Merry Christmas

Sending our wishes for a wonderful Christmas!

The Perfect Children with Santa

a.k.a. Sweet Pea, Drama and The Boy, formerly known as Lazy Boy,

My dad, Papa, starring as Santa Claus.

Halloween Wrap up

Dinner with the missionaries, pumpkin carving shenanigans, Skyping with Sweet Pea and jack-o-lanterns on display.

Halloween on a Sunday this year, so we Trunk or Treat.

Drama in his best "In-N-Out Guy" costume. They loved him there!

Here's the old folks handing out candy.

We brought a laptop and showed "The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown".

Can you believe there were kids who have never seen it...I mean teenagers!

Sorting the haul.

Mindy Gledhill and Facebook

Busy month, but we also had a couple of really amazing days. One was the charity dinner/concert Big Daddy and I crashed. As always, it comes with a story.

Sweet Pea is at college, and thriving, thank you very much. She went to a street concert where she met her idol, singer /songwriter Mindy Gledhill.

So, I became a fan of Mindy's on Facebook. Let me tell you right now,

Facebook is where all the stuff is happening. Good and bad. This was good.

Miss Mindy posted a private concert she was performing at in San Diego, and space was still available. Flash forward a week, Big Daddy and I walked into this event with 100 strangers. It was fantabulous! You can see some of the wonderment here.

Big Daddy and I in the backyard woodland

We sat next to the sweet girl who created this!

And here is Mindy singing her heart out. That's my fuschia sleeve there!

Mindy's music is lovely. She has a beautiful voice and her music sounds as good live as her new cd Anchor. Of course, I had to meet her and tell her about Sweet Pea, and our neighborhood photographer who took the pictures for her album cover, and gushed over her.

I may have even told Mindy, "Pretend like we are best friends. I'm trying to tick off my daughter."

Photo taken in dark on Big Daddy's phone.

I was bummed I didn't bring my camera, but was relieved when I saw a bunch of "docu-moms" photographing the event. I have borrowed their pix.

So, dinner...delicious, concert...terrific, charity auction...AWESOME.

I won the best prize... paper. For those of you who check out my craft blog, you'll know I am a paper freak. So, not only did I win a boatload of gorgeous paper, I got lots of goodies to go with.

Check it out!

All this goodness was donated by Margie Romney-Aslett of The Girls' Paperie fame.

Wowzer!

I have had little time, but did create a candle wrap for my Halloween mantle this year. I am dying to dig into all of this gorgeous goodness!

OH, but that's not all.

I was also the winner of a Secondsister treat- A scollar.

Precious! Can hardly wait til the weather chills and I can rock this cool collar.

April really is an artist. She illustrated the delightful pictures in Mindy's video,

as well as being a phenomenal hostess. Check out her jewlry at Etsy.

So, crashed a party, made new friends, front row concert seats, won paper and a coolio scollar.

How is that for Facebook?

Autumn

We have had a very mild summer this year. We enjoyed it and relished in the coolness. Never mind we didn't have that many beach days or our tans never really developed this year. School began and we even had a few sweater weather days, then POW the heat turned on. Monday it was 110 degrees and didn't feel much like Autumn.

In my efforts to attract cooler weather, I present my front door:

I know, wishful thinking.

Banana Bread

Ripe bananas, of course, call for banana bread. Over the years I have made lots and lots of loaves, muffins and pans full of this delicious treat. I used a family recipe for years, then found a recipe in Lion House cookbook, but my favorite is this beauty.

It's from the Simple and Delicious magazine/website called

"Lightened-Up Special Banana Bread"

Here's what makes it so yummy......cream cheese.

It's dense without being heavy, but it is moist and tasty.

The recipe makes 2 loaves, although I prefer to bake it in a 9" x 9" pan because it bake more even. Then, once baked and cooled, drizzled with an orange glaze. Yippee!

I have already dove into the pan. I am thinking about sharing the loaf.

Wonder who the luck recipient will be?

• 24 Servings
• Prep: 25 min. Bake: 55 min. + cooling

Ingredients

• 1 package (8 ounces) reduced-fat cream cheese
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chopped pecans, divided (I use walnuts )
• 
  ORANGE GLAZE:
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 teaspoon grated orange peel

Directions

• In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and sugar until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in bananas and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture just until moistened. Fold in 1/2 cup pecans.
• Transfer to two 8-in. x 4-in. loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with remaining pecans. Bake at 350° for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
• In a small bowl, whisk the glaze ingredients; drizzle over loaves. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Yield: 2 loaves (12 slices each).

Nutrition Facts: 1 slice equals 235 calories, 10 g fat (4 g saturated fat), 34 mg cholesterol, 157 mg sodium, 34 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 4 g protein.

Lightened-Up Special Banana Bread published in Simple & Delicious January/February 2010, p46

Fall and Stuff

School has been in session for over 6 weeks. How is that possible?

Time is spinning without my permission.

Here are a couple of updates.

Drove to Las Vegas and lunch at the Rio with the Queen

(She is cuter and thinner in person!)

went to the new Hobby Lobby in Henderson,

where I unfortunately found nothing to purchase,

attended my nephew W's baptism

took Sweet Pea to college

and met her new roommates

Drama began 4th grade

received his Bear award in Cub Scouts,

was awarded Student of the Month for September

(Big Daddy says he makesa good first impression)

and turned 10 years old.

Lazy Boy took the month off. Actually, he began 10th grade, seminary, working on his driving permit and is currently nursing a ruptured ear drum while playing Wii and watching Top Gear.

Cheers!

Old Town Fun

Remember our cute nephew and his cuter new wife, The Darlings? They came to visit us this weekend. We, and by we, I mean not Big Daddy and NOT Drama. Why? Because Drama pitched a super hissy fit and Big Daddy wanted to leave him home alone. I am not sure if that is legal yet, so Big Daddy stayed home with Super Hissy while the other kids and I played.

First stop, Farmer's Market. We bought these delicious berries,

and saw many beautiful flowers

and watched the Darlings dance to Earth, Wind and Fire.

Next stop...Old Town

We have a cool Root Beer store that sells a bazillion kinds of sodas, homemade root beers, as well as a wicked Root Beer Floats. Yumm!

Some evil doers were selling puppies in the parking lot. Actually, they were very cute poodles and Mrs. Darling wanted one very badly. However, wise Mr. Darling told her she couldn't have one now in an apartment, but she would get a dog after she graduates from college. I think that is a good trade. To make her feel better, I offer to give, or lend our Mr. Poop's Rainbows and Sunshine. Unfortunately, she did not take me up on the offer.

Our Old Town has a few antique shops, restaurants and even our own psychic.Her office is always closed. Maybe she knows when I am coming.

Here is Mr. Darling relaxing with a local while the girls shopped and Iron Man, who is quickly reverting back to Lazy Boy, spying a super, slick Stingray. Not gonna happen, partner!

Of course, no trip to Old Town is complete without a carne asada lunch at Rosa's Cantina.

Next stop....Wine Country. We drive out to wine country and stopped off at some friends house. He was working in the yard and gave us a bunch of apples, little, tiny, tart apples. Thanks Steve! Now I need to make a pie.

Last stop, home. Saturday was the first day in a long time that it had gotten hot enough to swim. Sounds wierd, huh? But it was a beautiful day and the boys entertained us with some of their jumps.

Then the Darlings left for Orange County. Party over.

The End!

How I spent my summer vacation, 2010

Our summer has not been too exciting. No big vacations ( Yes, I hear you Hawaii.) Big Daddy and Iron Man were away on their adventure on Lake Mead. I thought the orphans at home should have fun. We live so close to San Diego, but hardly ever go there. So, packed up the car and took Sweet Pea and Drama down south.

I had our itinerary planned out, but we got a little lost and went from Z to A. It worked out better, usually does. Our first stop was Coronado. From San Diego we drove over the bay on a very narrow and tall bridge. Heights usually don't bother me, but this was creepy.

We walked along the beach at the Hotel Del Coronado, looked at sea creatures, watched planes coming in and got our feet wet in the golden sand. It really looks like gold in the water. We walked through the hotel were we saw movie memorabilia from the famous film "Some Like it Hot", which was shot there.

We walked through Coronado village and went to one of my favorite places is called Seaside Papery. Of course they sell invitations and lovely cards,The window display is WOW (see HERE) and the butterflies are amazing.

We also bought overpriced chocolate pecan turtles and taffy and had lunch at the Beach-n-Diner with fabulous onion rings.

Deep Fried Onion Coma setting in.

The road that goes through town had a huge grass berm in the middle. It's filled with beautiful flowers, roses, bushes and arbors. Note to self: Make front yard look like Coronado.



After lunch, we drove to Old Town San Diego to visit the Mormon Battallion. It has been closed for quite a while and just recently reopened. All I can say is WOW! Glad to know my tithing is going to something cool. The Church really stepped it up a couple of notches...like Disneyland status. Drama's favorite part was trying on costumes and panning for gold (pyrite).





From the Mormon Battalion we walk down Old Town and bought more over priced candy. I mean, seriously. I paid over $3 for stupid gum on a roll for Drama and $6.50 for a handful of Dr. Pepper jelly beans. They were, however, DELISH!



By now lunch has long worn off and it's time for our last stop- IKEA. We were dorm shopping for Sweet Pea, looking for some awesome deals. Our big score of the day was spice jars to hold my buttons and wrapping paper, 3 rolls for 99 cents! But the real deal was dinner. Have you ever had those IKEA meatballs? Yummy! Sweet Pea and I split a plate of those tasty dudes. Drama also had the meatballs, of course, with a side of mac & cheese. Remind me to tell you the story of when he order mac & cheese, with 2 sides of man & cheese at Claim Jumpers.

So, our orphans trip out turn out to be really fun. Our tummies were full, pocket books empty and legs tires, but we were happy.
The End