Little Paper Pumpkins

You see the cute little paper pumpkins below? I typed up a tutorial on how to make them so you can too.

Paper Pumpkin Craft

In Just 12 More Posts....

.....I'll be at 800!

What? That's crazy. 

Recently I started going back into my archives, just to see what I was writing about 2 1/2 years ago and to make sure I don't repeat myself, because I will and I probably already have. Just don't tell me and I'll stay in my happy place!

But here's what I'm thinking, I'm thinking that my 800th post would be a fabulous time for a giveaway.

Because those of you who actually put up with my improper use of punctuation, my run-on sentences, my overuse of LOL's and !!!!, and goofy meaningless posts, (which by the way get the most comments, hence the baking soda post) and for letting me use the word hence and not slapping me silly, deserve a little somethin' somethin. 

But you'll have to come back in 12 posts to see what it could be. That and I have no idea what I'm giving away yet! HA!

 I'm thinking that it might have to do with a few of my favorite things! Uh huh! A little bit of archive diving will give you a glimpse of what some of that might be!

So a BIG THANK YOU to those who cheer me on day after day and convince me to not quit when I feel like quitting. 

You all are the best!

HUGS!!

Happy Birthday Princess!

Today is my precious daughters 17th birthday!

(Please excuse the mismatched candles that I may have actually saved from prior birthdays just to save 2 bucks because I actually forgot to buy them for hers. It's the human in me.)

My first born, my only daughter. Where did it go? 17 years, WHOOSH!

She is truly a blessing to us and it's amazing to see her grow so fervently in the Lord. 

She's had her ups and downs but I love it when she just clings all the more tighter to the One who is her strength.

We went ahead and celebrate yesterday because it just seemed like a good day being the weekend and all.

We had some of our church family over for dinner and games.

We didn't get loud or laugh or get a little rowdy because we are a very composed bunch.

NOT!

Happy Birthday my Precious Pumpkin!
We LOVE you!

BTW she's started her own blog and wanted me to give a shout out to you all in case you may have daughters with blogs etc. etc. etc.
Here's her linkage! Flip Flop Farm Girl

Have a fabulous day my friends!

Homemade Simmering Potpourri!

So I was decorating my house for Fall the other day and came across my little Potpourri Crock.

That caused me to go searching for some things that I could simmer in it to make my house smell all "Fallish" and stuff.

Here's the mixture that I came up with.

4 cinnamon sticks

1 TSP. of whole cloves

1/2 tsp of allspice

2 orange slices

water for simmering

Just throw it all in your little crock, if you have one, if not you can do this on the stove in a little saucepan.

Just keep an eye on the water level. Keep plenty in there for simmering!

The house smells sooooo good right now!

Enjoy!

Gluten Free!

I've known for a long time that we probably needed to go off gluten but hesitated because of the extra work it would put on me. But because a couple of family members seem to have a sensitivity and our doctor claims that gluten is to blame, I'm going to go ahead and give it a shot.

I made gluten free bread last night for the first time and it wasn't to bad at all.

The kids liked it so that's a plus right there.

I also went ahead and bought these books.

 

Click here to check it out.

And this ebook from Sheri Graham

Click here to check it out.

Since "baking" will be the biggest struggle with what to replace with what I thought I'd start there. 

And since I'm pretty much a "from scratch" cook the rest shouldn't be to hard.

So if you have any tips or advice for this little journey we're going on I'd be very much appreciative.

HUGS!

Friday Funnies!

Happy Friday Everyone!!

It's my favorite day of the week. The day we get to take a little time and get in some giggles to finish off the week. Who doesn't need that?

If you have a family friendly funny to share, please link up below.

It can be a video, story, picture etc.

I knew when my great friend Lisa posted this on FB I would have to use it as my funny. 

It's probably even funnier to me because of the video Lisa and I made.

Enjoy!

I could so see myself doing that! 
If you have the hankerin' to make your own and you haven't watched mine and Lisa's video, feel free to snag the recipe here!

HUGS!

Just Another Sign of Aging!

I wear these every day. Rain or shine! I love em'.

They're contacts. I wear them 90% of the time I'm awake. I'm near sighted which means I can't see far away clearly. In fact it's darn right blurry!

These are my glasses for when I'm not wearing my contacts.

 I usually wear them in the morning before the contacts go in and at night after the contacts come out. I may on occasion wear them out, but not to often. (Although my hubby thinks I look hot in them! Hee! Hee!)

These are the newest additions to my little "help me see" collection.

These are READING glasses. Cause I can't read certain things up close , like the extremely small writing on the back of vitamin bottles or the entirely too small writing on labels. It's funny, (not really) but I don't remember the writing being so small years ago. I'm pretty sure they're using different font that's messing with my eyes.
Yeah, that's it. It can't be my age. Nooooo.  And yes, you see 3 pairs there because although it hasn't happened yet, I'm pretty sure as I get older I'll forget where I put pair 1 and pair 2 and rely heavily upon pair 3 to be close by! That and they came as a 3 pack at Sam's!

Have I mentioned my chin hairs? LOL!

You can relate? Can't you?!

Lisa Earns Her Keep And Says Good Bye!

The middle of the week with my best bloggy friend Lisa went something like this.

I forced her to help me cook and make pumpkin spice lattes, while wearing my chocolate themed aprons that I happen to win from her giveaways.(It wasn't rigged I promise! LOL)

 

I twisted her arm to entertain my children. 

And entertain she did.

This is her playing Mario Kart with my boys. (She doesn't play Mario Kart!)

...

She has great form but.....

....not to much skill. LOL!

She's in the bottom left hand side, not on the road and in 12th place, which happens to be last place! LOL!

I'm hoping she's playing War here with my boys and not teaching them Poker. HA!

Because she was such a good sport I decided that she needed a day out down town. So my BFF Kathy, Lisa and I went and walked the shops, sampled some fudge and had a nice lunch. Then for the first time she tried Chocolate Covered Potato Chips!!

I think she liked them because she bought some to take home!

By the end of the day we were all tuckered out!

The end of the week consisted of a game night, lots of laughter and silly faces!

It was so sad to see her go but hopefully she will be able to come back again!

Love you Lisa!

Have you ever entertained a bloggy friend?

HAVE A FABULOUS DAY MY FRIENDS!

Tomorrow I must share a personal aging experience. So stay tuned!

Lisa makes me look like a tourist!

Most of you know by now that Lisa from Stop and Smell the Chocolates was our guest a couple weeks ago. I wasn't able to document it until now. Make sure you go back a couple posts to the beginning to see what we were up to.

After the thrilling start to her little vacation we decided that going to the famous Ron Jon Surf Shop, located in Cocoa Beach, Florida, was on the agenda for Saturday!

It's a huge place so it took awhile to soak everything in but she did manage to narrow down out of the hundreds of Ron Jon shirts, to this one for her husband.

 Okay she really didn't get him this one but we did try to pull one over on him by sending it to him via email and saying that she did. He wasn't fooled. She did get him two very nice MANLY shirts instead.

After we perused Ron Jon's I decided that since we were so close to the beach that we should walk to it so she could say she set foot on the famous Cocoa Beach.

If you look closely you can see her. She's the one fully clothed. LOL!

I wanted her to see the comparison of the two beaches just mins away from each other so we headed back to my house and walked across the street.

While I was busy writing my profound statement in the sand.

She was writing this.

 Only Lisa! Oy!

More to come...

Lisa Arrives at My House!

We finally made it out of the airport and back to my house.
When she arrived to her little cottage in our back yard, this is what awaited her.

I'm all about making one feel at home!

But let's fast forward to the next day!

This day (Friday) proved to be an interesting one. One that I didn't see coming.

See a month ago we had already arranged for my daughter to get blood taken because she was having some troubles.
So Friday morning we all head out to the" blood taking place". My daughter was a bit nervous to say the least but was ready to get it over with. They called us back and Lisa chose to stay behind. Smart choice.
My precious daughter was showing signs of being a bit nervous but didn't give an indication of what was to come.
As the nurse was getting the second vile of blood my daughter looked at me, got pail white and said she felt like she was going to pass out. Then Whamo! She was out. Lisa said she could here me say, "What do we do?" Cause I'm no doctor! LOL! The nurse said to get her on the floor and lay her on her left side. Yeah, Okay?! A dead weight 16 year old isn't light, I'm here to tell you, but we managed to do it between the two of us. She came to in about 30 seconds but looked at me like she didn't know me. That's comforting for a mother, I'm just here to say.
I SO badly wanted to take a picture of her laying of the floor for documentation but decided against it. Hey, it's the blogger in me! HA!
ANYWAYS, we were there for almost 2 hours and I finally talked them into letting me take her home.
But WAIT there's more. On the way home she proceeded to throw up 3X in my just detailed by my husband 3 days earlier SUV. It made me want to throw up and poor Lisa was the one that had to try and find something for her maybe throw up in, to no avail. Yup, all over the seats and floor. NICE!
Welcome to my world Lisa! LOL!
Stay tuned for more!

BTW my daughter is fine. Just thought you'd like to know . Me on the other hand........

Lisa Arrives in Florida!

 A week ago I had the privilege of meeting Lisa from Stop and Smell the Chocolates in person. 

She was able to use some frequent flier miles and take an almost "free" trip to Florida!

Day 1: Picking her up at the airport!
Waiting.....

waiting.....

tired of waiting.... LOL!

Done waiting! She's touched down!
Welcome to Florida Lisa!!

The first thing we did was get Lisa a Starbuck's. 

But the locals weren't very nice. They kept trying to take it from her.

Fighting Mickey for it!

Then some crazy person tried to take it from her here.

She only let go of it for a moment here and it started floating off into space!

Hurry Lisa get it! That's liquid gold right there!

All this and we hadn't even left the airport yet! 

That should give you some indication of the rest of our week!

Stay tuned!

Friday Funnies! Hand Sanitizer!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

If you're happy it's Friday raise your hand! *raises hand enthusiastically*

Today is the day to link up your family friendly funny. It can be a picture, video, joke, story, etc.

Let's spread some funny today!

I first saw my funny today on Facebook, so some of you may have seen it already. But I had to share for those who have not because it cracks me up. Probably because I can so relate to it!

Laugh it up!

HAVE A FABULOUS FRIDAY MY FRIENDS!!

Are You Getting Your Free Coffee?

I did not know this until my Starbucks Gold Member friend Lisa informed me about it.

Did you know that if you buy Starbucks ground coffee you can take the empty bag back to Starbucks and get a free tall coffee? 

Seriously look!

This is on the side of the bag.

SUH-WEET!

And don't let anyone tell you that's it's weird for you to have a ziploc bag full of empty Starbucks bags sitting in your glove compartment. It's okay! Your okay! I'm okay! We're all OKAY!

I don't usually buy already ground coffee but I do like to keep it on hand in case of emergencies so I figure why not get me a free coffee in the process! Oh yeah!

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

If you have a Starbucks gift card you can register it online and earn rewards and get more free bonuses!

Just keep reusing that one card and rack up the Starbucks points!

If you must indulge in a Starbucks Coffee from time to time then why not earn some freebies! 

That's all I'm sayin'!

HUGS!