Saturday, July 30, 2011

A Lego Saturday

So somewhere between laundry, folding clothes, sweeping and mopping floors, dishes, picking cucumbers, cleaning bathrooms, and catching up on Big Rich Texas and Gulianna and Bill, I managed to baked a cake and make it look somewhat like a Lego cake. 
And now, I'm going to sit down, put my feet up and enjoy a glass of wine.  I feel I deserve it.  I believe weekends were made for catching up and relaxing.  Yes, I sit on my butt during the week, but that is not relaxation! 

I still have a couple hours before we need to head over to Happy Joes for our nieces birthday party.  Heck, I might even catch a nap in my rocking chair on the deck!

Here is a look at the "Lego" cake.  I will admit now, this is NOT my favorite cake. 
Main cake.  Ava asked for a chocolate cake

But, I like vanilla cake, so I used this one for the "8"


After the dirty icing....this was the thinking step


After all my thinking, and winging it, I came up with this.  Not what I wanted, but it works.
 The nobby part of the lego is a large marshmellow cut in half and frosted.  That was NOT easy!

These are the other 2 cakes I made for Malayna.  I also made Ava a butterfly last year, but it was a mess and I didn't take pictures of it.
But I can't decide which of these two if my favorite, so I will pick both! :)

Friday, July 29, 2011

And it was time for a change!

Welcome to the improved blog-style! :)

A quick thought...

Tomorrow (Saturday July 30) is National Cheesecake day!! And you will find me in the kitchen baking a Lego birthday cake instead of eating cheesecake. 

Pictures to follow this one.  I'm going to wing this cake.  Hope it turns out like I picture it! 

This cake actually started out as a monkey, but quickly turned to a Lego cake when I found out our neice is totally obsessed with Legos!

Wish me luck!

Enjoy your cheesecake in celebration of the national holiday!  And have a wonderful weekend :)

P.S.---Thank goodness I finished my month end stuff and got to breath for the last 30 minutes of work.  Been a crazy week without my supervisor, but I'm learning new things and enjoying getting to talk to people I don't regularly communicate with!  --- keep your fingers crossed that the House, Senate, and President can compromise on a solution for this LARGE debt issue!

Friday, July 22, 2011

We are Family

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we had our family get together weekend this past week.  The farm is never quite the same when everyone gets there.  More beverages are consumed in that one day then probably the whole year.  Not saying we are all alcoholics, but there are quite a few of us and we like to have a good time!

This year was a little different.  My uncle got married at the farm and had a reception in a nearby town.  After the reception, most of the guys decided to go golfing while the women went back to the farm and enjoyed the beautiful weather and hot temps. 

Every year, we learn a little more about each other and share more stories and tons of laughs to create new memories.  It's even better when a cousin comes that you haven't seen in at least 8 years.  Life kinda stops for the weekend while we all put our feet up and throw back a few drinks.
Sometimes you get the enjoyment of seeing your father in his new shorts, sandals, and holy farmer cut off...for the first time ever.


D checkin' things out.


Hubby showin' us how its done.
Horseshoes

My brother, popping a JiffyPop the hillbilly way


The whole family....minus a few cousins
And I may be from the country, but I am wearing a dress and I like to dress up!

A little glimpse of the farm

Beautiful flat land

This is what we call hills in ND

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

It's like a fine wine...

Ahh....I was looking forward to my big glass of wine tonight.  I spent about 45 minutes of my life taking my frustrations out on the creeping jenny that is taking over my yard.  I grabbed my bucket and started ripping it out of the ground.  Yes, I know that it grows back faster then the rest of the weeds, but I hate creeping jenny!  It takes over the grass and makes it look like a jungle. 



So after mowing and ripping out weeds, I sat down to enjoy this wine with strawberries.  Couldn't ask for a nicer night to be home alone!

Now to go sit on the deck and soak up whats left of this days sun!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Hot as fire!

Yes, it is HOT today!  Right now, weather.com tells me it is 91 degrees but feels like 103.  I'm glad I work inside.  Too bad our AC blows sucks!! 

This weekend was almost as hot and we spent the day outside.  This was our family weekend at the farm with lots of laughs, hugs, beverages and reminiscing.  I have pictures, but for the sake of keeping my extended families lives a little more "private", I will refrain from posting them.  Just know that we are one good lookin', fun loving bunch!  ;)


But, before the family weekend, Jon and I helped a friend burn down his barn.  I enjoyed taking a few pictures of something that I don't get to see everyday.









We successfully got the barn burned and kept it undercontrol.  I'm  glad I was there to snap a few pictures!

Hope you are all enjoying the heat and keeping cool at the same time!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

A July Storm

Friday afternoon, the weather turned crappy.  There were tornado warnings and sightings in surrounding areas and lots of rain and wind.  I was still at work with about 25 minutes to go when my boss ran out of his office saying there was a funnel cloud to the east of the office building.  It was far enough away to where it was still neat to watch.  All we got at the office was a massive amount of rain and wind, so we were lucky. 

Hard to see, but the funnel cloud is in the middle

I drove home with pounding rain on my windshield about 2 miles before it stopped.  It was sunny and blue skies at home!  But, I soon found out that the wind part of the storm had hit there. 

This is the picture after I rescued my poor flowers that fell off my deck.  Surprisingly, after losing most of the soil and being tossed violently to the ground, they are blooming like crazy now!

This is another poor flower who's petals are all blown off.  My favorite flower, too!

And then there's the garden.  Everything was leaning to the east.
It snapped off 2 of my sunflowers, the rest were just leaning.
Cucumber plants leaning to the east.

But, after all that wind and rain, the garden looks amazing and the flowers are coming back to life.

And this little guy is no longer plastered to our siding.

More pictures of my garden to follow.  I'm excited to show off some fabulous produce and maybe a gardening secret or two!

Enjoy the work week!
A P.S. from yesterday's post -  The best part of the weekend ------ I got to dance with my hubby to our wedding song, "I Get Carried Away" by George Strait, next to the bonfire! Loved it :)

Monday, July 11, 2011

....I'm back!

Ok, seems I've been missing for awhile.  Things have been happening, but I sometimes I feel the best blog contains pictures.  And it seems I've been forgetting my camera lately.  But over the weekend, I got a few good shots to help tell the story and I will be posting them soon. 

Quick fourth of July recap:
Hubby and I met up with my parents, brother and a few friends at the Rodeo on Friday night.  This was hubby's class reunion weekend, so we ran into a few old classmates of his and had some drinks at a local restaurant.
Spent July 2nd at the Parade in the morning with my mom, aunt, cousin and grandma.  Afterwards, we went to the Arts Roundup and walked around in the scorching heat.  I burned pretty nicely that day!
That night, we had a birthday party and bonfire at my in-laws for my brother-in-law.  Lots of food, friends, fire, and fun.  Ha!  Also a few minor firework mishaps, or I should call them, malfunctions.
July 3rd was spent doing as little as possible.  We were both tired from the night of partying that we slept until noon!  I think we had a relaxing day...I can't remember!
July 4th - I went to the derby with my mom, aunt, uncle and cousins.  About the only thing I got out of that, was wrinkles, skin cancer, and sun spots.  That night, hubby and I went to his brothers house to see the nieces.  We had a few drinks and some pizza and played with the girls.  I got my fill of baby holding and some relaxation time.  Everything was going well, until Nevaeh tripped and fell and hit her head on a brick. Ouch! Poor girl had so much blood, but she was a trooper while mom cleaned her up.  Little sis, Elli, cried for "Vaeh".  Elli made me tear up when she was crying and screaming "What wrong with Vaeh!!!!!??"

So after all the fun of the weekend, we were back to work on Tuesday. 

After boring you with a weekend recap, I will hopefully entertain you this week with actually stories and pictures.  Family reunion this coming weekend, so I should really have stories for you then! :)

I'm battling a case of the Monday's today along with a massive headache. 
But, on a better note, it's Bachelorette night! And I WILL be watching tonight!

Enjoy your day and remember to smile!