!  Ryan spent the evening taking the Missionaries out to visit folks.  It was nice to get some good service in!

Fri Jul 17

Friday was Nature day in our yard….More rabbits….

….and THEN, as I’m putting the girls to bed my friend Jennifer calls and says to go outside and take pictures of the lightening!  So I did.

 

Sat Jul 18 – We got up EARLY and cleaned the church!!  Man, that’s a lot of work!  Only 2 of the 3 families showed so it took a bit longer and apparently some people missed last week and no one cleaned up last Sunday after church so there was a TON to do.  Hopefully now we’ve gotten all the work caught up and it will be easier for this weeks families.  I love getting to serve!

Sun Jul 19 – Sunday was a bit nerve wracking.  Our congregation had the “higher up folks” coming to check and see how we were doing and if we were running everything alright.  I had 4 people sitting in the back with clipboards staring at my as I tried to sing with the children….I only forgot the words twice and sang the wrong song once….they did, however, laugh at my joke.  They gave me the thumbs up so I guess I didn’t do too bad!  Corben had a talk on Sunday also.  He was supposed to talk on how he could Strengthen our Family.  I thought this topic was definitely inspired yet he couldn’t find how it applied to him…..SO he found a story he could read instead.  He then lost his talk right before he was supposed to go up…..then he found it…..then he spent 5 minutes at the pulpit staring at everyone and refusing to speak….he then started talking but was VERY quiet…..then he got louder….and louder….and louder!  Then he was done.  The best part was when Sis. Hopkins thanked Corben for giving us all that quiet time at the beginning so we could sit back and just feel the Spirit.  She’s awesome.  Good job, Corben!!

 

The End!

My Favorite....Free online gadgets

I thought I'd take a moment, since several people have asked, to share with you some of my favorite FREE online "gadgets".  These are in no particular order other than the order I remembered them in....

1. Microsoft Live Writer - This is the program I use to write my blog.  I LOVE it.  It allows me to drag and drop my pictures into my blog and shows me what it's going to look like so I never have to worry about uploading my blog and finding the pictures all over the place.  There are a ton of fun fonts and other Plug-ins you can add, like making your pics look like Polaroids or  inserting your pics directly from Facebook.

Click here for the download

 

2. Microsoft Picture Resizer - This handy little plug-in lets me resize my pictures simply by right clicking on the thumbnails and picking resize.  I can then pick from Large, Med, Small, & XSmall.  All of which are MUCH faster to upload than a full size photo.  These resized photos are perfect for your blog & Facebook.  They don't take up much memory and if people steal them they're too small to reprint.  Looking at them you'd never know, they look no different on your screen.

 

Click HERE to get it or learn more.

 

3. Craigslist Picture Viewer - I can NOT say enough about this handy plug-in!!  I know that there are a few of you out there addicted to Craigslist and you spend hours on there clicking on each line that says it has a picture.  What if you never had to click on those again to see the pic but it was just right there when you opened the list.  Right next to the ad title!  Now you can skim those pages in minutes and even find things you wouldn't have found because the ad name was funky.

Click here to learn more and download

 

4. Paint.net & Gimp - Can't afford Photoshop??  Want to do cool things with your photos??  Try Paint.net and/or Gimp.  Both are Photoshop like programs that are FREE!!  They can do AMAZING things and I know several photographers that use them exclusively.

Click here for Paint.net

Click here for Gimp

6-20-09 Vacation Week in Review - Part 2

(First of all, the disclaimer....I cut and pasted a large part of this from my sister's blog because she got to it much faster than I did and I simply haven't found the time to catch up!! - SO...if in the middle of a sentence it doesn't sound exactly like me, it's because it's my sister =))....okay, so we're at MONDAY!!....Monday started at 6am.....

Monday morning, bright and early, I went down to watch them herd in the horses for the day.   It was Orientation day.  While Corben was loading up and getting acquainted with his horse, I was diving into horseback riding head first.  I have to say that as first I felt like I was taking to it a bit but soon found that I am NOT a natural, unlike most of my family (except Jymn who has been thrown from every horse he's ridden...{amendment FROM JYMN: “FYI: As of my most recent visit to the Bar Lazy J Ranch, I have OFFICIALLY mounted a horse, rode that horse like a full-on pro and then SUCCESSFULLY dismounted that house and landed on my own two feet! So.... make note of it. :^) “})  However, I had a lot of fun!  We had loping lessons a bit later on and I think I did alright...I mean, I didn't fall off!  Corben spent most of the day with the Kids group.  They fed the animals, rode horses, and at one point they worked on their Indian head dresses for later in the week.  Corben's name was Black Buffalo!  He was also excited because he found a pair of Cowboy boots to wear that were exactly like a pair he had when he was little that he literally wore until they could never be worn again.  It was a great Monday. 

Tuesday...well, what can I say about Tuesday except AMAZING!!!!!!  You know, I don't get to do many daring things as a parent of 4 though, once upon a time, I was VERY daring...probably too daring.  Anyway, my fabulous sister whisked me away for a day of 4-wheeling at the sand dunes.  I have to just do a big PLUG here for my sister and her friends and THEIR PLAYGROUP!  Here in NC we do a lot of fun things but we are NOWHERE near as adventurous as these women.  I found myself on the back of a 4-wheeler with my sister and 2 kids on board (a 3yr old and a baby).  The other 4-wheeler had 2 women and 4 kids!!!  All age 3 and under.  We drove a good distance over the dunes to this Gorgeous creek bed where we parked the kids and 2 adults while the other two would take a round on the 4-wheelers.  My sister and I took the first child watching shift.  The scenery was breathtaking.  The kids were having a blast.  Then....we noticed the....BEAR FEET!!   They were all over the place! And very fresh…. Suddenly we were keeping a much closer eye on the kids. There was no way for us to leave—we’d 4-wheeled in with everyone and all our stuff and the walk back to the car would be hours. So we sat and waited for our friends to return and laughed at our ability to always have an “adventure” on our outings! In all honesty though, we weren’t terribly concerned. No grizzlies up here, just black bears anyway.  Still, we kept our eyes open….  while the kids had a blast!  When Tammy and I finally got to go out together, we tore it up and let me summarize by saying that by the end of the day, I was trying to figure out how I was going to buy some 4-wheelers and move to Colorado! .....I'm not kidding.  I haven't had that much fun in YEARS AND YEARS!!  I was spinnin' donuts, chasing deer, going straight down huge hills!!  It was TOO much fun for an old fart like me and I started getting crazy ideas.  Which car can we sell....where am I going to find DUNES in NC!!??  HHMMM.....    At one point I'm riding a trail through a grove of gorgeous Aspens and there are deer just 50 ft away and we cross a little creek and there's an old homestead and I'd just been thinking that if I was ever going to live somewhere this is where it would have been....I did not want to leave!!  Our big adventure was when Tammy's wedding ring FLEW off and we panicked -- How would we find it in the SAND!!??  Our prayers were literally answered when we finally found it sitting on the floorboard of the 4 wheeler....Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!  (Side note here...only my sister could have her wedding ring fly off while riding a 4-wheeler.  I couldn't pull mine off of my finger if it would save my life!!...can you say Chubby Fingers??)  By the end of the evening we were gathered around a fire with the kids playing and I was thinking that THIS WAS THE LIFE!!....granted...I did not have MY kids there to chase but I know they would have had a BLAST!  On the way home Tam and I were almost run off the road by a MOOSE that just ran into the road.  I love it here!     

Wednesday, Corben & I headed out on the Breakfast ride together (and got pancakes/sausage/potatoes/eggs/bacon cooked over a fire).

 

It was fun crossing the river together and  we got to see some antelope along the way.  My, once again, amazing sister surprised me with something I was in MUCH need of after 2 days of riding horses and a full day at the dunes....a trip to the SPA!!  Her wonderful friend, Donna, sent us gift certificates so that we could have some real girl time together.  It was my first professional massage.  I will be going back for sure!  THANK YOU DONNA!!!    Just before we left for the Spa I grabbed some  pics of Corben having a blast at the pool.  He was LOVING it.  So with all this “play time” we decided it was time to do a little “work”. While Chad was at roping practice Wed. night with Corben, we rode up to some mountain ridges to do some sunset pictures.  It was so exciting to see cool stuff showing up on my camera screen! YEAH!!  Sorry if I go a little crazy with pics here for a minute....(These are all SOOC - Straight out of camera...and I had dust on my lens so I have to fix a few ....but anyway)

 

The next morning (Thursday) we got up at 5am and did some sunrise shots too.  They turned out AMAZING! Here are just a very few.  I was SO excited....to say the least....

 

I'm so excited because I get to sell these photos at the ranch and an artist there who makes old barn wood frames has asked to sell my photos with her frames at several craft shows.  YEAH!!  So then I was really excited about taking pictures and couldn't really stop.  I took almost 4000 pictures this week....I know, I'm crazy.  So, here's Corben's Thursday....

   

I joined Corben and his friends in a game of Cow Soccer.  There were goals at each and and you had to try to herd the cows through the goals to win.  Corben did a great job and it was tons of fun! Finally the kids headed out on their Indian Powwow.

Meanwhile us grownups headed inside for a night of entertainment by the famous Tamara Jeanne.  I'm partial to her music...I think she's got great talent!!...oh, and she IS my sister so that helps....

Our entertainment was interrupted when we were attacked by INDIANS!!  Corben came running in with his face painted and looking like he'd had a wonderful night out around the fire.  I'm so glad he's getting to do all of this!!  During the day and that evening I was able to catch a few more pics around the ranch....

Friday morn EARLY, I headed out to see the horses get herded in from the dry lot.

Corben headed out early on his all day ride.  They spent the day jumping and sliding down the sand dunes.  He had a blast!!  It was a busy day for picture taking.  I was asked to take head shots of ALL the horses on the ranch.  There are quite a few!  Afterwards they rounded up all the Paints into one area just so I could take pictures!!

We then convinced my fabulous BIL and another wrangler, JJ, to cross the river on horseback so I could get some more fun shots!!

That night was the big Staff show and Corben and his friends put on a GREAT PLAY!! First they sang a Silly Song called Jellyfish and then Corben took a lead role as Black Bart (Boo Hiss).  Everyone said he mastered his role.

Corben then received

an award for the

Most Enthusiastic Cowboy!!

 

 

 

I headed back up the mountain that night to catch some pics of Chad on his horse.

  

Saturday started off with the kid ride up to the local candy store!!

Next was gymkhana.  It's usually games on horseback but the weather would not allow so they did it indoors on broomsticks.  There was bobbing for apples....

...and a ton of different relay races.  Corben did great!  At the end of it all he won the coveted Golden Horseshoe award for all his great participation all week!!  There was a pizza party and an Ice cream social and life was good.....

Feeling lucky, Corben decided to take a shot at Mutton Bustin' at the local rodeo that night.  This is him just BEFORE....

This is DURING....

....and this is AFTER....(he was a bit stunned and dirty afterwards) but he won 3rd!!

Here's a link to download the video!

https://rcpt.yousendit.com/706440724/cdca301c19845e508a0d211cb84b2892

We then got to watch Uncle Chad and his buddy in the Team Roping and although his heeler didn’t catch, Chad made a great head shot and slick-horned the steer after his horse literally jumped over the barrier out of the “box”! They had the biggest cheering section out of everyone at the rodeo and we let ‘em know it!

 

So then Sunday morning we got up and drove back down to Denver to say good-bye.  It was the best vacation EVER.  Thanks Tam, Chad & the Bar Lazy J for hosting us and letting us have so much fun!!

The saddest moment was standing on the sidewalk outside the airport, waiting for check in, pulling my suitcase with my hay baling cord string and hearing my sister yell, "BYE, RED NECK GIRL!!".

The End...