Friday's Fave Five

This is my first time participating in Susanne's Friday's Fave 5, though I've thought about it plenty of times - just didn't take the time to participate!

1. Enjoying Pumpkin Spice coffee at the office every morning and coffee with pumpkin spice creamer at home. YUM!

2. Spending several days with my two nieces and my oldest nephew while their parents were away. Here they are doing homework.

3. Enjoying the colors of Fall.

4. Seeing the trick-or-treaters last night. I do have pictures of my best friend's kids, but they're still on my camera.

5. A great small-group discussion on Wednesday. We're reading the book, "How to Listen to God," by Charles Stanley.

Recipes Organized!

While I was camping earlier this month, I finally finished organizing my recipe collection! I had a bunch of recipes on 8.5 x 11 paper, hand-written on pieces of paper, and recipe-themed magainzes piled high. I ordered a recipe book, with matching recipe cards, and plastic pages.

Then I started sorting through the recipes and magazines. Once I had the recipes I wanted to keep, I wrote them on recipe cards. If there was a picture associated with the recipe, I included that on the recipe card. I need a visual!

Here's what I started with when I remembered to take a picture. I had already sorted through a stack of recipes.

And here are the recipes all organized and neat!

I also stole this idea from Barb at A New Chelsea Morning. She created a Good Things notebook with sheet protectors. It includes all kinds of useful and fun information. Now, when I'm reading a magazine, I tear out any articles I want to keep and they go in the notebook.

Here's mine:

I love having things organized, but sometimes it gets overwhelming. I just made up my mind to get these two things organized, and I did it! It took some time, but it's d-o-n-e! And I'm h-a-p-p-y!

2008 Camping Vacation

Mom, Dad, Tommy, and I spent almost a week 'camping' in a modern cabin last week. We spent a lot of time inside because it rained and was chilly. We did have some nice afternoons. I read a book, started another one, finished organizing my recipes (I'll do a separate post on that sometime soon!), played games (Parcheesi, Rack-O, Shanghai) with Mom, and relaxed!

Here's our cabin:


Ben, Wendie, and the boys came to visit. Mom had some crafts for the boys. Here they are making foam crowns.


There were a lot of black walnuts, so I told the boys I'd give them a nickel for every walnut they collected. They ended up with 24. Since I didn't have 48 nickels, they each got 24 dimes! (I keep a bunch of loose change in my car.)


Here are some pictures of the lake. So calm, beautiful, serene, peaceful....





I made Eggs Benedict. Well, Mom poached the eggs because I didn't know how to do that, but now I do! These were yummy!


We made pizza mountain pies over the campfire. These were yummy, too! Mom mixed turkey burger, onions, pepperoni, green peppers, and red peppers, and we added pizza sauce and mozzerella cheese!


Here's Mom making breakfast and Tommy ready for dinner of spare ribs, corn on the cob, and baked potatoes. Yeah, we roughed it. LOL Mom loves to cook, so we are spoiled!

Here's Dad at dinner.

Pepperoni Pizza Bake Recipe

Look! I'm posting a recipe! It's for the Pepperoni Pizza Bake I made on Sunday:

When I made it, I doubled the recipe and used a 13x9 baking dish.

1 can (16.3 ozs.) Pillsbury Grands Homestyle Refrigerated Original Biscuits (I couldn't find these so I used the Buttermilk)
1 can (8 ozs.) pizza sauce
2 C finely shredded mozzarella
16 slices of pepperoni (I didn't count. LOL I just layered the whole top with pepperoni!)

Cut each biscuit into 8 pieces; toss with pizza sauce and 1 C of the cheese.

Spread in 8-inch square glass baking dish.

Top with pepperoni and remaining 1 C cheese.

Bake @ 375 degrees for 22-28 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. (I baked it longer since I doubled the recipe.)

It really is good!

Cooking and Baking

I did some baking and cooking this weekend! I know!

I used zucchini from my brother's garden to make these zucchini breads. They turned out so moist and yummy!

Ready to go in the oven...

Just out of the oven and cooling.

I had friends over for dinner on Sunday and made these peanut butter and chocolate cookie cups. They also turned out yummy!

For dinner, I made baked mac 'n cheese (Paula Deen's recipe)

And pepperoni pizza bake. This is the first time I made this. I doubled the recipe, and it turned out great. And so simple. My kind of recipe!

Back to School!

4 out of 5 of my nieces and nephews are in school! M, the youngest - he'll be 4 in November - will head off to preschool next week!

The older kids were the first to head back to school on Wednesday.

Here's C (5th grade), H (3rd grade), and J (8th grade) ready for their first day back to school!


And here they are getting on the bus!


B headed off to his first day of Kindergarten on Thursday!


Here he is having some breakfast.


His little brother M having some breakfast, too.


And here's B with his smile, backpack, and lunch!

Have a great year, kids!

Happenings

The first "happening" was my sister Corie's marriage to Scott on August 1st. She lost her first husband, Doug, in 2001 to a virus of the heart. Doug was 31, she was 32, and C was almost 4. Corie met Scott, a widowed pastor with two girls - J (14) and H (9) in January on Ya*hoo personals. They were engaged on April 14th and married on August 1st!

It was a beautiful ceremony. In place of a unity candle, they had a family candle and a Family Medallion Service. Corie and Scott promised to love them unconditionally and to raise them as a family; then they gave each of the kids a family mediallion necklace. I was glad I had tissues tucked in my flowers!

Here are some candid pictures from the wedding:


C, the best man, and Scott walking into the church! The groomsmen walked up the aisle to the theme from Star Wars! C's idea. Very cool!

Corie is escorted by Doug's Dad, Jim, and our Dad, Tom


The Family Medallion Service


J and H after the wedding. (I think J looks like Corie!)

Dad and Mom

The newly married couple!

We went to Scott's church on Saturday morning for a reception in their Fellowship Hall. His church folks had it decorated so lovely.


Kissing

One of the cakes at the Saturday reception. Beautiful!


Oh yeah. I had my first-ever pedicure for the wedding since I was wearing open-toed heels! I got a French pedicure....

And a French manicure. I was able to get my own fingernails French manicured since they were long enough!

I traveled for work the first week in August. I took some scenic pictures:




The last happening I'll share in this post is C's 11th birthday party!



Hard to believe he's 11! Corie, Scott, and the family now live 2 hours away. They were back in our neck of the woods for a wedding this past weekend, so we were able to celebrate C's birthday, which was fun! He had a party at the bowling alley!

My next post in a day or two will be pictures of the kids as they head back to school!