Bloggy GiveAway!!

Today is the start of Bloggy GiveAways hosted by Rocks in My Dryer!

I'm giving away an autographed copy of Zonya Foco's Lickety Split Meals for Health Conscious People On the Go! This is one of my favorite cookbooks and I know you'll LOVE it!

This cookbook has the following sections in it: breakfast, "Appeteasers," 1 minute mini meals, 5 minute meals, 15 minute meals, 30 minutes meals, oven-exercise-eat, pasta, pizza, stir-fry, soup, slow-cooking, salad and sides and sweet things. All of the recipes are do-able and taste FABULOUS!

Some of my favorite recipes are: Unstuffed Peppers, Cranberry Pork over Noodles, Beef Stroganoff, Beef Barley Soup, Parmesan Turkey Cutlets over Angel Hair, Salmon Burgers, Creamy Chicken Dijon over Noodles, Breakfast in a Cookie, Oatmeal Cookies.... My family, including my 6 and 7 1/2 year old boys, love EVERYTHING I've made out of this cookbook.

This drawing is open to bloggers and non-bloggers alike. Please make sure you leave me an email address so I can contact you if you are the winner! Please note that you must have a U.S. mailing address to win this prize. I will use a random number generator to choose a winner on Friday, February 1 at 3 pm, EST.

Be sure to click on the button to see what else is being given away this week!

One Week!

January 31 is only a week away!! That means LOST is premiering in one week! Are you as excited as I am??

Who are the people from the freighter? Who was Naomi working for? Who leaves the Island? Who stays? How do they leave? Why are people coming to the Island, but not coming for the survivors of Oceanic 815? The answers start coming in one week!

Bloggy GiveAways!!

It's that time again! What to give away?? Hmmm..... Hand-made cards? Scrapbook layouts? Other crafty things? Recipes? Hmmmmm..... Stay tuned and check back on January 28th to see what I'm giving away!!

Winter?

Well, apparently 60 degree days in January in one of the Mid-West states isn't meant to last. It has been cold for the last week and I'm really looking forward to Spring, or at least consistent 50 degree weather. It snowed Monday night and Tuesday early afternoon. It's so cold, our snow is all powder, which is fine for all of you snow-sports enthusiasts, but it's not suitable for snowballs or snowmen. We shoveled it the best we could; as it is powder, it just kind of blows all over with any amount of wind.

What have you been doing and how is the weather where you are?

Walking Speeds and "Movement"

I have resolved that I need to start moving regularly. Of course I move from one room to the next, but by move, I mean exercise-types of movements. I haven't exercised in a quite some time and it's time to do something about it!

I used to run track in high school and can remember I used to be able to run 5 miles without being very winded and now... let's not even talk about how far I can walk now! Although, I can still walk quickly, I just need to work on walking longer than through the mall or grocery store.

My friend Monica is tall, about 5'9" or so. I am 5' 5" so for me, anyone over 5' 5" is tall! Anyhow, when I was at the Barry Manilow concert last month (I hear some of you people laughing already!) my friend Monica had trouble keeping up with me. She has had people (and her own family) complain that she walks too quickly and could she please walk slower. It was a treat to find someone who can and enjoys walking quickly.

When My Dearest and I were dating, he had a dream he was chasing after an Asian girl through a mall because I walked so quickly when we met.

Now, all of this changed when my children were born. They surely couldn't learn to walk when I was walking so quickly. Now that my youngest is 6, I can start to walk a bit more quickly.

All of this is to say that I need to start exercising, but I'm going to call it "Moving" and "Movement." Quotes included. Do you want to play along? Join me over at ScrappyMom Movement. I'll be moving my Recipes of the week over there, along with my movement progress. Perhaps we can inspire each other along!

Coffee-Mate Give-Away

How do you take your coffee? Cream? Sugar? Flavored creamer?

For all of you who like creamer, flavored or otherwise, Coffee-Mate is giving away coupons for free creamer! This campaign is called Stir Up Something New. Enter your info and they will send you a coupon for a free bottle of Coffee-Mate creamer.

Do I need to tell you how to use it? If so, use it to try something new, your trusted standby or pass on to your coffee-drinking friend. :-)

Enjoy your cup of coffee!

Wouldn't you just know it?

Of course after yesterday's dreary weather post, today is a "yummy, sunny day!" The temperature has dropped back into the "normal" range of 40s, but it's clear and sunny outside!!

Have a great day!

Balmy Weather & Spring Cleaning

Monday and Tuesday were downright balmy here! Now, if you live anywhere in the Mid-West and especially near the Great Lakes, you know that "January" and "balmy" generally do not go together, but I swear, we had fabulous temperatures! It topped 6o on Monday and almost reached 60 today. Now, perhaps you noticed that I wrote "temperatures" and not "sunny." Nope. We had fabulous temperatures.

See, here in the Mid-West, we get dreary winters. Very little sun once January hits. Somehow, November and December don't seem nearly as dreary. We generally have cloudy skies, bone-chilling damp weather, and SNOW. We rarely see the sun, not until March or April at the earliest or so it seems. A dreary, rainy January 60 degree day was most welcome.

This sudden burst of warmer temperatures reminded me of Spring. It sparked my creativity and compelled me to do a bit of pre-mature Spring cleaning!

On Monday, I threw open the windows to air out the house a bit and give us some much needed fresh air. I noticed several of my neighbors did the same. I'm taking full advantage of warm weather while it's here! My creativity ran wild as my boys were playing outside in the mud building forts, fighting some sort of storm trooper or another, and yelling like banshees. I cleaned out all of the newly retired stamp sets in my collection (32!) and then decided that it was time to move furniture in our living room.

I had moved a couch, coffee table and emptied a bookcase to move when I received a phone call from my Dearest who was leaving work. I told him I had a surprise for him and hoped it would be ready when he got home. He paused a moment and said, "I'd like to eat dinner tonight." I started brown rice in the rice cooker, then I scrambled to finish moving the couches, bookcases, and re-shelve the books. I didn't dare move the TV, entertainment cabinet, and various other TV paraphernalia.

He snuck in through the back door, but he liked what I had done. So far. He came up with the idea to keep moving furniture. We rearranged a bit more and are happy with our fresh, new look. Just in time for "Winter" to arrive... again.

By the way, we had salads, seasoned Mahi-mahi, asparagus, and brown rice for dinner, to my Dearest's joy.


For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven...Ecclesiastes 3:1

Expecting!!

Not ME, you sillies! I had you going, didn't I? :-)


My dearest Sister and Brother-in-Law are expecting their first child. They broke the news over Thanksgiving, but seeing as I've rarely blogged since... well, before Thanksgiving, I thought now would be a good time to share with the world.

No, they're not going to find out before hand what gender their child is.

She's due in early June.

She's feeling well. Not much (morning) sickness at all.

(Yes, I can hear all of your questions now.)

Sadly, I've been bugging, I mean prodding, I mean encouraging my Sister and Brother-in-Law to have offspring for quite some time. Granted, they've been married for about 3 1/2 years. In some circles that's seen as a long time. In others, it is seen as no rush, no fuss. I mention this because my Dearest and I got pregnant on our honeymoon. We are of the view that they were taking a long time, only because of our own circumstances.

Our children are 6 and 7 1/2 so we (okay, I) have been encouraging my Sister and Brother-in-Law to have children, because after all, our children need cousins on this side of the family!

Now that they are expecting and we own a mini-van, the talk has come full circle back to us. Our child will need cousins his or her own age! You could have more children. Don't you need a girl? You have three empty seats in your mini-van, ya know! and every other conceivable reason why we would need more children. No pun intended!

Tonight, at dinner, as talk turned to meatball cannons, Legos, cars, and other boy-ish topics, I felt it again. Acutely female in an almost male-dominated home. This time, instead of just grinning at the "boys will be boys" behaviour, I mentioned it to my Dearest. I laid my head on his shoulder and said, "I feel acutely female."

His way of comforting me was something like this:
"Well, if we were to multiply, there's no way to determine the gender."
I answered, "I know. We could have more of this!" nodding my head at the boys.
"Your Sister and Brother-in-law have no way of knowing either. If we did, we wouldn't know until the birth* anyhow. We don't know if the genders will be compatible or not."
(I think he meant similar. tee hee hee)
He continued with, "Well, it's best not to try."

*We are some of those people who chose not to find out the gender at the ultrasound. We like being surprised at the actual birth. For me, it's remembering my Dearest looking at me with such emotion on his face as he announced that we had a son or another son. Memories I'll cherish in my heart forever.

Anyhow, those of you who know my Dearest know that he's always said that whatever God has planned for us will be and who are we to stay God's hand? If it happens, we'll love that child as much as we love the ones we have now. If not, then not.

Football Results

The end of the regular football season is over. For the football widows out there, I'm very glad for you. All you must endure now is playoff season. It will officially be over on February 3 ... about 10:30 pm.

Here is how our Pigskin Pick'em team did:

I am so excited to say that I placed first in our group overall. Yay!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year, everyone!

I hope that 2008 will be a wonderful year for you.
May God lead you even closer to Him and continue to sanctify you.