Jul. 5, 2007 - ~* Food, Fun, Fellowship, Fireworks, and the Fourth *~

Yesterday was sooo crazy!  Early in the week a dear friend of mine left a message to let me know that they were now settled in their beautiful, new home and that they were thinking about hosting a 4th potluck open house.   When I returned her call, I could tell she was exhausted, so I suggested they all just come grill with us at our place.  After the back and forthing, her honey had already invited a few people and they decided to go ahead with the potluck.  So, my menu needed a quick change.  Additionally, our weather is in the triple digits, so I didn't want to heat the whole house by cooking up a storm, so I planned to bake a cake early and crockpot our main meal.  I'd been eyeing a poke-cake recipe for a while and thought this would be a great time to make it {rolling eyes at foolish self!}  Have you ever made a poke-cake where you pour pudding over the top of the baked cake?  Well, I followed the directions and that thing was mush! YUCK!!  No way I was taking that to the potluck.

  On to the meatballs....forgetting I had bought a higher-fat content ground beef (for grilling), and forgetting I was making meatballs not meatloaf, mm-hm, I made my meatloaf recipe!! YIKES.  Even with browning in the skillet, those puppies turned to mush...and they ended up looking like puppy mush...double YUCK!

  So, praising the Lord for the chips and dip I had purchased for our BBQ and thanking Him that KFC was open, we made our way to the potluck.  Our friends home was absolutely gorgeous and I am so happy for her and her honey! 

  After lot's of fun and fellowship there, the boys were anxious to get home and set off their fireworks. They had saved bottles and cans galore to purchase their fireworks. Our youngest and my honey have just discovered a great video editing program on their computer, so our youngest made videos of the fireworks while our son #2 set them off.   It was so much fun and so relaxing...even with the sparks and noise :)

  I was so thankful for the large concrete area we had to set them off on...it is extremely dry out here...one of our driest years ever, so I was a bit nervous that a stray spark would set off a fire.  Thankfully, everything went well.  Do you ever have those times when you literally have to squelch your mommy-worry-wartitus?  I knew how excited the guys were and just couldn't disappoint them, but I was sure nervous over the first couple of fireworks...until I realized the concrete surrounding area really was large enough to handle the stray sparks!  Seriously, I'm thankful for that!

   So...we survived and enjoyed another 4th...what about you??

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Jun. 30, 2007 - ~* Our Anniversary - in Pics and Words *~

My sweet honey worked half-day, so we could enjoy a loooonnnggg date! (My favorite kind ;)

We were both hungry starting out, so we stopped at this little place for lunch:

after seeing this:

My honey loves good trip tip...and this was good, mmmm-mmm good!!

This stop was a winner all the way around.  In addition to yummy sandwiches, they had all kinds of baked goods, fresh fruit, dried fruit, cute knick knacks:

    and I loved their picnic tables and benches:

Look at the details burned into the wood:

   Cowboys, lassoes, horses, and dogs...pretty neat, huh???

And, here's the happy couple after lunch:

Then it was time to head off to Murphy's for some touristy browsing and shopping.

Here are some shots taken while walking around the town....this is one cute and well-kept little town!

These are from my favorite shop - The Country Flower Hutch...and, oh! I wish my photography did

this little place more justice!  

It is a place that indulges all your senses, it's pretty to look at, it smells lovely, it has cheerful little birds that make the sweetest sounds, all kinds of textures to touch, and they have goodies for the taste buds if you so choose.

But it was the soaps   that brought out our wallet...mmmmm...the smells were intoxicating! My honey bought me the most delicious smelling soap. AND...I brought back three mini soaps as part of the prize for my "unannounced contest" winner!  They are lemon grass...and they smell absolutely yummy!

After checking out all the possible restaurants for our evening meal, we decided we needed a little treat to carry us through until dinner.  What better place to visit, than Nelsons Candy Store:

We treated ourselves to a caramel and a pecan log....oh yeah!!!  Nelson's candy also owns the candy store in Columbia State Park, so if you're in either Murphy's or Columbia State Park, be sure and treat yourself to some delicious candy.  They also have tons of chocolates, but strangely enough, neither of us were in the chocolatey mood...and for me, that is strange! ;)

  Is this not such an adorable man???

Taking his wife to all these cute little shops and enjoying them with her???  He's a definite keeper!!!

   Then we found a nice, semi-quiet, shady spot to relax a bit before heading to Big Trees.  My honey

got in a little snooze and I finished #3 of the Yada Yada series (have I mentioned I'm hooked on this series?!)

    Next, it was off to Big Trees.   In THIS POST, you can see more pictures of this lovely place.  But here are a couple we took on our anniversary date:

  The roots of this burned out Sequoia stump are taller than my honey!

And look at this:

  I'm not much taller than the root section of this giant!  And don't I look slim, next to that huge trunk....hmmmm...thinking that's a wonderful trick to keep in mind ;)

Right after that, our camera battery died.  So that was the end of our pics for the day.

We did attempt to have our anniversary dinner back in Murphy's, but that's another tale for another day!

Be sure and come back tomorrow to read about the new Meme that will allow you to share and bless others at the same time....and to find out who won my "unannounced contest"!

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Jun. 28, 2007 - ~* 27 Years Today *~

Yep, today is our 27th anniversary.

    Here's where my honey and I are headed today:

                                        Big Trees!

And here:

Murphy's, CA

Yippeee!!!

Off to finish the romantic cd's I'm making for our drive.....'giddy with joy', signing off.

(Almost forgot, click on the names or pics for more info on those places.)

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Jun. 21, 2007 - ~* One Week Ago Today...*~

My guys and I were here:

    Isn't it gorgeous?  This is Big Trees...if you find Arnold, CA on a map, you can probably find Big Trees...it's very close to Arnold.

  #'s 2 and 3 of our guys...these two still live at home, so they get in on Mom's crazy, spontaneous jaunts :)

    The guys in front of and on top of two HUGE stumps!  These are Sequoia stumps...the giants of the forest.  These trees live loooooonnnnggg lives.  The stump they are in front of had a timeline of major events the tree was alive during...dating back to just after Jesus walked the earth!!

  A little cutie that didn't mind the camera one bit!

I'm ready for another "jaunt"....I could live there!!

Where's your favorite nature get-away ?

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May. 24, 2007 - ~* Mama's Sick*~

 For   THE. FUNNIEST. READ.  EVER.  on being a sick mommy, run over to Big Mama's and read THIS.

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