Recent Baking Endeavors

Happy Birthday Matt!

He is a Thomas the Train Fanatic. And he loved the cake! Yippee!

Chuck's Birthday was before Matt's, He got this cake

which has quickly become a family favorite.

Amanda has even requested it for her wedding cake!

Once we cut into it any semblance of pretty was gone. But who cares when it tastes so good!
Jake's girlfriend says it is a heart attack and diabetes waiting to happen, but what the heck!
My sister's birthday cupcakes. I know they are not exactly correct when compared to their live counterpart. Colors are flipped. But these were fun to make for Haylee-Bug!

Trick or Treat? .... TREATS!

So I made these for the ladies I visit teach. So easy! Coffee Filters, stamps, ribbon, and spider rings from Wal-Mart, black plates, a tooth pick and some paper!

I made these cookies to go inside.

Happy Halloween!

Best part is this idea can be used for ANY holiday!

Thankful Thursday

I know it is just barely still Thursday. . . but don't let that keep you from sharing!

ok. . . gotta say that I LOVE my morning drives to preschool with Alaina! Especially when one of her favorite songs is playing on the radio, at which point we turn the volume way up and we belt it out like only a mother-daughter duo can! Her favorites you ask?: Teardrops on My Guitar, So What, Shake It and Hot 'n Cold.

Monday Musings

Blind Wife plus Deaf Husband

equals

Great Marriage

sign I saw on a local church marquis. What do you think? At first I was taken aback at the message I saw up there. usually I really like seeing what words of whitty wisdom they feel like sharing with passers-by. But this morning this particular message rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe because I have a deaf husband (or at least one who feigns a hearing impediment) and I wouldn't exactly say that this particular characteristic contributes to our 'great marriage'. And the message seemed to convey a sense of separateness and indifferance, even disdain:

Picture a wife. . .discontent with the husband who used to be built like an upright triangular athlete - broad robust in all the right places, thin and svelt in the right ones too. . . turning a blind eye to now upside down triangular less than prime fighting machine she used to know - now broad round the middle. Picture a husband who used to love the sound of her voice, now aggravated at the constant bickering and pestering. So one turns a blind eye, the other a deaf ear, and they find this helps keep them happy, even sane. Not a very uplifting message for a church marquis.

So then I tried to spin it positive (since surely their intent was to uplift and provide some humor at the same time, not instill that this-will-have-to-do tone I got from it all)

Now picture a wife who moves forward in life blind, holding to her faith, not knowing what comes next. Since she can't see the future she relies on her senses, specifically her sensitivity to the promptings of the Spirit. And picture a husband who, let's face it, doesn't always 'hear' those whisperings quite as often or well as the woman. With is 'deafness', perhaps he relies on the senses which work best still, reason, problem solving, those things that allow him to 'see' what the future might be, unlike his faith driven wife. Together, the blind and the deaf, work together, their seeming impairments actually blessing the life of the other, making their marriage great, and making themselves complete.

What do you think? What was your first impression of the message when you read it?

Thankful Thursdays

K. . . gonna try to start a new thing here in an attempt to get more comments on my blog. That is the fun of all this anyway don't you think. Don't you ever find yourself logging on just to see how many people have stopped by, hoping beyond all hope that they took a few minutes to actually read and then leave a note, a mindless or thoughtful response? I do! So I am inviting all ya all to leave a comment for Thankful Thursdays wherein you leave a comment expressing your gratitude for ONE (COUNT IT ONE)certain someONE, someTHING, someTIME, or somePlace. Can be something that you have been grateful for for a long-time, or a short-time or a right-now-in-the-moment-time folowed by a brief or lengthy explanation.

Every Thursday come on by. I must admit that I am also in a bit of an "I-need-to-be-more-grateful-time" myself and this is one mechanism I am employing to help me in this endeavor.

So for me on this fine Thursday I am thankful for BOGO at Payless. I just got a pair of boots for $2.50, and a pair of cute slide on's for Alaina for $4.50. How can you beat that? And with how annoyingly fast little kid's feet grow you need shoes to be dirt cheap. Yippee!

Husband Tag

Rules : Each person answers questions about their sweethearts
At the end of the Post, the person then tages 4 people and post their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know they have been tagged.

*What is your husbands name? Charles Michael Riddle
*How long have you been married? A little over 7 years
*How long did you date? maybe 3 months before we got engaged. Is that terrible? I can't remember!
*How old is he? 33
*Who eats sweets? both, but me way more by far
*Who said I love you first? Chuck said, "I think I am falling. Falling in love with you that is." ahhh haaa.
*Who is taller? He is, but if I married someone shorter than me, I would have married a pygmee!
*Who can sing best? me, but that is not saying much
*Who is smarter? Math and Science - Chuck, well he is smarter than me in almost every case except for the right-brained subjects, in which case I take the cake.
*Who does laundry? Both of us. . . he usually steps in when the basket is overflowing and he has no more underwear. That doesn't happen all the time, but often enough.
*Who pays bills? I get that honor
*Who sleeps on the right side? he does (unless stacy is in bed too, then he sleeps on the floor!. . . ha ha)
*Who mows the lawn? He does. . . I have done it a few times.
*Who cooks dinner? 9 times out of 10, he does. In fact that is what he is doing right now.
*Who drives? Most of the time he does.
*Who is first to admit they are wrong? Chuck is never wrong. Well I think he was wrong once. I put it on the calendar, but now I can't find it. I think he was trying to destroy the evidence.
*Who kissed who first? Well, I had to ask him if he ever was going to kiss me. Then he did.
*Who asked who out first? He asked me. We went to Magic Mountain for our first date!
*Who wears the pants? He actually prefers the skirt. . . just kidding. We each have one leg in the pants. Sometimes they rip down the middle, but most of the time we try to juggle it and move forward together!

4 People to Tag

Denise (my mom)
Renee
Jodi
Jenny

Bear With Me

You blink an eye and if you aren't careful you wake up 3 months later. At least that is what has happened to me this time around. But I will try to keep my memoirs to a minimum lest they lull you to sleep only to awaken in January!