I just..........

want to stay home tomorrow and blog. But, that's not going to happen. I really need some time off. I'm sure of it. And some sun. I miss the sun. I will blog and have fun pictures again, someday when life isn't so crazy and I'm not so blah:-)

Two of my friends are blogging!!

This is Sarah! She's blogging here... check it out, it should be good cause she's "keeping it real" in her new blog:-) I love girls that can keep it real!








This is Raychel:-) She's mom to these two handsome young men! I really look forward to her blog so I can see new pictures of her boys growing!

"Do you want to go for a romantic walk w/ me?"

On Wednesday night Matt took me out on the river for a date:-) It was a beautiful night for it. This is the only fish (if you could call it that:-p) that he's caught all year:-( We don't know what we're doing so wrong! He's the size of a minnow! We had fun though.



Out on the water...

"Do you want to go for a romantic walk w/ me?" This, after he grabbed the bowl to take some stuff to "dump off the edge" cause it can't go in the compost. I said sure. It was an adventure. As always. I married a version of my daddy! We walk out, past the old fridge in the yard, the cooler and table that have been out there for weeks... and we're off to the "edge":-) We dump the stuff and then go over a little ways in the ditch cause there are, what looks like, pumpkin plants or something like that growing in the ditch. We tromped around and found these! We are truly hoping that someone didn't just plant them there to let them grow out of the way and want to pick them later. We're guessing someone thru all there pumpkins and gourds over there last fall and they planted themselves. So, that was our romantic walk! Don't you just wish you were me!?

They look kind of like mutts don't they? Like they don't know what they should be? Some have the right shape but wrong color and others...... what are they!?

I just wanted to share this blog w/ you, it's so neat and just warms my heart! My mom found it and passed in on to me. I just love it! I want to be JUST LIKE THIS when I grow up:-) Live in the country, love the simple things, have cute babies, knit, cook and bake like mad and be HAPPY!

something I'm going to miss in the winter...

Some pictures of my pretty yard! Morning glory...

A dredging barge going by our house, on the river..

The boys out on the river. They did not catch anything:-(


Flower in b/w..

b/w sunflower...

Flowers by my old door..

My Russian Sage!

Hollyhocks...

the pink post

This lighting of the candles...



What was her wish I wonder..?

Ahhh, it was pretty good. I am not a huge cake person and if I do eat cake, it's chocolate all the way. It was fun frosting to make. I couldn't get it thick enough so I kept adding powdered sugar and therefor had a LOT of extra frosting. And, as you can see this frosting still isn't really think enough and is sliding off the cake:-(

Red Velvet Cake

Sarah requested a red velvet cake w/ a whipped cherry frosting for her birthday... so here it is! It was so red. It looked like blood before I baked it.



We're getting there..

It's done! The ChapStick is a joke... ;-) I had never made a red velvet cake and it was fun:-)

feeling kind of blue...

This beautiful, but so gloomy picture is kind of how I feel right now. You ever just feel a little overwhelmed w/ life and want to go to bed and wake up when it's all passed by? That's me right now. I have felt very anti social and negative the last two weeks or so. Our freezer died on our fridge. That's a mess. Had to move everything to the other freezer - thank goodness we have that one! Now the fridge is dead. We have to get a "new to us" one now. Just money we didn't want to spend, you know!? My sweet daddy came over to work and checked my tires for me because they have been humming and shaking a bit. There are wires sticking out. We were having trouble w/ the Internet, but that was a really simple fix that one of the tech guys at work told Matt about. This is what I keep hearing and I'd like to scream, "Well, I guess when it rains it pours.." Ughh.

The Girl Effect...

This is a neat link that Rae had on her blog and I thought I'd pass it on. I don't see it as a feminist thing, I just think it makes you think, think what you could do to help someone else that's in need when we have so much all around us.. It's fun little video to watch, it's up beat and the way it's put together just makes you want to get excited about some little girls life, whether that be in your own back yard, or across the ocean.

Rice Pudding



4 cups whole milk
1/2 cut long grain rice (not instant)
2/3 cup sugar

Put all of this in the top of a double boiler, cook over boiling water. Cook til the rice is very tender - about an hour, maybe more. Stir occasionally.

Divide three eggs. Beat the whites til stiff. Beat the yolks a bit. When the rice is done add yolks to the rice/milk and stir in. Then fold in egg whites in.

Put into a 9x9 inch pan and then put that pan into a 9x13 pan w/ some water in it, about a half inch. Bake at 300 to 325 degrees for about 40 minutes - until very golden brown (like in the picture). Eat warm or let cool for a more custard like pudding.

This is Matt's grandma's recipe. Everyone loves it. Matt can eat a whole dish in two days easy!

some of the last flowers of the season....

These are some late Hollyhocks. I just transplanted them this spring, so their a little slow in blooming:-) I was taking them in the dark..



Here's one that I un-saturated it a little..

My Russia Sage... the bush is so pretty and big. I have a bunch more to plant and have planted. I am rethinking where I put them because of how big this one got. It smells so good too!

Peaches....

These are the peaches that we bought along side the road on the way back from the cabin on Labor Day. They were so pretty and smelled so good! They were $1.15 a lb. We scrapped together a bunch on dollar bills to get some. We ended up finding $20. and I was happy to go home and make peach cobbler (not a recipe that I'd make again, not bad... just not a do-over) and jam.

Here's the jam:-) I will take a picture of the jars.. they are so pretty!

Steppin' Out In Pink

Here we are getting ready to go on our five mile walk. It was a perfect day for it! We had a great time just ppl watching and talking. It was a long five miles. We got caught behind some bigger ppl and lots of strollers, but it was a good time. At mile three I think it was the UWL marching band was these playing just for fun. They were a fun band to watch! Matt and I always like to do things like this. We'll be doing the Maple Leaf run/walk too if anyone wants to join us!? I'll be running it, Matt probably will be too. Good challenge! :-/ lol.. And, we get all these really cool t-shirts! It was really great to see all the ppl that were out to support local breast cancer research. There are really good ppl out there:-D I think it's like one in every three woman will get some sort of breast cancer (it's something really high like that) and that's scary. It makes you think. Makes you want to help when you can, because you never know when it will effect you or someone you love. It was a fun time:-)

some pretty pictures to remind you of the passing summer...

Some pretty flowers in my yard. Fall is really in the air and it makes me sad that all my pretty flowers will be replaced by snow sooner then I'd like. All those pretty colors and critters (I know some people don't really care for the "critters" in their house right now:-) Rachael) will soon be gone.

Tonight we were out on the water. It was wet and somewhat cold, but fun!
The little neighbor boy, Carter, went with us. He's a little fisherman and love to fish. He love to talk fishing w/ Matt the min he gets home from work - it's pretty cute. He was so thrilled to go out w/ us. He was a great little helper and loved to learn all he could from Matt about fishing and boating. Such a fun, joyful, thankful little boy!

We have the "Steppin' Out In Pink" five mile breast cancer walk tomorrow. We are going w/ Matt's work. Should be fun. After that we are going out on the river to camp w/ some friends - we are so looking forward to that!

I want you to see what a H.A.P.P.Y. man looks like.....

THIS is a happy man... cruising down the river in his very own boat, after a lot of time and money spent!!

He even fished a little... almost had one too!

Mom went with!

On our way back..

Look at that sky and water!?!