I Love School

Wow, it was a GREAT birthday :) I just LOVE that I don't have to do anything fancy or out of the ordinary to have a great day - hehehehe. My hubby lucked out on that one. I'm not very high maintenance, and VERY easy to please - LOL!

So we went and did the tree job yesterday. I took a TON of video, but can't seem to figure out how to get it from my video camera to my laptop. It has a IEEE cord (or something like that), but I don't have a port for it in my laptop. For my old laptop, I had a removable one that I purchased, but I gave the old laptop to my hubby. Rrrrgh. I'll need to think of a solution for this one soon :)

Anyway, I did take a few pictures on the video camera. They're not such great quality, but you get the idea :) So, here's the tree. It was over 70 feet. Yeah, it was pretty big.


But first, we had to take out some sections of fencing. Right where my dad is now is where he was gonna drop the branches. So, we unscrewed the sections, and removed the fencing. My friend Maren came to help, and the little boys were there too (yeah, not so much help from them - LMBO).

See, no more fence - hehehe.

Then, Dad got his stuff together and was ready to go. Here he is getting his saw all ready.

And here he is putting on his ... um.. don't know what they're called. They're attachments for his work boots, with long spikes. When you walk up the tree, the spikes go into the bark, and keep you from falling. Quite handy :)

See the spikes?

So, he has a rope that he puts around the tree, and it attaches to his belt somehow, and he can walk up the tree. Really quite impressive. His chain saw is also attached to a rope to his belt. Then he can pull it up when he needs it.

He climbed up that tree, and as he got to a branch, he'd pull up his chain saw and cut off the branch. Some were small, and some were large. Some made a REALLY cool loud THUD when they hit the ground. And a few fell and planted in the ground. Those were really COOL to watch - LOL.

Look how high up there he was - OMGosh! I'm deathly afraid of heights, so you'd NEVER catch me up there - hehehe. I won't even go over 3 rungs on a ladder. But I digress. hehehe.

So when he got up near the top (so that it was starting to sway a little bit), he cut off the top, and it tumbled down. Then, he went down a few feet, and cut off another chunk. He did that most of the way down the tree. When it was only about 15 feet left, he got down and we started to clear the brush.

There was a MASSIVE pile at the bottom, and while Dad was sawing the branches into smaller chunks, Maren and I hauled them off to a branch pile up the driveway. Needless to say, I got REALLY dirty. Hehehe. While dad was up the tree, it started to lightly rain. When he started sawing at the bottom, it started to bring it. We got SUPER wet. The wet branches didn't help.

The kids and I had to stop at 11:40 to talk Joe to school. We were soaked to the bone (Maren and I), but Joe managed to stay dry in the truck. Jim had escaped for a few mintues and was a bit wet. I had to take Joe to school all nasty. Hehehe. My light blue running pants were HACKED, even my socks were wet, and I had saw dust chunks all over me - I must have looked really hot - LMBO! But it was a ton of fun. Thank, Dad, for letting me tag along.

My mom took me out to lunch at Taco Bell at 1:00, and I went over to Marens house to watch Season 2's season finale of Doctor Who. LOVE that one. Makes me teary every time. Back home before the kids got off the bus at 3:45. Tom had a Cub Scout pizza party at 4:30. My party was at 7:00 pm.

Check out the YUMMY desserts at my party! We had homemade cheesecake, chocolate raspberry cake, and sugar cookies with frosting. Let me see if I can remember the recipe for the cheesecake, because it was DIVINE!!! Ha! I found the cream cheese box in the recycle box, so this is the REAL recipe - hehehe.

Philadelphia New York Cheesecake

6 Gram Crackers, crushed
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp butter
5 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
3 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 Cup sour cream
4 eggs

Heat oven to 325. Line 13x9 inch pan with foil. Mix crumbs, 3 Tbsp sugar, and butter; press onto bottom of pan. Bake 10 minutes

Meanwhile, beat cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, flour, and vanilla with mixer until blended. Add sour cream. Mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.

Bake 40 mintues or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours.

Top as desired (we didn't top it at all)

Serves 16 (and they're VERY generous slices)

Here's my b-day cake. It was NASTY. We had ice cream with it, and I still didn't eat it. Gross. But, others seemed to like it. I guess everyone has their own tastes, right? I'll just stick to the cheesecake - LOL. So family birthday parties consist of the kids playing in the living room/watching cartoon, and the grown ups sitting in the kitchen, eating dessert and chatting. That's about it. It's PERFECT - LOL!

And I even got a few gifts. Grandma Ida and Aunt Sue got me money, Tammy and Russ (my cousin and her hubby) got me an AWESOME candle (Berry and Brown Sugar scented - I LOVE candles), Aunt Toni and Uncle Harry got me lotions and bath gel (yes, I need a shower. no, really, I do - I had sawdust falling ALL OVER myself at the party - LMBO). Maren made me the COOLEST necklace and earing set. I'm wearing them today, so I'll take a picture of myself and post it tomorrow. Thanks, you guys! You're the best - you made my Birthday SO much fun (even without my hubby).

He did call and text me at the party. He was at a hockey game with his buddies. He said he wished he could be at my party, and be there with me. Awe, he's such a sweetie :) Miss you, honey!!!!

So, that was my day. It was fabulous! Just perfect for me!

Click HERE to go to Scraporchard to download this AWESOME alpha from Rachel. She's SO cool! Just remember that you need to be signed into the Scraporchard Gallery in order to get your download :)

And, her store is on sale for 60% off. Woohoo! She has a bunch of AWESOME stuff in there :)

This WordArt request is from Linda. You know, it's really a simple font, but I just LOVE that it looks so "school-ish" to me - hehehe. I made 2, because I wasn't pleased with the horizontal one, but thought it would fit on the bottom of a scrapbook page nicely. I just like the "chunkiness" of the first one. So, take your pick :) Or pick both - hehehehe. Click on the image below to go to my box.net account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. :)

FONTS:
I, School - Primer Print

Happy Birthday

Woohoo!!! The 12 Days of Christmas starts on my B-Day!!! What could be better :) Here's the first one - Matahati Designs. Zakirah is AWESOME. You'll just LOVE her stuff. She has her store on sale for 50% off, and she's giving out free quick pages. Make sure you pick them up while you can :)





Don't forget, a different designer each day, a different offer/freebee each day. Don't miss out!!! You'll never forgive yourself if you do - LMBO!!!

So, I'm 33 today. Wow, when did I get old - hehehe. It doesn't really feel any different. I think once you turn 18-20, you don't really age in your head much after that. You always feel the same internal age. Sure, you body gets older, but your "spirit" is still the same.

And, just for today, if you use this coupon code:

BDAYtoME33

you'l receive 50% off your order from my store! Isn't that fabulous??? But, it's only good for today. So don't wait :)l

I had a good day yesterday. I went to my friend, Maren's house after I got Joe on the bus, and we hung out. Her hubby had the laptop, and she wanted to check her mail and send out a few emails. I was only too happy to oblige.

At 3:00, the kids and I headed to the library for Wii play. The big kids just LOVE it. I chatted with another mom there. Nice lady. Her ex-husband is military, and she said she spent 7 (or was it 9) years as an officers wife, and LOVED it. That was very promising to hear. Sometimes I hear a lot of horror stories, and it's refreshing to hear someone who liked the lifestyle - LOL.

After the kids went to bed, my mom and I headed out to the store. It's SO nice to be able to go to the store in the evenings without the kids. I'll miss that when we move. Anway, we went to the Dollar Tree (for poster board, graham crackers, and tissue wrapping paper) and Fred Meyer (cream cheese).

I wanted to have homemade cheesecake for my party. I just LOVE cheesecake. We found a recipe on the Philidelphia Cream Cheese, and got the stuff we needed. I've never made real homemade cheesecake before, so I'm hoping it turns out ok. Kinda weird, but it wanted me to make it in a 9x13 pan. I've only seen cheesecake made in a pie pan. I'll let you know how it turns out :)

Oh yeah, I get to go watch my dad do a tree job today! I'm SO excited. He's a logger, so he's all about climbing trees, and junk. Well, sometimes he does tree jobs (cuts them down and extracts them from peoples yards) when he's not working. Well, he got a job for today. The guy who's tree it is, is working today, and Dad wants me to come with him. As a "call 911" spotter. Nice, eh? I'm there in case it all goes South, and he needs to be saved.

But, I am excited about watching it. Have you ever watched someone down a tree? It's SO THRILLING to watch. I'll see if I can find my video camera, and take a movie. What a funny way to be spending my birthday. You can tell I'm a loggers daughter - LMBO!!!

Hehehe, I have to say, I always HATED this song. We'd sing it in primary (church) to the little kids when they had a birthday. I mean, come on. If you only had ONE WISH, would you really waste it on wishing someone else a happy birthday? I rest my case - LMBO! Maybe I'm just extremely greedy. Who knows. Anyway, click on the image below to go to my box.net account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work.

FONTS:

Happy - Luxury Royale JF
Birthday - Hursheys

Our Anniversary

Boy, did I spend a lot of time this week designing! I have 5 New WordArt packs in the store this Friday, 5 for next Friday, and 2 already done for the following Friday. Woohoo for me!

But wait! I'm having a sale. I know, I should just let you buy these today for $2.00 a piece, but, well, I'm nicer than that - hehehe. So, TOMORROW is my birthday. AND, if you use my Birthday coupon, you'll get 50% off your order from my store. But it's only good for my Birthday, so get ready :) Here's the CODE:

BDAYtoME33

Thanks, you guys, for being such great blog reader, for giving me SO much encouragement over the months that I've been separated from my hubby, for all of your prayers and good wishes, and for coming to my silly little blog, and keeping me company. You guys are the BEST!!!

Click HERE for Multiples WordArt - $2.00 first week

Click HERE for Christmas Carols 2 - $2.00 first week

Click HERE for Christmas Shapes WordArt - $2.00 for first week

Click HERE for Santa Attitude WordArt - $2.00 for first week

Click HERE for Christmas Attitude WordArt - $2.00 for first week

Don't forget, the 12 Days of Christmas at Scraporchard starts TOMORROW!!!

This WordArt request comes from Angie. I thought that many of you would be able to use ths one. Most of us have parents/grandparents who have an anniversary, and many of us have our own anniversaries. So, have fun! Click on the image below to go to my box.net account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

Fonts:
A - Beautiful ES Caps
All rest - Beautiful ES

Christmas Dreams

I have a treat for you today :) My friend, Maren, is a WONDERFUL cook. Fantastic, in fact! She made this FABULOUS soup the other night for a church meeting, and I finally got the recipe from her. We made this soup 2 nights ago. I thought it was divine, but my kids? Not so much. Doesn't it look yummy?

Heres the recipe - oh yeah, just as a warning, I cook kinda, um, loosely. Measurements are kinda eyeballed. So I dont know how that's gonna translate to a recipe - hehehe.

1 Package Italian Sausage
1 Onion
2 Green Peppers
3 Large Tomatoes
1 Large Sweet Potato
4 Cups Chicken Broth
Basil
Italian Seasoning
1 Zuchinni
1 Large Package Tortillini

Let see, dice the onion and green peppers, and sautee them with the Italian Sausage. Add the broth, and the diced tomatoes, diced sweet potato, and spices. Cook until the sweet potato is tender. Then add the zuchinni and tortillini, and cook until the tortillini is done. Garnish with cheese, if desired.

OMGosh! It's SO yummy! Make it, you'll LOVE it too :) So, that was Monday night. Well, last night, my Mom cooked. She found Lunchables at Grocery Outlet (we call it the used food store - hehehe) for $0.60 a piece. So she got a pizza one and a burrito one for each of the kids. They were in HOG HEAVEN. They don't usually get that kinda stuff, so they were very excited. I had the Tortillini soup myself. It was a no-brainer choice for me - hehehe.

I bought the new Batman (The Dark Knight) movie yesterday. I just LOVE Batman. It doesn't hurt that Christian Bale is a HOTTIE (I've LOVED him since I saw him in Newsies)!!! So, I know that it's really violent and scary, but I still love the movie. I know, I know, I shouldn't like those kinds of movies. hehehehe. Did I ever tell you that I like Natural Disaster movies too? You know, those ones that a volcano explodes and wipes out the town. Or that a tidal wave sweeps the city away. What's wrong with me. Ha!



This WordArt request is from Joy. She just found out that her hubby (military) will be extended, and won't be home for Christmas. I'm SO sorry. That totally sucks, girl! Be strong - he'll be home soon!!! Do an extra little Christmas as soon as he gets back :) She wanted to know if I'd work up this quote for her. WELL OF COURSE!!! Here it is, girl :) I hope you like it :)

Click HERE to go to Scraporchard to download the zip file, and leave some love if you like my work. And don't forget that you have to be logged into the gallery in order to get the zip file.

Presence Presents

I spent WAY too much time on the computer yesterday. Hehehe. And nothing to show for it - don't you hate that. I re-worked my mom's blog last night, and thought that maybe I could do it for mine too. Yes, I know, I just did that, but hey. I like to re-arrange things - hehehe. So they have REALLY cute backgrounds HERE, and theoretically, if I made my own background, hosted it on photobucket, and put that link in the place of the link from this blog's directions, I should be able to have a custom background. Right? Doesn't that make sense? Well, it sure didn't work that way. Humpf. That's what I wasted an hour and a half on last night. Eeerrrrrgghh!

Anyway, I did do some productive stuff yesterday. Granted, it wasn't cleaning the little kids room like I was supposed to be doing, but productive none the less. I now have all the stocking stuffers bought! I think I'm gonna put them all in the stockings, and if the kids ask where they went, I'll just say that Santa took them early to get them filled, then he'll bring them back on Christmas Eve. What the heck, they're kids. They don't know any different. They only know what I tell them - LMBO! Like it wasn't until I was almost a grown up that I realized that not everyone ate Tacos for Christmas Dinner. Hehehehe. Try it one year and think of me! You'll like it - ha!

And thanks to Pam for my first Christmas card of the season!!!! It was pretty, and is hanging on our wall. I was SO excited. So, anyone else who wants to send one along (and get a free wordart pack to boot), click HERE to see that post that talks about it - just scroll down the page a bit :)

So I got an email yesterday from Suzy who was letting me that she'd just designed her first digiscrap kit. It is Military Christmas themed, and she thought that would like it. Yep, I liked it :) Didn't she do a fantabulous job :) It's called Christmas in Camo (but it can be used by non-military scrappers, of course)

I asked her if I could work up some WordArt for you guys with it! I hardly ever get to do collabs with other designers these days. It is always SO much fun for me to do, since I don't design "real" stuff, just words :) With the designers in my store, I would make 6 wordarts with their kit, 4 for me, and 2 for them (they got to pick which ones they wanted). They would "own" the 2 they got, and I'd "own" the 4 I got, and I'd sell mine, and, um, not sure what they did with theirs. I guess it just wasn't profitable for them, or something. They stopped asking. So now I'm SO happy when people ask me to do a "blog" WordArt collab with them. I get the chance to work with elements again :) OK, enough "poor me" - LOL!

Here's the first one. Fun, eh? Click HERE to go to Suzy's blog to pick it up. And don't forget to leave her some love (a little note of appreciation for all of you new gals)!

FONTS:
Believe - Hursheys
miracles - Hyrule

And here's mine. I just LOVED these cute presents. So adorable :) Click HERE to go to my box.net account to download the PNG file and leave some love if you like my work.

FONTS;
presence - Smitten Kitten
present -Smargana

The Love of the Savior Part 3

My friend Maren and her hubby, Chet, went to Eugene yesterday, and the kids and I went over to their house to babysit their 11 year old Clay. The big kids played games, and the little kids and I watched movies and played with the dogs (I know! I was playing with animals - hehehe - dogs even!). We had a good time. It was almost like having our own house for a day. It's gonna be so nice when we finally get one - hehehe.

We (my mom and I) watched an AWESOME movie last night! It was on CBS, and was the new Hallmark Movie. It was about a guy with Tourettes Syndrome, and how he learns from his disability, and eventually becomes a teacher. It was FABULOUS! I SO love the Hallmark Movies. Very inspirational. He had such a wonderful outlook on life. Anyone else watch it last night?

Don't forget, the 12 Days of Christmas at Scraporchard starts on Friday!!!

Here's part 3 of the COOL Christmas saying that my mom came up with, and I WordArt-ed. Glad that you guys are all liking it :) Click on the image below to go to my box.net account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work.

FONTS:
Stephanie Marie JF

The Love of the Savior Part 2

So how was your Saturday? Did you do something fun? Christmas shopping? Decorating? Anything? It started out a little frustrating at our house. Captain America called at 7:30am to chat. We decided that at 8:30am we'd try and get the webcam and speakers/microphone set up, so that the kids could talk with their dad. It started off good, but then suddenly stopped working. RRRRGH!!! Hate it when it does that.

By 10:30am, we finally had it up and working again. We had to get Captain Americas little brother from St. Louis to take over my computer to fix it. Thank goodness for Remote Assistance (and geeky brother-in-laws! - LOL). It was SO fun to watch my kids interact with their Dad. They were laughing and having fun. It was AWESOME! Definately a memory maker.

My mom decorated the tree yesterday. She has GORGEOUS decorations for her tree. I'm a bit worried for their safety, though. I sure hope that Jim (the 3 year old) is able to keep his hands off of the ornaments. They're SO tempting.

Not bad for a free tree from the woods, eh?

Yesterday at the Church building, we had a Creche festival. Everyone came and set up their nativity scene (creche) in the morning, then it was open to the public from 10-5, to come and view all of the cool scenes. We'd gone to a few of them in the past, and had a great time. I just LOVE to see all of the nativity scenes, and really wanted my kids to go and see it too.

Check out Jake (11) and Tom (9) 's faces. Yeah, they're THRILLED to be there. It's JUST what they wanted to do with their Saturday. This was after I told them that they had to look at ALL of the creches, tell me which was their favorite, and WHY it was their favorite, BEFORE they could get the cookie refreshments.

This one was really cool.

Here's a view of quite a few nativity scenes.

This one was pretty impressive also.

This one was hilarious!!! The Boy Scouts carved a nativity scene out of SOAP! LOL!

OK, and here's our favorites. This one was mine. I liked it because the people were so TALL, and cool looking.

This is Eme's favorite because of the colors, and the gold, and the jewels.

This is Jim and Tom's favorite, because it had so many pieces.

This is Joe's favorite because it's snowmen (not penguins, like I kept saying)

This one is Jacob's favorite, because they're dogs. LOL!

So after the Creche festival, I decided to take the kids to the library. My mom took her other grandaughter, Taylor, there too. The kids had a TON of fun hanging out there. Let me tell you, as librarys go, this one's childrens department is HANDS DOWN the best! My kids LOVE to go there and play with ALL the toys.

Here's my mom and dad, sitting at the little kids table.

Here's Tom at the dress up station. He didn't realize that the bagged toys were to check out, not to play with. How cool is that, that the library has check out-able toys . LOL!

Jimmy with his favorite toy at the library - the train.

Joe at the coloring table. Yep, it always looks like this - hehehe.

Eme at the kitchen, with all the food.

Jacob and the wooden castle. He thought it was SO awesome. I have to agree :)

Ha! The one time I actually read a book to my kid, someone snaps a picture, and I look like a GREAT parent. Hehehehe. I really do need to take more time to read to them :)

Joe and I dressing up. What, didn't I tell you that I LOVE to play dress up?

Ha! This on'es a little bit scary. Hehehehe.

Here's Eme and Taylor, wearing the kings crowns. Aren't they adorable!

And yep, here's me again. Don't know what this hat is supposed to be - LOL! But Joe is a construction worker.

So after the library, we headed out to Fred Meyers. Santa was there, and the photo lab was taking pictures of Santa and the kids. They said we could come back the next day and pic up our FREE picture. How cool is that? We got one of each kid (minus Jacob - he's like "I know there's no Santa" and we were like "SHHHHH", little kids!) and a group shot. We'll pick them up on Monday.

There's Joe sitting on Santa's lap.

After the library and Santa, we went back home, and got the kids fed dinner, then got ready to go to my mom's work party. I was invited to go with them! Woohoo! Grown up time - LOL! Grandma Ida came over to watch the kids. Thank you Grandma!!!!!

We drove up the coast to Yachats (ya-ha-ts), and went to dinner at the Adobe. We were in a conference room, and it was catered. TONS of yummy food! I had salad, potato salad, bean salad, cucumber salad, garbanzo bean salad (sounds like a lot, but it was a small plate, small spoonfulls), AWESOME cheeses (my favorite was in a rind, and was creamy in the inside - didn't know how to eat it, so I just smeared it out with my finger and licked my finger- yeah, I've got some killer manners, I know), cucumbers, a roll, red snapper (fish), rice pilaf, some chicken in a creamy sauce, and beef. OH MY GOODNESS! Can you say yummy? It was awesome :)

See the guy in the red shirt? That's Mr. Grano, my 8th grade Language Arts teacher. His wife works with my mom. How cool is that? What a great guy. His son, Seth, graduated the same year as me. It was kinda fun chatting with an old teacher.

Check out these KILLER desserts. I picked the Cheesecake because I was SO craving it. But the chocolate cake was better than amazing. Imagine fudge, but in a cake shape. Seriously. It was THAT chocolately. HOLY CRAP! If I'm here next year (I'm shooting myself - no, no, just kidding), I'm getting THAT dessert!

We had a White Elephant exchange too. Everyone brought a gift for the game. We brought a tree decoration, a baggie of teddy bear pins, and a box of cherry chocolates. So, everyone picks a gift that they DIDN'T bring, and sits in a circle. Then, mom's boss read this REALLY funny story about Mr. & Mrs. Right. See, when the story said RIGHT, you pass your gift to the right, and when the story says LEFT, you pass it to the left. When the story is all finished, you get the gift in your possession. It was SO funny to watch these people who'd been drinking play the game. Ha! Too funny :)

I ended up with a real soft teddy bear (which I'm saving for a christmas present for one of my kids), mom got a mini address book, and my dad got an old copy of the book, The Stepford Wifes (LMBO!).

After that, we had a Sing-A-Long. I do love me a sing-a-long! We kinda-sorta took the song sheet home with us when we left - LOL! Now we have a GREAT compilation of songs to sing when we go carolling this year. Woohoo!!!

Here's a pic of my mom and I at our table. We took about 4 pics, and the first one was the best - Ha!

And, I thought I'd share what our TALL tree in the front yard with the lights looks like. Isn't it AWESOME! You can see it the second you pull onto our street. It's pretty tall - hehehe.

Pfew! Are you guys still there? Well, at least there were pictures to keep you interested - not just boring Bethany ramblings - hehehe.

Don't forget, the 12 Days of Christmas at Scraporchard starts on Friday!!!

Here's the 2nd part of my Love of the Savior WordArt. Click on the image below to go to my box.net account and download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

FONTS:
Love - Felix Tilting
Savior - Stephanie Marie JF