Feel Good Friday

I received this in an email today from a friend. I thought it was fitting with the happenings of the world today.

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions. One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, 'God! How could you do this to me?'

Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island! It had come to rescue him! 'How did you know I was here?' asked the weary man of his rescuers. 'We saw your smoke signal,' they replied.

The Moral of This Story: It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we shouldn't lose heart because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain and suffering.

Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground it just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God.

If you want to join the Feel Good Friday, click on the picture above and go to the little McLinky!

Wordless Wednesday

If at first you don't succeed

Try a different recipe!

Take That, Neeleys!

Just Because You're Paranoid....

Doesn't mean they're not after you.  And by "they" I mean the ducks.  Click here for the original stalking tale.

(Pictures taken by my car yesterday).

If my tire falls off, you know who to blame!

Wordless Wednesday - Sorta

Beans don't burn in the kitchen....

Remember the song from the Jeffersons?  What??  Am I the only child of the 70s in blog land?  Geez, I hope not!

My sister is an excellent cook.  I am just ok.  I mean I CAN cook, but seriously, I have to read the recipe like a zillion and a half times, and even then I often miss a step.  I blame it on the fact that I have a problem with math.  ie: I'm a math moron.

But I digress.  My sister does most of the cooking in the house.  I usually stick to things that I know or family recipes.  Such as my nana's baked beans...(see, there WAS a point to my blog title).  It is a sacred family recipe that I have shared with a few of my gal pals, but they have been sworn to secrecy with promises of death if divulged to any outsiders.

Today I decided it was my turn to cook.  Out came the top secret baked bean recipe.  And the NY strip steaks from the freezer. (FYI, I am a pro bbq-er...my sister can't even turn the grill on).  And just for grins I decided to make homemade biscuits.  From scratch, people!  I went online to www.foodnetwork.com and searched.  The Neeley's buttermilk biscuits seemed like a cinch.

I put the butter in the freezer like they recommended.  Then I cut it in with a fork (which p.s. took forever and gave me a self diagnoses of carpal tunnel syndrome.  Note to self...buy pastry cutter).  Added the buttermilk, gently made a square and used my cute new scalloped biscuit cutters that inspired this brave fete. 

And all this whilst making the most delicious version of baked beans yet, and enjoying a hardy duet by my sister and I of "Beans don't burn in the kitchen, beans don't burn on the grill....."

Oh, AND grilling the steaks to perfection, and watering my new square foot garden box so that my cold crop veggies could get a little drinky poo.

The timer went off, and I skipped to the oven, eager to see my maiden biscuit voyage.

They looked like this:

 I know, right?!  Gorgeous!

Ok, fine, they really looked like this:

Apparently BEANS don't burn in the kitchen, but BISCUITS do!  Dang those Neeleys!  Why do they have to act all cool with their "honey child" and "mmmm hmmmm girl".  Next time I'm going with another family recipe passed down for generations.

WTD....What the Duck?

I've telling my friend at work for the past several weeks AND my sister that I think I'm being stalked by 2 ducks at work. 

So here's the back story.  Last year during an especially rainy week, I went downstairs at work to go to my car, and there were 2 ducks sitting on the entryway right outside the glass doors, looking right at me, quacking.  I wondered if they were trying to tell me something.  They were there again the next day during another rain storm.  I decided if they were there again tomorrow I'd better go to home depot and start gathering wood and nails.  You know, for the ark I was obviously supposed to build!

After a few weeks of this business they finally disappeared for the summer.  They were hanging out with their buddies the Geese at the local watering hole...aka the pond around the corner.  I spent the summer hopskotching over geese and duck poo on the sidewalk every day.

One day I looked out my 3rd story office window, and there they were....standing in the grass...staring up at my window...quacking!  YIKES!  I pointed it out to a girl in the office but they were gone!  Dang ducks.

I was so glad when autumn came and most of the ducks flew south for the winter.  I almost forgot about their tyranny until 2 weeks ago.  I came out of work, and they were blocking my pathway to the parking lot.  Just standing there.  Quacking.  Taunting me!  I called my sister on my cell phone and whispered an SOS "THE DUCKS ARE BACK!  THEY WON'T LET ME LEAVE!"  She laughed and made some noises about me being nuts. Mmm hmmm she said.  Whatever.  The next day I drove back to work after lunch and who was sitting in my parking spot?  Yep, those same ducks!

I briefly considered running them over but instead I waited patiently for them to move.  They flew away, but not before pooping on my car.

Finally on Friday I was able to obtain proof of the stalking.  As I drove in to the work parking lot, I was met by this little scene:

And as I snuck closer to take a picture, Goose #1 started honking and flapping his wings like crazy to his comrades across the street....who came running, flapping, honking, quacking in a flock of flapping wings....and who were they you ask?  The DANG ducks!!!  I high tailed it to my office with my life barely in tact!

Ten minutes later a different friend at work randomly sent me a link to the website www.friendsofirony.com.  And what was on page 5?  Can you guess??

Is it just me....

Or is the Disney Channel taking over the world?  Seems like every time I turn on the radio a new Disney Kid has a song out. 

Talented little buggers, aren't they?  But no one will take the place of little Selena Gomez in my heart...even if she did just break up with one of the Jo Bros. 

Seriously, aren't I just way too old to know all this crap?  I really should work on getting my own life.

Confessions of a disenchanted blogger....

I've recently taken a bit of a sabbatical from blogging.  Did you notice?  Did you miss me?  No, probably not.  That's ok though...we are all busy!

 I started blogging in 2008 because I'd found a few blogs out there that I thought were fun, funny, light-hearted, everything that I wanted MY blog to be.  I joined an awesome blog community.  Some really great gals started reading my blog and I felt like a sortof friendship was formed.  I read their blogs too and found other great people through them.

Then I got a little blog obsessed.  I found myself constantly thinking about my next blog and feeling sad if I couldn't think of anything funny to blog about.  I started following people because I thought it was the thing to do, getting obsessed with how many people were reading me, commenting, etc.  I'd stay up late every night reading blogs, commenting, moving on the next blog.  Then there was a little "episode" that I read about on someone's blog where she and another blogger were in a terrible argument and disparaging things were said by each other about each other.  I started thinking...what in the world is going on?  These people didn't even know each other in real life... and they became enemies over a BLOG? 

I felt myself becoming disenchanted.....falling out of love with blogging.  I felt like it was taking over my life. Isn't that crazy?!  Yet as I was reading a few other blogs here and there I discovered that other people were feeling the same way.  I realized that blogging is a "soft addiction".  You know, like checking your email a hundred times a day even though you JUST checked it 2 minutes ago?  Or checking your phone to see if you missed a text in the 45 seconds that it took you to go to the bathroom.  Or dreaming about vanilla creme donuts from Dunkin Donuts.

So I took a little time off.  I un-followed a few people.  I only read the blogs of the people that I really cared about.  I decided that from now on I would only follow people that I really felt a connection to.  That I felt like we could be friends if we ever met in person.  And I would go back to blogging for me...not for what others might think.  I try to keep my blogs light hearted and fun.  I don't really think anyone wants to hear about my problems, mostly because they are inconsequential and minute compared to some of the things that other people have to deal with.

I am a happy person and have a great life.  I am surrounded by friends and family that love me.  I have a job that I enjoy most of the time and keeps me in a comfortable life style.  I have a roof over my head and a huge yard that I get to play in and create flowers and vegetables.  I belong to a wonderful church and am loved by a Father in Heaven that has accepted me for my flaws and forgiven me for my sins....of which there have been plenty.

I am going to work harder on balancing my blogging life and not let it invade my real life.  Because there is so much in the world that I want to do and see...... Life should be an adventure, not to be wasted sitting at a computer and dreaming of the life that we don't have.

Wordless Wednesday....Happy Spring???

Hello, Lover!

Anybody remember the line from Sex in the City when Carrie sees the newest Manolos in the store front window?  I felt the exact same way this weekend.  My sister and I took a fun little trip to Albuquerque.  Imagine my delight when we saw this little gem:

(What?  You don't know of my infinite love of Dunkin Donuts?  You can read all about it in my love letter to Dunkin Donuts and my letter to Cupid !)

We went to Dunkin Donuts this weekend 2 days in a row.  I won't tell you how many donuts I ate because it's embarrassing.  Unfortunately, my favorite donut, the VANILLA CREME (yes, this deserves all caps, special colors and a marching band) has been discontinued.  It was extremely disappointing.  I was able to console myself with a bavarian cream though.  And a toasted coconut.  And a chocolate glazed.  And a....oops, I've said too much.

I am considering opening a Dunkin Donuts franchise in Utah.  It is beyond me why no one else has thought of this.  Now if I could just get my hands on $150,000 in start up fees.....