Friendship & Joy

Natalie's best friend is Amber. There are weekends where they get together and I won't see Nat until she comes back late on Sunday night. There are weekends where they giggle endlessly and say the funniest things. There are weekends where Amber will come over and they'll pop corn, watch movies and tell each other things in secret. It's times like these that I realize how happy I am for my daughter. 

Amber is loving and kind and funny. She makes Natalie laugh.

She couldn't ask for a better friend and I'm glad they have each other.

Do you have a friend like that? I hope so.

:o)

This was one of those weekends where Amber & Nat got together. I took them to the iPotter shop in downtown Versailles...three blocks from our home and right next to our church. I love this about our town.

We listened to Taylor Swift & Rascal Flatts on my iTouch and they painted "peace banks". (I even painted a little dish that I plan to use for candy, or maybe sugar cubes...I haven't decided just yet.)

They had a wonderful time (and I did too).

xoxo,

laurie

* * *

This post brought to you by,

Living in the Kentucky Bluegrass....

I can't believe it's been nearly ten years since we moved to Kentucky. I remember that first drive into Versailles, the gorgeous horse farms and their long winding fences that just seemed to go on for miles and miles. It was then ... in that very moment ... that I told myself to never tire of this beauty, to never take it for granted. To remember how precious new life is and to stop and savor every minute.

There are times when I'm driving and seeing all these rolling hillsides, and think what would have happened had we not moved here or how would my life be different if we had moved away eight years ago? It's one of those what-ifs that we all ask ourselves about certain things in our life but never get to know the answer because it's just that, a what-if and we will never know. I'm sure life would have gone on and the not-knowing doesn't bother me like it once did. I suppose that's because I have found my place in this world.

But my children were the main reason we stayed here. Neither Jeff nor myself moved around as children. Almost all of my friends from Elementary and High School are my friends today, and while living here these last many years in the Bluegrass, I've made friendships that I will have for the rest of my life.

That's what I want for my children. I want them to create memories and have friendships for a lifetime, but more importantly I want them to appreciate the world around them, all that we hold dear... I want them to see the beauty in all things and the wonder in all things.

While we've been out of school for all this snow, my children have been making memories and that means a lot to me. Even though my own small life was put on the back burner for a bit, I was glad to see them enjoy their snow days. Someday far out in the future they'll say to us, "wasn't it wonderful? All those snow days? Dad making Snow Cream and you warming our clothes in the dryer?" (that's what I do. they come in. take everything off. and i warm it all back up nice and toasty. then put it all back on again. :) I also do this in the morning when they go off to school...warm up their coats. :) They love it.

A friend of mine sent these photos to me this morning and I wanted to share them with you. They're a little bit of our country. My friend Jen works with horses, what a wonderful job that would be! She said that it's wonderful until they kick, bite or poop on you. Cracked me up! She said they're just like human babies. I like knowing that, don't you?

I have a lot of work to do today but I just wanted to stop and send some joy your way. I hope you love these photos, they made me smile and appreciate this little-big town that I live in.

Enjoy your day.

xoxo.

Nolan's Cheddar {sweet little video}

Hello and G'day! (shout out to all my Aussie customers)

I don't have much for you today but Jeff sent me this darling little video that I knew you would all love!

Enjoy!




Enjoy your day. It's SNOWING here! Yikes! We're supposed to get TEN inches on Thursday. What? No no no. Say it ain't so!!!!!

If you want to get some great discounts, I'd sign up for my mailing list. :) hee hee... So...Be Cool My Babies! (in the words of my favorite Conan O'Brian...may he soon return to a network worthy of his humor... say hello to FOX!!! Sa-weet! We love Fox!)

Peace out. {for now}

Happy Monday!

How are you all? Did you have a nice weekend? I can't say that my weekend was the best but it was eventful. lol Lots of things to do but I did try to do a bit of relaxing... for about two hours. lol Maybe this weekend will be better for me? lol Who knows?

For the last week or so we've had constant rain. And not just your typical rain, but freezing, cold and achy rain. Yuck. It just makes for a sour week, no? Anyway, on Saturday we didn't have a rain drop in sight so it seemed the perfect day to do a bit of sewing. Ahhh... I wish. Nope, we cleaned out our garage instead. Fun! However, I can say that we can now fit both the Yukon and the Cube in there, but not on a daily basis. It makes me nervous. I can just see some kid crying to me about how they didn't mean to wack my car with their scooter. Uh, no thanks. So the Yukon goes outside and the Cube (because she's so cute) gets to stay inside. :) lol That job took the entire day but it's one last thing I'll have to do this Spring.

Girl Scout cookies arrive the week of February 22nd. :) Yeah! Exciting! Let me know if you want any. Let's not worry about it until then because I don't want to take orders. When the cookies arrive you can email me and let me know what you want...

Okay I'm off. It's snowing here and my plan for photos is out the window, at least until the snow stops. It's freezing outside. I'm still working on an indoor set up but I just don't like the outcome, the colors are never right. I hate being a perfectionist when it comes to photos but isn't that what you expect from me? :)

I'm sorry for the delay on my overseas packages. I mail them out and I don't know how else to make them get there any faster. :o( If you don't ask for the Priority Overseas shipping add-on ($10) I send them first class mail and that can take four weeks, sometimes longer, so choose the add-on.

The day has left me, where did it go? I need to go get the girls from school. Nathaniel has play practice. Did I tell you that he's Tweetle Dum in The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland? :) I'm so happy for him, it's always great fun to be in a play. Speaking of Nathaniel, we have been approached to get Nathaniel into some commercials for P&G. Kinda exciting. I'll keep you posted on this... they said, "keep his hair long! don't cut it!" It made me laugh. I guess it was a good thing he asked to let his hair grow out, huh?

Have a great day (if you can) because this weather is poopy. Just sayin'.
Happy Monday?  (!!!)

Change of plans! I think.

Well, I'm running behind as usual but to my defense it had a lot to do with being sick last week. I should have had two torching days and they got thrown to the wayside, so I'm torching all day today. However, tonight I have a girl scouts leader's meeting and that will completely mess up my schedule. So, I will be moving my Valentine's Specials to the 21st. Please forgive me! (aren't I always saying that? one of these days I'll have a full staff and they can do all the work!) IF...if it all works out, I'll have them up tomorrow but I don't want to stress myself out. I don't work well with stress. (who does?) I'll keep you up-to-date with how I'm coming along work-wise.

I need a cupcake. No seriously. I do. One that looks just like the one here. Isn't she cute? I bet she tastes yummy. I need one just like her.

Okay, I'm off to work. I'm trying to make things that are gemstones only and then some with a mix. I know how you like the mixed styles. Also, all orders for "I Am Switzerland" have been received. Thank you! All items purchased in the last two weeks have been mailed out. Thank you!

How was your weekend? Ours was pleasant. Didn't go anywhere. :) Loved it. My Christmas tree came down and it's now put away for ten months (lol! I can't even say a year! just think, ten months from now I'll be putting it right back up! crazy!)

I have three spots filled for advertising, if you're interested, drop me an email. You can go on a month-to-month basis. :)

Okay, I'm off... more later! I need food!!! (but I'm on a diet so i don't get good food. dang it. hello lean cuisine. boo hiss!!!)

Happy Saturday...

Hello and Happy Saturday! :)

My day has been nice. How about you? I spent my morning with Moon (doing a lot of nothing really). It was so loverly in her new 'space' in the newly renovated upstairs of their home.  Anyway, I'm trying to find a new blog structure that I can be happy with (lol) and also one that has advertising with it. I've had a lot of gals ask me about putting advertising buttons on my blog (that are not related to jewelry) so I'm going to be adding that pretty soon. If you want info on it, let me know. My blog is a page rank 3 (which is totally awesome) and I get tons of hits on a daily basis. Anyway, just thought I'd pass that along.

Can you believe that all the stars aligned last night and Jeff and I were able to have an evening to ourselves? I know, right?

Right after school our good friends Pete and Annie came to pick up Nicole and Nadine so they could spend the night with their girls, Gracey and Katey. :) (did you get all that?) So off they went for a night of fun! Then later on I went to pick up Nathaniel and Natalie from swim team practice and they were invited over to our friends the Stang's to play until 10p.

Um? Hello?

What just happened here?

Did all of our children just get farmed out? How did that work? I have no idea! We must have done something right. lol

Jeff and I had a very leisurely dinner at where else? Chili's. You can't beat their two for twenty deal. Have you tried it? My favorite dish is their Quesadilla Explosion Salad and Jeff got their Buffalo Chicken Taco's. It was delicious. Tomorrow we begin our "Biggest Loser" contest at church so I guess you could say we're trying to beef it up before our big weigh-in? lol Nah, I'm only kidding. My salad is 16 points so I didn't do too badly. :)

You all have a great Saturday. Tonight we have Supper Club (that's where you have dinner with other couples from your church and everyone makes a part of the dinner...tonight I'm to make a salad...I'll try and take photos...). So I'm off to make a beautiful chopped salad. :)

Talk to you later!

Issues with my blog?

Hello my peeps! :) How's your day going? It's so sunny here, that whether you're in a bad mood or good mood, you can't NOT be happy about the shining Sun! :)

Okay, I got an email from a friend today, asking about the "jibberish" with my blog. This is not the first time someone has said this, the only other person was my Mother and I honestly thought it was her monitor or some sort of browser setting. However, now with this second mention of it, it must be an internet issue. Here is a screen shot taken from my own computer that I took about ten minutes ago... it looks fine to me. I'm not sure what the problem is but since I'm not experiencing it, I don't know how to fix it. Personally, I'd say that it will fix itself eventually, but if you continue to have issues with the text on my blog, try another browser. I use Internet Explorer as most people do, but many folks use Mozilla-Firefox and it seems that this might be where the problem might be...except I just now tried that and it looked fine to me too. ::sigh::

So, I really can't help. But my advice would be to switch to a different browser and see if that helps. :)

In other news... tonight I'll be working. I'm really looking forward to it too. Some orders I need to finish and some orders I need to begin. It's been interesting with the shift of schedules and the new way our house is running, but overall I think it's a good change. The kids miss Dad in the mornings, but honestly (and I hate to admit this) it's very quiet when it's just the kids and me. lol Yesterday when I overslept and Jeff was helping me get them ready, there were tears and loud voices. lol This morning when it was just me, it was virtually silent. lol I just think that I'm better cut out for the morning grind of getting little people with forgetful minds ready in the morning. So that's a plus, right? lol

I'll be listing some new things over the weekend but don't forget I'll be putting up my Valentine's Specials on the 20th. I'm excited! If I get overly excited I might just post them a day early...cuz ya know, I'm crazy like that.

You have a wonderful weekend and I'll talk to you later!

xo.

Changes.

You think that everything's going along smoothly and a lot of unfortunate events take over? Yeah. That's how it is for me right now, lol.

My voice doesn't work. I am on an antibiotic so I'm sure to recover soon, but good grief people! Enough already! I'm just glad that it's not a sinus infection. I can breath fine and sleep fine as long as I have those Ricola square cough drops near my bed. I love those things and I am not a fan of Hall's brand. They make my nose hurt.

I'll have the specials up later today. :) I have some things to do before then and still need to figure out the picture situation. It's very cold outside and you get a lot of "blue" in the photos so it distorts the natural coloring of the item, so I think I'll be back inside for photos.

Jeff has begun his new job as a Woodford County bus driver. :) This has been a huge change for everyone in our family, probably Jeff the most as he is now getting up at 5a every single morning. The change for me has been okay but I miss having him around in the morning, however I have to admit that it's much quieter in the morning. He tends to lose his patience with "certain" people who forget to brush their teeth every morning. ha. cracks me up! they eventually brush their teeth in the morning but they'll stand around looking like they're all ready to go and he'll say, "did you brush your teeth?" and when the answer is "um. no." that's when he kinda wigs out. lol "YOU BRUSH THEM EVERY DAY. EVERY DAY. THAT MEANS...EVERY SINGLE DAY." lol! hilarious stuff people. Anyway, my method is to just say, "sure, don't brush your teeth. we'll be at the dentist and they'll be using those huge plier things to rip them from the root because they're all black and you have to get dentures...which means fake teeth."  They usually go brush their teeth pretty quickly. lol With me being the only one in the house to get four kids ready for school every day, well it's definitely a switch-up from my normal routine of just "being a helper". Jeff always does lunches, makes breakfasts while I get the girls dressed and do laundry. Yeesh. Anyway, it's been a big change and we miss our Captain but I think this will really help our family out a great deal. Hello Insurance.

You all take care and I'll see you later today! :)

What a weekend! Phew. I'm glad it's over!

Well. Let me tell you, it was one messy weekend! lol We had events coming out our ears and all sorts of not-so-great-things happening in the process. lol Thankfully it all worked washed out in the end. After two days of being off school (for snow) and heading into the weekend, I thought it would be nice and uneventful...NOPE. Not us. lol Of course NOT us! ha.

Our furnace stopped working so that was nice. ::sigh:: Jeff said, "this is my worst nightmare ever!" lol He keeps thinking that our furnace is going to just up and die on us at any given moment, but the electrician who came out said that it was a fine furnace and had many years left in her. :) Yeah! lol The problem was the little safety switch, it wasn't connected properly and we had to get a new one installed. Easy peasy japaneasy. :)

Then Natalie stepped on a screw. It went right through her crocs 'nadia' boots. I was shocked! But I guess it would have gone through a tennis shoe just as easily. We're not sure where the screw came from (it was in the very back of our yard) but Jeff said as soon as the weather gets a bit warmer, he's going to clear it all out. It probably came from the railroad tracks above... who knows. Anyway................

THEN... all of Jeff's websites that were on Wordpress layouts were hacked into and completely ruined. It's been a mess. He's been rebuilding them and trying to find all the corrupted codes to get them back up and running. Thankfully, my Dad hosts my own site otherwise I'd have been shut down too. Let me tell you, I would have been frantic! As you know...I do NOT do well with stress! And that sort of stress would surely make my hair fall out. :) ::giggles::

So that was my weekend! I hope yours was MUCH better! :)

Furnace on the fritz and getting fixed.

We awoke this morning to no heat and a house that was registering 56 degrees. Yikes! Thankfully the electrician was out in about two hours and after inspection, it turns out that it was a door switch and simple to fix. He was here for about thirty minutes and the heat is now on and heating us up! :)

So it stunted my morning but I'm getting ready to sort silver and put it away. I love silver.

The girls want to go outside so I'm helping them get bundled up. That should only take me an hour. lol

Snow Day!

Hello! Good Afternoon!

Jeff's new bus driver job (for our County) is turning out to be a fun job with perks. lol We found out earlier than everyone else that we would not have school today (only an hour before everyone else, but still! c'mon it's still fun!) and then I sent a text to some friends, letting them know too, cuz ya know... spread the love (at 5a in the morning! lol).

The kids all played in it, came in for hot chocolate, went back out in it, back inside for more hot chocolate and back out again.... well, you get the idea. It's not a lot of snow but it keeps coming down and they're enjoying it. What bothers me? Where was all this snow before Christmas when you want the snow so it gives you that warm and cozy Christmasy feeling that you want!? Right now it's just going to turn into a big ol' mess in the morning when we have to go back to school. Boo hiss. lol Oh well... enjoy it for now.

Jeff is working on chili and heading to a guys thing tonight which I'm sure will be enjoyable. Our church fellas are a lot of fun and I can't tell you how happy I am that he has fellas to do fella-things with. :) I'll be working on beads, organizing my dining room (that is covered in Christmas stuff at the moment) and getting lunches made since Jeff is now gone in the mornings and won't be helping me. Wha! It will be quiet around here in the mornings, that's for sure. My lady-of-leisure mornings are over and will be getting four people dressed and out the door!

There were two other little people who liked the snow too, and I added a bunch of photos so you could see. :)

What? What did you say? Outside?!

 

Snow, here I come!

This snow is totally wicked-cool and tastes good, too!

Sniff. Sniff. What is this white stuff?

Sadie was all snow-ready with her cute boots as Jack-Jack checks them out.

This snow stuff is awesome!

Okay. I'm done. I think it's really too cold for me and I'm very girlie. I have too much snow on my fur.

Someone needs to open the door. I said, I'M DONE!

Okay, I'm off to make MacIntosh Muffins, if you want, I'll add the recipe later. They're awesome, or as Jack-Jack says, "wicked-cool!"

My 2010 Resolution.

Hello! I'm back! Are you ready for me? I have all sorts of new things up my sleeves and can't wait to get started!

So. I have a resolution, something I rarely ever do because, like most people, I rarely ever keep them... however, this year I'm going to do actually do this one. :) In short, I volunteer for too many things and am always stressing over them. So this year I'm going to finish my obligations and not add to them again. I'm going to do one and do that one thing well, you know what I mean? That's my resolution. What's your resolution? And don't say losing weight because I've tried one before it's a tough one to stick to, don't get me wrong, I do plan on getting into shape but I'm not putting it as a resolution. Nope. Not falling for that trick! No way!

So, onto jewelry talk... one new thing this year will be more simple necklaces. I like wearing them so I know you will too. :) I have a slew of new chains coming and lots of cute little charms to go along with sassy beads. Can't wait!

I'm currently waiting for my silver to arrive. Yay! It's always so much fun when silver is on its way. I didn't plan for it to be late, it just is and because of that it will give me some time to get my house back in order, clean out my mail room (i'm thinking of doing some major rearranging), do a bit of sewing (!!!!), bake some cupcakes?, and do some other crazy things like hot-gluing stuff to the walls. you just never know! crazy i tell you, crazy!

You all have a terrific evening. I think we're having spaghetti... or chicken legs... I dunno... but I'll be having a Lean Cuisine, cuz um, I'm back on my diet. Boo hiss!

Happy New Year!

I have some fun photos from Mick & Amy's New Year's bash with Jeff's family but I can't post them all today, however I'd like to leave you with some of these. :) (btw, Mick & Amy are Jeff's cousins...and they're just crazy! Look at all these games they had us into!)

My Mother-in-law trying to open up a very taped up package with thick men's gloves on. lol

Nathaniel wanting to be the first one to blow a bubble that was covered in whip cream. Chew! Chew! Chew!

Natalie on the creeper race! Go Nat!

Go Deanie!!!

The result from all the hand-pushing on the creeper race. :)

Try passing the orange without groping the person you're passing it to. Yeah good luck with that! lol

We had a great time! I hope your New Year's was just as festive. :)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you! :)

I know, I know, the blog is a bit more ornate than I normally do but I thought it was a festive way to ring in the new year. Valentine's Day changes will soon be here so this will be a nice change until then. :)

So how was everyone's New Year? How was your Christmas!? Ours was Merry and Bright. :)
Here's a few of our family photos from Christmas morning. Everyone was happy with what Santa brought them. ::wink wink::

Nathaniel and Natalie are enjoying their new cell phones with texting features! ::giggles::

Nicole loves all her new clothes and Old Navy boots.

Nadine's favorite gift was the little Lemur that kisses you when you squeeze it's tummy. :)

There's lots more to tell but I'll wait for another time. I don't officially go back to work until Monday and I cannot tell you how relaxing this week has been. Yes it's true, I've been working on my websites but that's not really work, right? :)

Have a wonderful weekend and I'll chat with you all on Monday!

this and that

Well, I am still awake (it's just after 1a) and I'm not done with a lot of things. ::sigh:: I have to say that on the getting-your-packages-out-in-the-mail job has been easy and I still have several to get out the door. ::sighing again:: Please know I am doing my darndest to get them finished, resized etc before Tuesday. These last few weeks have exhausted me more than I expected and I really, truly thought I would be done by now. Yet, here I am. lol Still plugging away. I get up fairly early (6:40a) and help Jeff get the kids off to school, truth be told, he does the majority of that work (makes breakfasts, lunches). Usually I'm doing laundry and making sure everyone's hair looks presentable and not scary. ha. Then there's the matter of letting dogs outside, getting them fed and getting myself ready. I try to go back to bed for an hour so that I'm not completely zombie-like but there are days when my mind won't rest and I just stay awake. This is when I get coffee at Thornton's gas station, cuz why? Cuz it's a little over a buck! That's why! Cheap and good. :)

The nights where I'm staying up past 1a are the ones that cause me to get very cranky, short-tempered and down right devilish. My mind is off in la-la land, thinking of who needs what and who gets what and did I remember to sign the note for the girls school? ::sigh:: These sorts of things send me over the edge, the balance between Mother and Job-Doer. Yeesh.

My weekend already looks like a blur. Friday night we're going out with some friends. Can't wait! We're going to grab Brooklyn's Pizza and head to the Festival of Lights at the Kentucky Horse Park. They put on a fun show (sometimes it's cloggers, jazz dancers, choir singers, you get the idea) and they have a petting zoo that the kids enjoy. Before the show begins you can go see all the avid train collectors show off their mazes of winding track. Awesome stuff!

When the kids were younger (we go every year, so this will be year 10 for us) we would want them to sit on Santa's lap at the lights show but they always, ALWAYS refused. Even Nicole who was such a friendly baby, she wouldn't have anything to do with him. Not sure why. lol My kids are funny that way. Oh well... not a big deal. I know they love Santa because they've watched those movies a gazilllllion times (you know, the one's with Tim Allen as Santa?) and they never tire of him. :)

On Saturday I have all my little girl scouts coming here for a party. Lord help me. Keep me in your prayers. lol I think it will be wonderful but I am NOT prepared (well, I am but not completely). I still have homemade snow flakes to hang around my house and get trinkets for their stockings and make sure that the photos for the parents are wrapped.

Then, later that night I have a dinner to attend and I have to make a dessert. :) lol So, it's going to be a very busy weekend indeed.

You all take care and I'll be putting up some new earrings in the next day or two. I didn't put them up for the open house because I thought that they were up but it turns out I didn't "activate" their pages.

See?

I told you I'm losing it.

Thank you to all those who purchased things! You helped make my Christmas Merry and Bright.

xoxo,



ps: my hubby and i were up late the other night just chatting. he's been working the night-owl shift at Amazon to raise money for our churches youth group. :) (which is like 9:30p to 3a) he wraps gifts... fun! annnnyway.... we were both "wired" so we were watching youtube videos to wind down. (do you think we're crazy? lol) so here's a video he sent me... it's the funniest little thing. :) it reminds me once again why i love the Asians.

Check out the video here.

By the way, he's singing a Jason Mraz song that you might already know. too cute! It's a 1:32 long so go watch it! lol

Updates & Issues

Hello peoples! :)

Well. What a response. lol Thank you for all the comments and lovely emails. :) ::giggles and blushing:: I'm currently editing photos...and I still need to take some more photos but wowza, is it ever cold outside--a mere 16 degrees. Yesserree! So, I might be taking some inside but I so love outside photos... ahhhh, the joys of summertime! Just six months away.... speaking of...

My 20th high school reunion is this summer so I've decided to get to it and lose some weight. You know, cuz I need to have a goal and I want my friends to like me. lol Nah, I think they already like me (I so love them) but underneath all of this, there's a person in here with a cute figure... I just need to find her {again}.

Lord help me, I so hate to diet but alas, my hips are beginning to reach my stomach so I really do think it's important to put a gate over my mouth. Actually, it has more to do with no exercise in my life and the fact I have PCOS - Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (which I hate, btw, but that's another situation altogether so I won't get into that now). In a nutshell it just means my body doesn't know how to process sugars and breads and the like. Whatever. Not to mention that my last visit to Chico's brought me back to their size THREE (which is a size 16/18, for those of you who're wondering) and I WAS in a size TWO... ::sigh::

Anyhoo... I'm going to do it. I'm currently (making you all my weight-police) at 234. Blech. How did this happen and when? lol I'm very happy in MY person and love ME, and to be honest, the only time my weight bothers me is when I'm around thin people. lol!!!! But, I'd like to drop 50 pounds. That's my total goal. I think it's doable. Don't you? Anyway, that's my plan. 50 by Summer. I'll keep you posted on my progress and my number.

Okay, I need to finish editing. So much to do! And I need coffee. FYI, the MacDonald's Latte is 165 calories and the Mocha is.... drumroll... 580. Um? I so do not need that Mocha anymore. Truthfully, the Latte is much better (not as sugary) and you get more coffee in it. I'm working on going to straight coffee with 2 equals like Moon does. Baby steps people. One dramatic shift at a time please. lol

You all have a good day, be watching my website (the shoppe) because I'll just start loading things in as I edit and load them, which will commence roughly around Noon... (if it happens sooner, I'll tell you here).

Over and out...for now. :)

the potato soup was awful!!!

I can't chat but i wanted to update you on that potato soup.

I. Hated. It.

It tasted NOTHING like Rafferty's soup and so we will not be making it again. I KNEW i should have made my mom's potato soup recipe. ugh! That'll teach me. next time!!!! I will!!!! the one online is gross. don't do it! don't do it!!! i'm warning you, it's nasty!

ok, i just ramped up my kiln so it's on the torch for me today. :)

you all take care and i'll talk to you later.

oh, btw, the current count on things for my open house...

31 pairs of earrings

18 bracelets

5 necklaces

... and counting

Rafferty's Potato Soup Recipe

We're having Rafferty's potato soup for dinner tonight, Jeff's making it (of course), I just help.

The weather is very cold here today. When the kids leave for school I turn our thermostat down to 62 degrees because there is NO sense in heating a 2,800+ square foot home for just ME. I can put on boots. lol However, it put me in the mood for a nice thick, warm soup so when I mentioned it to Jeff he said, "what's that place you go with your friends to get potato soup?" and I looked up Rafferty's recipe online. I hope it comes out as good as it does in their restaurant. :)

If you have a location near you, check them out, it's one of my favorite places.

Here's the soup recipe, in case you're wanting to know. :)

6-8 potatoes, peeled/diced

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 (8oz) package of philly cream cheese

1 1/2 stick of butter

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

1 can of cream of celery soup

1 1/2 cup milk

talk and pepper to taste

1 tsp garlic salt

In a large sauce pan cook potatoes & onions in only enough water to cover, When tender (But not mushy) add cubes of cream cheese. Remove from heat and stir until cream cheese is melted. Add butter, soups, milk & seasoning. Heat to serving tempt.

Rafferty's tops their potato soup with shredded cheddar cheese and a sprinkling of real bacon pieces. I think sour cream might be nice too, don't you? :)

What are you having for supper?

Jennifer Neubarth Wedding - A weekend to remember.

A very dear friend got married this past weekend. The last of our group. It was a beautiful wedding and I am SO glad I was able to be witness to their wonderful day.

I am blessed to have friends in my life that I have known for so long. Not many do you know? Friends fall by the wayside, we move away, lose touch and so on, but not in our case. We have moved away yes, but the wonderful thing is, through this glorious thing called Crackbook, oops, I mean FACEbook, we get to keep up on a weekly if not daily basis. I {heart} facebook.

Our weekend started out very early on Saturday morning at Panera (9a). We ended up leaving at 3:30 in the afternoon (some left before that, but others stayed longer). It was a fantastic day! I loved seeing all the faces, some faces I hadn't seen in more than twenty years.

Our group photo... our graduating class and our Gym teacher came by! Mrs. Burgess. What a cutie she is. We couldn't believe it when we heard her voice and then saw her, after alllll these years. How wonderful. We were hoping she wouldn't ask us to start running laps. :) ::giggles::

My darling friend Karen (and Amy updating her Facebook status I'm sure, lol!). Karen lives RIGHT down the road from my Mother-in-law (who lives in Germantown, Ohio).

Kristina and Angie. Haven't changed a bit. Lovely as ever.

We had the best time catching up. I can't wait to get together again!

Shanda and Amy. Aren't they just so pretty?

I'm sorry Amy isn't in complete focus... not sure what was going on there. I'm still learning my camera, you know.

I'll skip right to the good stuff, cutting the cake. lol Chris is 6'8" and wow, he's tall. lol Jenny had on high heels and she's still so much shorter. lol They're a lovely couple. Fun too! I was happy that Chris didn't smash cake into her face. Jeff didn't do that to me either. I think that's a good sign for a great marriage. Don't you? Well. I do.

The groomsmen all trying to dance with Jen at once. :)

Dear friends.

Craziness. :)

Me and Jen. We're in our late thirties (above) and in our early teens (below). I am blessed to have good people in my life.

This was for Spirit week (7th grade) and throughout our years in school people would get us confused (mainly teachers). Jen used to get in trouble from the Librarian (a wicked old woman anyway) for MY overdue library books. lol Poor Jen! "You need to stop taking out books if you cannot remember when they are DUE!" the old librarian would say to Jen.

To this day, I do not have a library card. You can ask my closest friends. They all know it. I just am fearful about losing them or not returning them on time, so I just don't check books out and librarians don't yell at any of my friends for my overdue books. lol!

We're just nuts. These silly girls all had me dancing on the dance floor. Jeff probably thought that some alien took over my body (since I never dance). I think I'll have to start because it was a ton of fun!

Beautiful faces.

Beautiful friends.

Now and always.

It was the best weekend. I'm so glad I didn't miss it. I'm only sad that it went by so quickly...