Archive for the ‘friends’ Category
Meredith wanted to bring her stuffed turtle “Shelly” for her first show-and-tell at preschool today. And whoever brings show-and-tell also provides a snack for the class. So, I thought that little turtles made from wheat bread, whipped cream cheese, cucumbers, and raisins for the head/arms/legs would make a cute snack! They kind of look like turtles, right? :)
I’ve been feeling a little down lately about the decline in blog comments (on both of my sites). It used to be that on a *very* good day, I would sometimes receive 20 comments on a blog entry. (That was many years ago ~ a few years after starting my blog.) But on a regular, average day, I would get at least five … maybe even 10 comments on occasion. Now? It seems like I’m only getting one or two comments at the most … and sometimes zero!
Ani gave me a neat cookbook several years ago, and I’ve enjoyed trying the cookie recipes inside. It’s dark and rainy here today, and I thought that it would be a nice afternoon for cookies and a cup of hot tea. (Can you believe that it’s July and I’m saying that?!?) Anyway, I took this recipe from the book, but instead of the sugar and nutmeg I used powdered chai tea mix. These cookies are not overly sweet (just a warning!), but they absolutely melt in your mouth. If you want them a bit sweeter, you could mix up a chai glaze (confectioner’s sugar, milk, a touch of powdered chai tea mix, maybe some vanilla extract) and drizzle on top. And there’s not much dough … this recipe only makes like 15 cookies. If you make these, let me know how you like them.
Chocolate-Spice Chai Tea Cookies
1 C all-purpose flour
4 TB. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 C butter, softened
1/2 C powdered chai tea mix (Mystic Chai, Pacific Chai, your own homemade, etc.)
1 large egg yolk
Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. (Typical instructions ~ sift the dry ingredients together; mix the wet ingredients in a stand mixer, then add the dry mixture slowly.)
Allergies are annoying me to no end today. And my poor husband actually came home early from work yesterday because his allergies were making him feel incredibly miserable. (He must feel crappy in order to come home from work ~ usually he has to be at death’s door for that to happen!) Lots of other friends are complaining about allergy issues, too. Today’s weather is rainy and chilly (well, only 50 degrees ~ not bad, but sure odd for the end of May!). I’m walking around the house turning on all of our Sylvania lightbulbs in order to get some simulated daylight in here, LOL! :) Feels like a good night for chili or some kind of hearty stew for dinner, but I think that I’ll go with burgers because hamburger was on sale at the grocery store today. What are you having for dinner tonight?
I’m only 33 years old. That’s definitely not the age when we’ll start checking into Medicare supplements, LOL! :) But seriously, I felt like an old lady after finishing our town’s 5K walk on Friday night. It’s a great community activity where everyone meets at our town hall, then does the 5K “loop” ~ walking, running, biking, pushing kids in the stroller, whatever you like. It’s a great way to meet new neighbors, get some fresh air, and get MOVING! I think that the rest of the world must walk a *lot* faster than I do, though, because I had trouble keeping up with the girls ahead of me. I felt like I was sprinting! But, I did finish … I was determined … it’s just that I prefer to walk at a slower pace. But my heart rate definitely got up, and sometime I’d like to wear a pedometer to see how many steps the 5K walk is. I’m proud of myself for getting out there. And I plan to do it every Friday night if my bones allow it! hehe :)
I have to admit … I get totally sucked in by makeover TV shows. You know ~ the ones where they transform someone into a beautiful bombshell who looks 10 years younger? It’s amazing to see the transformation. Hair cuts, Lasik surgery, microdermabrasion, a new wardrobe … I always can’t wait for the big reveal. But you know what? Right now I’m pretty happy with the way that I look. Sure, I weigh too much ~ and I plan to correct that. Hopefully by the end of this summer when I have my doctor’s physical, I’ll have lost weight. But otherwise, I think that I look pretty decent. Is there some part of yourself that you’d like to have a makeover on? I would say my weight right now ~ specifically, my tummy and thighs. Several friends have recommended the South Beach Diet to me, and I kind of want to check that out. But really, I’ve been eating too much and not exercising enough. Plain and simple!
I think that it would be so much fun to host an Oscars party here at our house. We’ve never done something like that before. Problem is, even though we do the DVDs by mail thing, we aren’t able to get to movie theaters much at all anymore because of having two small children. (I think that Cars is the only movie I’ve seen in a while, LOL!) So, we end up not seeing a lot of the movies that are nominated! But I think that deciding which foods to serve would be the best part. It’s cute how people take the names of Oscar-nominated movies and turn them into party foods. If you’re looking for some fabulous Oscar party ideas, make sure to check out Celebrations.com. They’ve got everything there that you can possibly imagine ~ award statue invitations, how to create a champagne tower (I would definitely do one of those ~ champagne is one of my very favorite beverages!), recipes, movie trivia games, ideas for great party favors, and more. We are big into trivia here at our house, so we’d probably create a fun movie trivia game. It would be awesome to take lots of pictures ~ maybe the guests could recreate a scene from an Oscar-nominated film and we could snap photos of that! I don’t think that we would make it a “formal affair,” though ~ no making the guests wear ball gowns and tuxedos, LOL! :) I also think that it would be fun to “rate” everyone’s outfits ~ kind of like a fashion show/critique! Are you planning to do an Oscars-themed party this year?
Working out is a challenge with two little ones in tow. I attempted to do 15 minutes of step aerobics this morning ~ just 15 minutes ~ but the kids thought that I was dancing! So, they joined in. It was cute, but they kept running around my step platform and jumping up and down onto it. I accidentally knocked them both over twice ~ oops!
Haven’t found a step aerobics DVD yet, but a friend suggested that I could add a few to our Netflix queue and try them out before I buy one. Such a great idea. I’m going to search for some today. Also, I saw a lot of YouTube step videos, but most of them are only a few minutes long and not an entire workout. Or they’re just videos showing you how to do one particular step movement. Oh well. I just played some of our MP3s on my computer (the “Electric Slide,” LOL!) and created my own routine this morning. I need some structure, though.
Really need to make myself a good workout mix! (Tune suggestions are welcome!) By the way, if you’ve made a new year’s resolution to lose some weight, you can check out some Hydroxycut reviews here.
Well, I’m hoping so, anyway! :) We weren’t able to travel back to Indiana last year to visit with our families and friends (for various reasons that were pretty much out of our control ~ mainly the weather!). So this year, I’d love to plan a two-week vacation to the great Hoosier state. I haven’t really talked with Jeff about it yet, but it would be fun to leave at the end of June and then stay through the Fourth of July. It would be great to spend a week with both of our families ~ and I would love to stop by Indianapolis to see my friend Jan, too. In June/July, it would be warm with no chance of ice storms! LOL! :) But you know … here’s something that I recently read about: travel medical insurance. That could really help a traveler’s peace of mind. I hope and pray that when we do go back to Indiana, we won’t have any problems. But nothing is worse than an accident or illness happening while you’re traveling. Just passing that link along in case you’re going to travel anytime soon and want to check into some insurance, too.
Do you know anyone who has recently gotten engaged? During their wedding planning, they might want to check out the selection of wedding invitations at InvitationConsultants.com. Just passing that link along as an idea … there are so many different invitations from which to choose!
If I remember correctly, Jeff and I chose our wedding invitations through a catalog. Choosing them was quite a process … we made a list (separately) of all of the ones that we liked, then we put the list together and narrowed them down from there. We came down to several that we liked, but there was just something neat about these particular invitations. We both completely agreed on them. We also enjoyed writing our own text.
After my bridal shower in April 2000, some of our friends came over to Jeff’s apartment and helped us assemble and address our wedding invitations. It was such a huge help! Ours were tall and narrow white paper with royal blue print (our wedding colors were royal blue and silver), and there was a white satin ribbon to tie around the middle of each invitation. I totally loved them. Our good friend Christina took one of our invitations and incorporated it into the front of our unity candle, which she made herself! So special! I bought special royal blue calligrapher pens for addressing them. I was super excited about mailing them. We also put magnets with our wedding website into some of the invitations.
So … what were your wedding invitations like?
