M is 4!

My youngest nephew turned 4 on November 15th! The family celebration was held on Saturday.

The Transformer birthday cake

Making a wish!

Opening presents! He received a lot of Hot Wheels stuff!

And when he opened the Scooby-Doo DVD, he said, "It's what I always wanted!" Too cute!

Brotherly love!

Even though it was his birthday, he w.o.u.l.d. NOT smile much! But he was very cute when he thanked everyone for their gift and gave lots of hugs and kisses!

Happy Birthday, M! I love you!

Friday's Fave Five - My 2nd One

This is my second time participating in Susanne's Friday's Fave Five.

1. Participating in a Boyds Bingo fundraiser for a 7-year-old girl with a rare form of cancer...and winning two games! The first game and the last game!

2. Enjoying fresh Fall flowers. They're from our Annual Luncheon.

3. Being organized enough this week to set up the coffee pot the night before so there's hot, fresh coffee when I wake up! I love the smell of coffee, and waking up to it is just wonderful.

4. Comfort food! I made a big casserole dish of The Lady's Cheesy Mac ("The Lady" being Paula Deen!) on Tuesday and had my best friend and her two boys over for dinner. I'm still enjoying the leftovers.

5. Two evenings this week without anything planned. No meetings to attend, no "chores" to be done, etc. I did get some of my scrapbooking stuff organized. Still working on that!

It was a great week! I hope yours was, too.

Thanks 'N' Giving Swap

I participated in Susan's Thanks 'N' Giving Swap. She was my partner! Here are the things she sent me:


A crocheted hot pad, an apron she made, an oven mitt and two pot holders, Pumpkin Spice body wash, 6 tea bags, a wooden pumpkin that says "Give Thanks," a Mary Englebreit book, a cloth grocery bag that she also made, and a Fall table runner. I love everything! I've already used the body wash, I have the wooden pumpkin with my Fall decortions, along with the Mary Englrebreit book, and I plan to use all the other stuff real soon!



Oh, here's the table runner on my kitchen island. It's really long, so I have it folded in half. I'll use it on my dining table at some point - right now I have a Fall tablecloth on it. At least I finished going through all my magazines - you couldn't even seen the tablecloth from all the magazines and articles I was saving to file!


If I had to pick a favorite thing, it would be the apron! I didn't have a Fall/Autumn-themed apron, so I love this one! Plus, she made it! Now I should host Thanksgiving Dinner so I get to wear it soon!

Thanks, Susan! I enjoyed being your partner.

She posted the things I sent her in this post.

General Election Day 2008

Fall 2008

Fall is my favorite time of year! I love all the vibrant colors and the warm days and cooler evenings. Here are some pictures I took:

I took these first four from the 8th floor of the parking garage at work. I was hoping to get the colors of the trees in the mountains, but they're too far away. But the view is cool!

This is the front of my house. Nothing spectacular. I just wanted a picture with my McCain/Palin yard sign!

Here's the tree I see every morning out my front door.

And here's the same tree four days later!


Another tree, to the left of my front door.

I took these last two pictures on my way home from visiting my sister and her family. I was driving, down a mountain, put the window down, with my camera out the window, and just snapped. LOL It was cloudy and drizzling. On the way to visit them, it was beautiful - warm and sunny - but I didn't stop to take any pictures. ::sigh::

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.