Dear...5-31-11

I'm soooo behind on blogging. Things have been hectic, and at times I've been lazy, other times I just didn't know what to talk about...so I ignored my blog. But by golly today I am going to break my slacking streak and get a post done.

It's time for my Dear... letters, my dear friend Dazee's creation, letters good or bad, to whomever, getting things out. Dazee's link (Crazy Daze & Nite Dreams) is over there on the side, check her out. She's goofy, like me.

Dear Optical migraine...you come NOW when I'm trying to blog? How dare you. Leave me alone. It's hard to read what I'm typing when my vision is all distorted.

Dear self...Ease up on the sleep drool will ya? Geeze. Nothing like waking up in a puddle of spit. Must be from all those hot dreams I've been having lately ;) LOL. Seriously though, I drool a LOT when I sleep, thats gross. I want to invent a pillow case that is made out of something like ummm a womens feminine product (pad), its soft, yet it absorbs everything so you can't feel wetness on your skin...maybe it would hold my gallons of slobber at night.

Dear Kelsey...Next time you plan to walk around all day in sunny 90 degree weather, please remember to use your sunscreen. Kels stayed over at a friends and went to Somonauks Memorial Day events...and returned home a lobster. Don't believe me? See for yourself:


She's been in some pain, obviously. This picture was taken yesterday night. Today she is blistering, and she has a nice big ugly blister right in the middle of her chest. Thats HOT. NOT.

Dear laundry...my oh my how I dispise you. Do you somehow reproduce while in the baskets? There is always so much of you. This picture below shows some of the mountain of laundry I had to fold...



Dear Moo...I really don't like you much...but Bree does...



Dear Bill....we really need to get a new weed wacker...as you can see from the picture above we have some serious wacking to do...

Dear Tigger...You are such a good kitty, putting up with Bree trying to dress you, and constantly pestering you. She loves you bunches. She's so nice covering you up, and putting something under your head for a pillow...



Dear picnik...I've just discovered some new things on you tonight, now I'm spending way to much time playing around with pictures...


Soooo cool eh?

Dear Sylvia T.... I'm guessing you read my blog? Thank you for signing up on swagbucks as my referral! Now, search, and earn some swagbucks, we can both benefit :) I can teach you if you'd like...drop me an email (info on my contact page)

Dear Swagbucks & iRazoo (something similar to swagbucks)...I've decided to be a good mom. Instead of spending my amazon cards that I get through you on myself (like the camera I want, and a kindle), I've decided I shouldn't be selfish, I should use the cards to buy Christmas presents for the kids... So fork our some more codes, let me win some megabucks and stuff...please?

Dear rain...You can take some time off, a week at least...We've had to much of you lately. The other day we had like monsoon rain. We got over 3 inches in just a few hours...I'll post a quick look of some of our rain on a video towards the end of this post for the hell of it.

Dear old sump pump...the night we got 3+ inches of rain was NOT the right time to die. Waking up at 2:00 a.m. to discover 3 inches of water in our basement was NOT COOL. Thanks for ruining a bunch of our stuff...

Dear flooded basement...YOU SUCK. Stinky, messy, wet (duh). You made a ton of work for me. In fact one day I spent 8+ hours working to clean you up. Not fun, at all.

Dear tornados...stay away! You've done so much damage all over the U.S. Please go and never return. My heart breaks for all those suffering loss of family/friends, and their homes. We had warnings and scary weather here recently and I was so scared, especially after seeing how bad damage can be from those places hit.

There ya go. I finally got a post done. I hope to get another done soon. But don't hold your breath LOL.

Toodles
Rain video below

Stop Correcting Me

Since joining Swagbucks I have been doing some extra searching on the internet, to try to earn some swagbucks. Sometimes things just come to me, and I want to search them, because they feel lucky LOL. I quickly type what I'm thinking, usually when I'm tired and in a hurry, and heck, its a search, I don't care about my spelling or grammar. Apparently I should.

I get so annoyed seeing, "Did you mean_______?" Stop correcting me! Drives me crazy.

For instance:
My son is gay, and that is OK. Did you mean: My son is gay, and that's OK? Seriously, what is wrong with the way I typed it? Is it that bad? I think its ok, and that's how I wanted it, so leave me alone.

The other night, I was tired, and I was hoping to win a few more swagbucks before going to bed, so as a last ditch effort, I typed into the search zzzzzzz...they say, did you mean: zzzzz? NO I didn't, I meant zzzzzzz! Geeze.

I don't know why it bothers me so much, but it does LOL. I guess I'm just weird. Ok, yes, I KNOW I am just weird, you don't have to agree :P

I don't really want any grammar and spelling lectures either. It's my blog and if I wanna spell bad I can. :P I'm not that bad (or maybe I am...), I've seen some really bad ones out there.

Anyways, I just wanted to vent. I'm done now. Thanks.

Toodles!

Dear...5-17-11

It's time for weekly Dear... letters! Letters for good or bad, letting off steam or singing praise, whatever :) Please join along! I think I missed last weeks, sorry Dazee.

Dear Bree...You are a goofball.



Dear full moon last night...You looked pretty cool.



Dear Watermelon Lemonade... You are so good. Yummy.



Dear tree in my yard...you are so very pretty in the spring when your flowers have bloomed...to bad with the wind and rain they only lasted 2 days.



Dear baby spiders...stay off of my chair! I went to sit in my chair outside a few days ago and noticed something, a bazillion baby spiders, EEK!

Dear Moo...I hope you stop feeling itchy soon, or whatever it is thats causing you to be constantly going at your butt goes away. I really don't want to try to drain your butt....Gross.

Dear Dancing with the Stars...Good season, I've enjoyed it all. I'm glad Chelsea is in the finals, she is my favorite, my next favorite is Hines. I like Kirstie too, and I liked Ralph... I will be glad when it is over next week though, I hate that you take over 2 of my evenings.

Dear Amanda (of i am baker/i am mommy)...Thanks for sending the gift card that I won from your blog. I used it to buy some k-cups so I can enjoy quick and easy coffee in the mornings.

Dear Swagbucks referrals...I have 3 of you, none of you have tried to get any swagbucks yet :( I can help you if you'd like. If you score I score, lets work together. I've got a wishlist of things I want to buy with my swagbucks :) I'd really like a new camera, or a kindle...

Dear readers...anyone wanna join Swagbucks? If yes, please click here and sign up as my referral!

Dear hot cop neighbor...Please don't move. You mentioned the other day you have an offer in on a house in the country. The girls and I will be sad to see our eye candy leave.

I think that is it. I'm to tired and my finger hurts (sliced it while cleaning the other day), so I think I'm going to go to bed.

Toodles.

Watermelon Lemonade

I am not a food blogger. I WISH I was, but I am not. I do not take pretty food pictures, make awesome recipes that make could someone drool, or anything like that, although I wish I did. I wish I could be like The Pioneer Woman, or Amanda over at i am baker, but I'm not them, they are my idols :) (well they are a few, I have many!)

Today I'm going to pretend to be a food blogger...but with crappy pictures :)

Last year, I went to Ihop. Ihop had on the menu some watermelon lemonade. Normally I'm not a huge lemonade fan, but the picture made it look so very good. I decided to give it a try...and I ended up having like 4 refills! I was full, and so was my bladder! It was so very good.

I went to Ihop again, not long after that, on a quest for more of that watermelon lemonade, but as luck (or lack of) would have it, they no longer had it. I was very bummed. I decided to make it my mission to try to come up with something that was close to what they had, something that would make my tastebuds dance, and want more.

I thought of snowcone syrup, watermelon, to add to lemonade, but of course, no stores had any. Once again I was bummed and frustrated, I was really craving that stupid watermelon lemonade!

Finally, I came across a blog that might have held my answer...It was over on Skip to my Lou. She had posted about making your own snowcone syrup. BINGO. This was just what I needed. I decided to try this, and I'm so very happy I did. My tastebuds are now doing the salsa, tango, and the waltz too! I'm going to share with you now, my recipe for my Watermelon Lemonade...please try this, its not only tart but sweet too, and oh so very good. Take my word for it, would I steer you wrong? Nope, I would not.

Here is what you need:


Food coloring is optional, I use it just because the Kool-Aid is clear, the coloring helps me see how much is in the glass, and adds a pretty color :). You could actually use just about any kind of Kool-Aid (or generic brand), experiment! I couldn't find plain watermelon, so I have watermelon kiwi.

In a saucepan combine:
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of water
1 pk of Kool-Aid watermelon kiwi (or whatever other flavor you'd like to try)



Bring this combination to a boil. Once it boils, remove from heat. Now, if you'd like color, please add a drop of coloring unless your Kool-Aid is already colored. You have made a simple syrup.

Let this simple syrup cool, then pour it into a container to keep in the fridge.

Make up a batch of Lemonade. I buy the Great Value kind, because I'm cheap, but you could use whatever kind you want.

Once your Lemonade & watermelon simple syrup are cold, get them out and get ready to enjoy some tastebud tango.


Get yourself a glass of ice. Pour a bit of the watermelon simple syrup into your glass, maybe about umm lets say less than a inch worth...You can adjust this depending on how much watermelon sweetness you want to your lemonade I personally like more, because I'm more into sweet than tart :) Next add your lemonade.


Are you with me so far? Lookin' good eh?

Now, stir it up.


Drink it! You know you want to. Let your tastebuds do the cha-cha. It is so good, and very easy to make. I made my first batch of simple syrup (of the season) a few days ago and I've already had to make another, this time I did a double. The girls & I all love it.

I made up a poem for this recipe...because I'm weird...

It's sour and its sweet.
Take a sip and your taste buds will dance like your feet.

:)

LOL yep, I'm weird right?

Go make some watermelon lemonade NOW! Just don't drink to much, it makes ya have to pee a lot...I'm off to the potty now :)

Toodles!

We Survived Prom 2011!

Happy Monday!

Prom is over, thank God! :)

Saturday was BUSY. Saturday was STRESSFUL. Saturday was FUN. Saturday was TIRING!

My niece Emily came over at about 1:00, and it was time for me & Kels to get moving. First Kels put on her nail stuff, I was going to do it, buy my eyes suck with these new glasses and I couldn't see well enough to line up the nail sticker things. Yeah I suck. LOL, but she got it done ok. Then she did her make up. Next came the hair...I did the waterfall braid thing then started the curling marathon. Kelsey has really thick stubborn hair. We used a ton of hairspray, and I did ringlet curls in small pieces of hair all over, the smaller the sections I curled the better the curl turned out. I finally got it all curled, it took over an hour. By the time I finished, the first sections I did were already starting to lose some curl! OY. Oh well, not much we could do at that point, we were already late, we were supposed to be at her friends at 3 for pictures, and we just finished curling at about 3, she still had to get her dress on. In our rush to get ready, we forgot her earrings and necklace, so the first set of pics she's not wearing them. We remembered at her friends house, and when we came back to pick up the other girls we made sure to put on the earrings & necklace then.

After taking pics at the friends house, we came back home to wait for Grandma. Kels went with her friend to the Lake in town where I was going to take more pics of them. Grandma finally arrived and we booked it over to the lake for a fast photo session. It was 4:30 by then and Kels had to be at the school by 5 to line up for Prom Walk. Here are some pics of our time so far, friends house, lake, and then prom walk.
















I took a ton of pics even though I was pressed for time LOL, sorry for the overload.

Did I mention that Kelsey's friend she went with is also named Kellsie? Cool huh? Did I also mention that Kelsey's friend Kellsie is BALD? Well she is...and I think she is beautiful. She wore a wig to the dance, but later took it off, and came to post prom without it (you will see in a minute). Kellsie has some kind of immune disorder that attacks her hair follicles, she has lost all of her hair.

I don't have any pictures of the actual prom, as it was for the students not the parents, but I have pics of Post Prom. Here, after prom, the kids go to the Elks Club a few miles from the school. Its a big to do I guess, this was our first time experiencing it. They have all the kids leaving the dance line their cars up, then they are escorted to the Elks (roads closed for them and everything). Once the line arrives, the first car of promers get out, and they walk up a ramp and are announced and talked to by the announcer (Mr. Holzman), as their car gets parked by a valet. Each car stops, the kids get out, go up the ramp etc...Thankfully Kels & Kells were not to far into the line so I wasn't there all night lol. There were a lot of people there! I was a bit chilled so I was glad to see the K's arrive so I could leave soon :) I watched a few more after them and then hit the road. Here are some pics of the Post Prom.




Kels beat me home, she & Kellsie left right away. They were tired. Kels & Emily ended up visiting until 3 a.m. or so, then they went to sleep. Bree was up till 12:30, I went to bed not long after her. It was a tiring day for all.

Bree did get a tiny nap at prom walk...Emily held her for me so I could be taking pics. Thanks for your help Emily!


This is Emily, Bree, and my mom. Thanks mom for coming out to the prom walk too!

I hope you all enjoyed the pics.

Toodles!

I've been busy!

I've been busy! Sorry for neglecting you all. I feel like I've really gotten behind on things. I will be glad when prom is over, so I can relax a bit!

Since money is tight, and I like to be crafty, we are trying to do a lot of the things (flowers, hair, manicure) ourselves, instead of paying an arm and a leg somewhere for things. Even doing this, its still costing quite a bit.

Kels got her dress for free from her Aunt. It is not really what Kelsey would have picked on her own, but it works for this year. I told her she needs to get a job to start saving for next years dress (which royally ticked her off LOL. Hey, I paid for my prom dress back in 1987, and it was over $400! A lot over actually, if I can do it she can do it). We had to pay to get the dress altered, because I'm not a seamstress!

We tried what seems like a million different hairstyles. We did hair several nights the last week. I'm not a hairstylist either, but I tried. I think we have found a winner, and I hope like hell it turns out on Saturday.

I made Kelsey's wrist corsage, and a flower ring to go with it. I love working with flowers. Back in my younger days I helped out a bit at a friends flower shop, I picked up a few things. I saw the rings online and thought hey I could do that too...so I did. Now I have to make another for one of Kelsey's friends.

I got to thinking yesterday, hmmm Kelsey doesn't have anything to carry her phone in, or her id while at prom. She needs a clutch, but dang, I don't want to pay a lot for something she's only going to use for a few hours....I wonder if I could make something out of ummm DUCT TAPE :) Guess what? I could! (Pics will follow at the end of the post) I made it today while she was out with a friend, and suprised her with it tonight. She said "hey, this kind of rocks" so I guess its a hit.

Seems like I've been running around here and there and totally busy with prom stuff for the last week or so. I'm pooped.

Prom is Saturday. I'll be playing photographer too and taking pics of Kels and her friends over by the lake in town before the grand march. Kels has to be at school at 5, they do the grand march at 5:30, then off to the dinner/dance. After that they go to the local Elks club, and are again announced and do a walk in I guess...then a post prom thing. Going to be a busy day. My niece Emily is going to come babysit Bree so I can concentrate on doing Kelsey's hair, pics and all the other stuff that day.

Here are some pictures of all the things I've talked about...Enjoy!








Whatcha think?

After all the work I've put into this, and all the money spent, my daughter is still complaining and mad at me...because I won't pay for her to get fake nails at a manicure place, and I won't pay for a spray tan. Sorry, my money tree never bloomed, she'll have to get over it.

Toodles!