Army

My nephew Adam Winchester left his base in Alaska on Tuesday for his first tour of duty in Iraq. He is told he will be there for a year. We wish him the best while overseas and pray for a safe return home. The first picture was taken at our house, fourth of July 2007 and the second was taken this past June at our nephew Troys high school graduation.

Haircut & Color

So - I got my haircut today along with a new color :) Don't get me wrong I love the highlights of blond/chocolate I had going on - but thought I needed a change of something more fall and perhaps more grown up (will i ever look like i am in my 30's and people stop treating me like i am 15???) Anyways, what do you think? Should I go darker? I am sure some of the "red" will wash out in the next few days....

Off to Ybor City tonight to do dinner at the Tampa Bay Brewing Company and to see a movie, "Lakeview Terrace" with my DH :) TTFN

TMTT & 1st day of work!!!

This recipe is for my favorite baked beans - Beer Baked Beans
(Sandra Lee/Food Network)

Prep, 15 minutes - Cook, 1 hour - 8 servings (I usually cut it in half)
Preheat, 400 degrees

4 strips bacon
1 medium red onion, diced
1 (28 oz) cans baked beans
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup spicy brown mustard
3 TBS molasses
1 (12 oz) bottle lager beer

Slice each slice of bacon into 4 pieces. Cook in a large pot over medium heat, until fat is rendered, but bacon is not yet crispy. In pan with bacon fat, cook chopped onion until soft, about 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, stir to combine. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Carefully transfer with a ladle to a 2 quart casserole dish. Place on foil lined baking sheet and bake 45 minutes to an hour or until beans are desired thickness :) Enjoy!

*** On another subject... Yes, today was my first day back to work :) I haven't had a "real" job in 2 years!!! Its been pretty nice actually... but I was getting a little bored and DH said I should get a job, LOL. I got hired by a Pharmacy Staffing Company months ago (before we found out we were moving) but they didn't have any availability. They called me last week and I was scheduled for today and Thursday at the Hospice Closed Pharmacy in Largo - ugh - the drive sucks but everyone was really nice and its amazing that I haven't worked in Pharmacy in years that it all just came back to me... it was great, even though my feet hurt from standing ALL day and I am tired :) Well, off to watch some TIVO'd shows from last night (Prison Break and Terminator). We watched all like 3 hours of Heroes last night - it was so good!!!!

Heroes is baack tonight!!!

I am SO happy that the TV shows are back!!! My TIVO is going to be getting pretty full :) ... but tonight Heroe's starts - woo hoo!!!! Can't wait!!!

My new toy!!!

I've been wanting one of these for a long time! I kept delaying buying all the neccesibilities because I knew I would have this one day.... and now I do :) Guess I will busy playing with it later tonight - hoping to head out to Ellenton and do some outlet shopping today with my SIL :) If I don't then I will be setting this babe up!!! The Klic-n-Kut is awesome - it will cut any font off your computer, will cut chipboard, there are tons of files out there too to cut! I can't wait to put this babe into action :) I hope to have more artwork to share as well... Yippee! Does anyone else out there have one? I would LOVE some lessons or if you have any favorite sites for files and/or free file sites/blogs - Let me know :)

Biloxi Rocks!

I think I love Biloxi! Its a lot smaller than Vegas of course - I think there is like 7 Casinos, we only went to 5 this past weekend. DH and I drove up there with my parents, its only an 8 hour drive. We stayed at Isle of Capri as that's where we could get the cheapest room - it was okay - but we decided we really liked the Hard Rock so we played alot there in hopes of getting comped in the future, LOL! We left Friday morning and came back Monday night - the perfect amount of time to be there. Saturday we did take a little drive down the coast and saw the lighthouse, along with these awesome birds that were carved out of dead trees from Hurricane Katrina - some had different animals carved as well. Speaking of Hurricanes, we almost cancelled our trip because of Ike... but with it continuing to go west we decided to chance it. We had like no rain whatsoever! When we first got there it was high tide so one of the bridges were closed because of flooding but once we got to our hotel (the first floor of the parking garage was flooded too) we were fine and had no more issues... didn't even lose power or hear rain, although i am sure we probably wouldn't have heard it anyways with all the slots making so much noise, LOL. Anyways, we had a great time and looking forward to going back soon!!!! I didn't take too many pictures during the weekend but here are a few - plus it was my moms birthday on Sunday!!!!

TMTT - Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs

Happy Tuesday! My SIL Kari (http://blog.kariallen.com) posted a few weeks ago this really cute TMTT logo with a yummy recipe (not this one, although this one came from her blog a few months ago) So, I thought I'd try to post a new recipe every Tuesday - or maybe every other Tuesday - LOL. Like I mentioned, this recipe came from Kari's blog also - we had it last week and it was SOOO Good!!! Try it...

Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs

2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
Cooking spray
6 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Preheat broiler. Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken to bowl; toss to coat. Place chicken on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Broil chicken 5 minutes on each side.
Combine honey and vinegar in a small bowl, stirring well. Remove chicken from oven; brush 1/4 cup honey mixture on chicken. Broil 1 minute. Remove chicken from oven and turn over. Brush chicken with remaining honey mixture. Broil 1 additional minute or until chicken is done. EAT!

My Scraproom

Hello! I've never posted pictures of my scrapbook room before... so yesterday I went to pick up a new fixture - See the paper shelves inbetween the 2 bookshelves? There is a LSS going out of business, she is moving out of state and she was selling them... I had to have one - see how perfect it fits? Currently I have my CTMH paper packs in them, but who knows what else might join them :) Enjoy the pictures of my scraproom - its fairly clean this morning thats why I snapped some pictures - usually its a disaster!!!

CTMH Open House

My CTMH Open House was Friday from 11am - 8pm (yes, it ran over this time, lol). I had a steady flow of ladies almost all day long... Thank you for coming! I had tons of products spread across my entire house :) New boards made with the new papers - new products everywhere. I hope everyone had a great time. I wanted to post some of my boards for the ladies that didn't get a chance to come... Enjoy!!! What is your favorite?

Perfect Day Workshop - CTMH

Isn't this a beautiful layout? It's not mine - Its from the CTMH website, lol. Do you need help getting some scrapbook pages done? CTMH has started a new Scrapbook Club to help with that...you'll just need to purchase a few necessary supplies and then attend my workshop for FREE to help you make the layout featured here (use my stamps/ink) the workshop includes a full color brochure where it has the cutting guidelines for this layout and 2 other double layouts for you to make with you Level 2 paper pack plus a few card samples... its a great deal - ask me more about it! My workshop is on Friday, Sept. 19th and I have to have the order in Saturday night if you'd like to have your paper for the workshop... if you plan on doing your layouts at home then of course you can order the supplies and brochure at any time!!!! What do you think of this new idea???

CTMH New Acrylic Album!

New CTMH Acrylic Albums... I love new stuff! I have been wanting to play with Acrylic albums for a while and now we have them!!! We made this book at Convention last month - we used the New Evensong Paper Pack - lots of the New Rub-ons - etc... I unfortunatly don't have any pictures in my portfolio, LOL, to add to the album but you can imagine how much more adorable it would be with pictures! The album comes with the 3 rings, 4 heavy acrylic tabbed pages, 1 lighter acrylic circle page, 1 lighter acrylic scalloped page, and 2 - 1/2 page tag type pages for $14.95 - oh, and it measures 6 1/4" x 7" - you can do so much with the album... you can even very easily add chipboard pages or plastic protector pages to it to make it even more unique!

September Stamp of the Month!!!

It's time for the new Stamp of the Month for September...

TREASURE LIFE :)

This is a very versatile set! Available thru the end of September. More samples to come later this month...

Cards - Christmas

I can't believe I was such a bad girl and didn't post ALL week... what is wrong with me? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that we might be moving out of state... more on that another day when there are more details to share :)

Today I went to my CTMH upline Adeline's house for a Unit Meeting. We made 2 cards using the NEW Creative Basics Evensong Collection. I love this paper! The CB is such a great deal... you get 16 12x12 pieces of B& Duos (8 each of 2 designs) and 8 yards of 3/8" Olive grosgrain ribbon for $8.95 Awesome huh?

My Weekend!

How was your weekend? Since school has started back up everyone seems to be busy busy busy! This weekend for me sure was that... Friday night we relaxed! Saturday we went over to my parents house for some family time :) We played Wii for a while (yes, my parents bought one and are addicted, LOL) then my sister and her family came down from Orlando for the weekend... crazy times! The boys - Cooper and Brayden are getting so big and Kinley is growing like a weed, LOL :) We had some dinner and just played - great times! DH and I didn't get home till after 11pm last night...

Today we drove up to Lakeland to attend our nephew Adams baby shower. Adam and his new wife Jamie are having a girl and is due in January... BUT they are in Alaska... yes, Alaska! Adam is in the Army and will be leaving to go overseas around the 14th of September. Therefore Adams parents threw a little "drop off/drop by" baby shower - they took some pictures and we ate some cake :) No games - thank you Lord, LOL!!! It was nice :)

Then DH and I decided we were going to try out the NEW Smoker that my parents bought Tracy for his birthday a few weeks ago... OMG... we threw in a slab of ribs (never cooked ribs before!) made a rub to put on top, 2 1/2 hours later - HEAVEN - they were SO good!!! We (I) was a little impatient because I was so hungry that it could have cooked a little longer so they fell off the bone a little more, but I don't care, they were YUMMO!!!! Enjoy.

P.s. This week there will be some "sneak peaks from CTMH"......

American Idols - LIVE

I went to see the American Idols last night at the St. Pete Times Forum with my SIL Kari!!! It was a great concert - David Cook is so HOT, LOL :) Unfortuntatly, my poor little camera was confiscated because they considered it a "professional" (don't you have to be a professional in order to take professional pictures?) also because I guess I could take the lens off therefore I had to leave it at the security desk - needless to say that there were TONS of other people with DSLR cameras and there's weren't confiscated... UGH... ticked me off - Therefore I do not have any pictures from this awesome concert that I spend $85 on!!! My friend Joni also went and she took some AWESOME PICTURES :) I will try to post some in the next few days...