My First Turkey

I am so impressed with my efforts today. At Thanksgiving we got a turkey (on sale, yippee) and since we ate with friends we did not cook it right away. It had been thawing in the fridge for a couple days and today was the day. Out of the fridge it came and into a bag (thanks "H") to cook. I'd never used a bag before.. heck I never made a turkey before... My DH, ever so brave pulled the items out of the birdie, and into the fire it went! Three hours later, concerned about the timer thingie not popping out... thoughts of cardboard, turkey jerkey, and various other deserty objects...I checked the birdie many many times til.. finally POP the thingie went. Out it came and it looked great but the test was still ahead. DH carved and sampled as the job was completed. The birdie passed the test not a dry bit in mouth! Yay. Mashed potatoes and stuffing completed the meal. "H" I forgot to use the potato water in the gravy. Doh. The gravy turned out great too. Yay! So needless to say we ate well today and the remains are on the stove simmering away making stock.

I am thinking soup tomorrow or the next. :)

Now I've got to run and make peanut butter cookies for a Christmas meal tomorrow at DH's work.

Remind me to tell you about a score I made yesterday at Goodwill!

Progress

Wrapping is done. Yay! Now the packaging and mailing. I am on the hunt for one more box. My mother, at Christmas time is a menace, as she always tries to guess (and often is correct) her presents before she opens them. This year I predict I have her... she will have several that she will not be able to guess I know it I just know it!

Here's a picture of our tree. By day....By night.... Oh so pretty.

It was too cold to spend any length of time outside today. We saw a variety of temperatures on the way to church... anything from 10 above to 14 below... who knew what it really was. It is saying -9 now. Brrrr.. It sure is pretty tho - we got some snow :)

Africa Update

I should be wrapping my pressies but alas I am on the computer instead. I had to update the background. Fall seems as tho it has flown by and the snow about to be falling outside is signifying that even tho the calendar doesn't say Winter yet... Winter is here :)

A little more than one and a half of us can go to Africa now! Yay. I had a fund raiser jewlery party last night. Four lovely ladies attended and I think all had a wonderful time. Money was raised for the mission trip AND some shopping got done. "S" was our jewler and she donated her time and profit for this show to the mission trip. She has been so very generous as is her company, Premier Jewlery. Please support them if you can. http://www.premierdesigns.com/index.php
Sparkles Sparkles Sparkles galore.

Today I helped a gal who is working on a Christmas party for approx. 70 senior residents of a nursing home in the area. We packaged up pressies for each and lots of goodies! I sure hope each person likes their gifts and can feel the love that went into choosing and wrapping them.

Thank you to each and every one of you who has contributed to the Kenya fund so far! We could not do this without you.

Let it snow!

ok, I've been busy...

Not much of a great excuse but I have been busy.

On a completely random note... we've been buying limeade from the store already mixed and ready to pour. Yum! I got to thinking.. I bet I can make some of that and do it for cheaper... so I am now armed with recipes and I will be getting some limes tomorrow.

I think I will be trying this one:
http://laylita.com/recipes/?s=limonada

Limonada
2 limes (or lemons) (or mixed) quartered
8c cold water
1/2 c sugar
--in blender: toss in limes and 4c water and sugar - blend til frothy/foamy - strain - add remaining 4c water -- serve over ice MMM good.

the runner up is a recipe for concentrate: http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/66/Limeade

to make the Limeade Concentrate:
1c lime juice (about 6 limes)
1.5c sugar
1.5c cold water - mix sugar and water while heating - then add to 1C lime juice
this is your concentrate

the Limeade
add 1c concentrate to 2c cold water - mix and serve.

I will report back!

Day After Thanksgiving (in the U.S.)

Hi everyone. I sure hope your Thanksgiving was great. We had a wonderful day spent with friends and new friends. Bill didn't get called in to work until later in the afternoon ... yay! We were hoping to spend lots of good quality holiday time with him and we got it. A lovely couple from our church invited us to dine at their home & fun was had by all. We are so thankful to have the abundance we have in this country. Abundance was discovered and conquered yesterday as we stuffed and then waddled :)

Never underestimate the power of an invitation for someone to join you or your family for a holiday or even just an everyday meal. It meant so much to us to be able to spend our time with others instead of by ourselves or by myself had Bill been called in to work earlier. You never know what your invitation may mean to another person. So why not invite someone (or a family) to a meal this month, and/or, for Christmas?

I am also so very thankful for computer programs and generous friends who shared theirs with me. Because of their kindness I was able to create a 'work of art' (in my world of computer learnin') for my Craigslist ad. We are selling items in order to raise money for the mission trip coming up. See what I put together... it only took.. well, I am not telling how long it took, I was just glad to be able to get it done! :) I've actually had a couple calls on the items too! One man contacted me to say he didn't want any of the items but wanted to donate! How wonderful is that? God bless him!
Update on Craigslist sale: Jacket sold today and the buyer knew the cause and donated an extra $3 dollars. Yay! and God bless her too!

Faithfulness and Thankfulness

How cool is our God? We are truly seeing blessings as a result of our decision to go on the mission trip to Kenya. A friend was sharing about our trip to a neighbor of hers and this neighbor pulls some money right out of his pocket and gives it to her to pass to the Kenya fund! Wow! Many thanks to both individuals. There are many many stories like this that I could, and probably, will share.

I gotta go and get baking. We have a "spudraiser" fundraiser after church in the morning. Betcha never heard of a spudraiser before, huh? We are selling baked potatoes/fixins, dessert and drink for $6/adult and hot dogs, dessert, & drink for those under 11 years old for $3. We are also auctioning off various scrumptious goodies. One of my apple pies will be auctioned and I am hoping it will bring in a good donation.

If you are in the area of Loveland, CO stop in and you could be a part of the spudtastic extravaganza.
10am service starts and by 12pm the festivities will probably be underway at
Message of Life Ministries
605 S.W. 18th St.
http://messageoflife.com/

Come help us help the orphans in Kenya, Africa.

I have had success! The pie looks good! The crust was a bit ornery but I beat it into submission ;) I was a little bummed that the crust shapes got a little higglety pigglety as they were supposed to represent the orphans. Each one was a little person shape. Some got cracked and misshapen. As I am typing this I am thinking we are all a bit off from perfect? This pie is a better representation of the orphans (and those of us going to help them) than I thought. mmmm.

It's Never too early...

Anyone who knows me well (who am I kidding?.. anyone who knows me...) knows that I am not a morning person. This is not of what I speak...

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I, for one, have many many things to be thankful for.

I must say I am thankful for pressies recieved from a friend. They are a perfect match for my dinnerware AND I was getting bored with my plain glasses. I will bless someone with mine and enjoy these new beauties.

I would be remiss if I didn't say I am also thankful for clean water right from my faucet inside the house. Apparently, in Kenya, the water is a lovely shade of brown orange! I can't wait!

I must remember to be thankful for computers... I must I must... I've just put the picture back in the post for the 4th time...now 5th time! I keep erasing it. I am sure there is an easier way to set the layout... If there is, I haven't found it. I keep erasing the picture with one touch of the delete or backspace button. DOH!I wonder if there is a limit to how many times the same picture can be loaded and re-loaded? I really do not want to find out Argh!

More to be thankful for in upcoming posts.

Dontcha wish you were in my kitchen today?

MMMmmmMMM did it smell good! We are fundraising for the Africa Mission trip and are hosting a lunch at the Sheriff's Office. Part of the lunch is a bake sale. So many lovely ladies helped me with baking (THANK YOU LADIES!) and my kitchen smelled so yummie while I was wrapping goodies. On the plastic wrapping note do I ever recommend the "restaurant" style plastic wrap you can get at Sam's Club. It comes in this ginormous roll and has a slider/cutter (no more sliced fingers or stretched wrap! wooo hooo!) It was so easy to package all the goodies into individual portions.

Some of my day sure was a challenge... I got cream cheese spread instead of cream cheese, I got waay too many rice crispies (note to self... rice crispie treats for me!), the pie crust dough sure was obnoxious!.. the list could go on. I must say I got a lot accomplished. I did succeed in not having the oven empty for too long. Yee haw!

Going to sleep now. sssssnnnooorrre!

Here are some pictures... from mid-event! It was a wonderful success and a BIG THANK YOU TO ALL WHO SUPPORTED US IN ANY WAY! We could not do this mission trip without you!

Aren't National Park Service Sites Great?

My hubbie & I enjoy spending time exploring the National Park Service sites. National Parks are his favourite & his goal is to get to each one. I think, at last count, he is half way there. On this last trip to KY we hit several sites .. 7.. I think. Here is some of the evidence. The park service does such a great job maintaining & preserving history & beautiful lands. I used to work for
the NPS & I enjoyed contribuiting to the mission.














This was our favourite park. There were surprise showers there. Yay for cleanliness! We were tent camping on this trip and didn't realize the campground we stayed in had showers and not only had them they were SUPER clean! :) To say the least I was very very happy.
We did a lot of things at this park. I wrote about puppie friends and the hike we did .. I think that was my favourite.














This is in the Louis area. It was a beautiful day and a neat glimpse into family life of a historical figure. We shared a tour with only two other women so we got to get lots of questions answered by our guide :)













Here is our campsite at Mammoth Cave NP. We did not get a picture of their sign. I do not remember why. We did a cave tour here and there was a great bike trail. Check it out if you are in the area.














Our next travel will be coming up at the end of January into early Feb. We will be traveling with a group from our church to Kenya Africa. Never been to Kenya before but we are very excited to go on this mission trip. I will probably post here more about our preparations. We need to get our shots... eeek ! Not so much a fan of shots... am more of a fan of not getting sick or dead... so must get shots! :) We are going to be working in an orphanage and with churches in the area. Pray for us as we are raising the money to go. Not sure where it is all going to come from but we are believing it will come in. :) More another day. 'til then.. ta tahh! Here is a link to a map of the area we will be in :
http://www.maplandia.com/kenya/rift-valley/nyahururu/
The town is called Nyahururu and I will have to learn to say it too!
More in the future...

Wow! Where have I been?

Wow. I have been in hiding apparently. Eeeek. We did finally return from vacation. Our time away was great and here are some pics.

This picture is us in our truck on a ferry crossing the Green River. The car ferry is needed because the road is interrupted by the river or vice versa. It was cool to go on. I wonder how many times the man who runs the ferry goes across in one day!? We were in Mammoth Cave National Park, KY.

This picture is of my doggie friends. On our last day in Cumberland Gap we hiked the White Rocks Trail. At the trailhead there was a man and two dogs and he asked us did we want them. It seems these dogs have adopted him and hike with him each day. They show up a the trailhead and hike with him or whoever gives them attention. They met up with us several times on the hike. The trail was recommended by a few people and rightly so, it was great! In many places it was steep but well worth it for the views.
Yup, here is the view from the top. It was a grunt to get there but you can see forever. It was really nice. There was one other person up there and we asked him to take our picture. This way we have evidence we were really there and this was not someone else's picture.

A little baseball anyone? On our way back thru St. Louis we got to see the last two Cardinals games of the '08 season. :( They didn't go into the post season but we did enjoy the games. This was our first time to the new Busch Stadium. It is very very similar to Coors Field in Denver. Obviously there is a different view. Check out the Arch in the left side of the picture. So cool!

The view from our seats was great. It was a beautiful day in St. Louis.

On the Road

We are currently on vacation. On Tuesday we left Colorado at 4:30 am it was dark dark dark. We drove to the light.

On the way through Kansas we stopped in Topeka at the Brown vs. Board of Education National Historic Site. While we were there we met a couple who were moving from Aurora, CO to Indianapolis, IN. There were very nice and we enjoyed a nice chat. They were off to Kansas City, MO to the Negro Baseball Museum and some BBQ and we were off for points East!

The traveling went well and the trip seemed really fast. We got to Bill's parent's house near St. Louis at about 21:30 .

We went to Pujols 5 Restaurant to celebrate our niece's birthday. It was a fun evening. A fun time was had by all.



We are leaving tomorrow (Fri.) for Land between the Lakes. I am looking forward to a week of camping and roughing it :) It will be fun :)

Step by Step

I have this wonderful digital camera. I have access to all things photographable (word?, it is now). I don't have to worry about film waste (bad pics. etc.). Why is it that choosing what to photograph is quite overwhelming to me? I remember the internet being like that for me (still is, to a point). One solution I will employ is to narrow the photographic field by breaking it down to into smaller bits or focuses.

Example: House cleaning - instead of spending an entire day cleaning the house top to bottom - I choose a few duties for each day - Meals Monday (meal planning/shop), Tub & Trash Tuesday (inside tubs, outside tub, and trash gathering), etc... I take care of a few focused tasks per day and it keeps me from freaking out about the enormity of a disaster home needing cleaning/straightening.

This does not mean that the whole works breaks down if one item or day is missed. It does, however, mean a bit of juggling is in order to work in the missed tasks or just let them go that week :) Like today, for example, I didn't do the outside tub yesterday (Tues.). I am working on it now (Weds.).

Taking things in manageable chunks works for me in my quest for an on purpose life. I need to remember and apply it to more things!

p.s. I know I spelled vacuum wrong... dear husband pointed that out and I didn't feel like re-writing the list! :) Funny thing is... I spelled it wrong again typing it... Spellchecker you are wonderful!

Breakfast on the Deck

My dear Daddie sent me a new digital camera that I will be doing my best to learn to use. Here are some shots from this morning's breakfast. Often I sit out on the deck and eat my breakfast while sipping on a pot of tea (a cup at a time of course!) It is one of my favourite things to do. This morning I was reading a book called Jimmy written by Robert Whitlow. It is a slow moving book about a family living in the South.

Today's tea choice : English Highgrown from http://www.specialteas.com/.

My favourite is Typhoo (English) and Red Rose (Canadian).

Have a wonderful day!

Welcome to my Entrance into the 20th Century!

I do realize I said the 20th century. When it comes to all things technological it seems I am always behind. I am doing my best to change this.

Welcome. Sit. Sip a mug of tea (a cup...just not enough). Enjoy your time spent here. Laugh with me as I sort out the how to's. My plan is to post pretty regularly about anything and everything. I guess that since I told you this ... I will have to follow through. Next up... who am I ?