Cold Snap

It's been very cold here the last couple of days. Today on my drive to work my tempature gage read -21 and the wind chill reported on the radio was at 48 below zero. Now that's cold!! An update on yesterdays post.... I'm thinking sinus infection today. When I bend over my teeth and head are ready to pop. I'm gonna try and kick it on my own, wish me luck.

Here's a picture I did a ton of photoshopping and it looks like the weather we are having.....

stone cold.

Sinus Trouble

I have a pounding headache above this eye for about the last 3 days!

After school everyday

Here's what I call a love/hate relationship. He doesn't like her being in his face while he watches TV and she talks him into watching "2 9 0" (two nine zero).

As much as Adam would never admit it.... he would be lost without this little niece bugging him everyday.

As much as Elly would never admit it she misses her Uncle Aaaaadam and can't wait till the next day that he will be at daycare to pick her up.

Oh it's a treat at our house from 4 till 5:30 with when Elly doesn't nap and she asks a million questions to her Uncle and Grandpa. "Where's Grawma?", "Can I have a snack?", "Will you make me a hot chocolate like Grawma does?", "Where's Grawma?", "When is Grawma coming home?", "Can I watch 2 9 0?", "Are you making a bigger snack for me?", "Where's Grawma?", "Can you get my colorbook?", "Where's my pencil?", "Do you want to read my bibles?", "You didn't read all 3 of them", "Where's Grawma?".... then I walk in the door and she is as good as gold. She crawls on Adam and hardly says a word. This is how she watched 2 9 0 tonight.

And just for the record.... Grandpa would probably miss her if she wasn't here everyday too!

And here is our 2 9 0 girl in her low pigtails.

Frosty Morning

This morning was really frosty so after breakfast with family we stopped along the road to take a few pictures. I did a rule of thirds study with a funky looking tree. I don't think the 2 trees on each side of it helped my experiment.

The rule of thirds is to split your picture into thirds by equal widths and lengths, place the subject onto any of the 4 interlocking points. Subjects placed in the center of the photo can produce a dull photograph, therefore the pictures with the funky tree on the right or left should please your eye vs. the centered tree. What do you think?

Center subject

Right Rule of Thirds

Left Rule of Thirds

I would have to say the Left.... but I kinda like the center one, maybe this isn't such a good subject for rule of thirds.

And since I skipped Saturday I'll post another picture. This is the Hemmer hunting shack from the road.

This is the picture in pastels.

More deals

Went shopping last night and found a fantastic find.... When L and I seen these I thought.... hummm do we have any possible Christmas weddings for these beautiful jeweled trees??? OH MY GOSH they are jeweled cones not tree's!!! look at the one hanging on the wall behind them, they are 30" tall complete with chains to hang at any lengths. I was so excited and they were 75% off the clearance price, how cool is that. First I think I let out a small scream and then snatched up all of them for $3.50...... regular price.... $30.00. Can we say "What a Deal". Flowers in the cone in the back were also on clearance for .75 cents for one big bunch, snatched all 3 of them up too. Another great night of shopping and a great dinner with my good friend "L". Girl's night out is always fun and great deals make it even better.

Since I missed Thursday due to my shopping here's a close up of the jeweled cones and flowers. They are so cool, I'll post a picture of the first wedding we use them at.

Full Moon + 1 day

Here is the full moon at night. It's just rising above the horizon. It was really cloudy so you can't see the roundness of it but if you didn't notice the reflection on the bottom of the picture that is rounder. Adam and I think it's the reflection in the snow and John thinks it's the reflection in the door.... whatever it's from it's pretty cool.

Full Moon

Here's my picture for Tuesday. I seen this on my way to work Tuesday morning and didn't have my camera. Then we had a busy night so I didn't get a picture taken.... so this morning I grabbed my camera so I could stop and get a picture of the beautiful full moon in the morning. This picture does nothing for what I seen..... I'm working on my photo for tonight right now... stay tuned.

I know Tuesday is for my photos but there's a lot of Tuesday in the year!

Cheap Sunglasses

Elly wearing my $1 sunglasses that I bought to take on vacation. She loves to try them on and dance around. Isn't there a song about cheap sunglasses? John tells me it a ZZ Top hit from the 80's.

Just a little reminder for those who remember......and so this song is stuck in your head too.

Spied a little thing and I followed her all night

In a funky fine Levi's and her sweater's kind of tight

She had a west coast strut that was sweet as molasses

But what really knocked me out was her cheap sunglasses

Please Grawma

That is what I heard tonight while she begged to be able to spend 2 nights over at Grawma's. Please Grawma can I spend 2 nights over.... no El you are spending 1 night over.... no Please can I spend 2 nights, please, please, please..... I love it here and I don't want to leave in 1 night.... please, please, please.... Please Grawma can I????? I didn't say yes but I couldn't say No either. Here's the face she was playing me with

As soon as she walked in the door she had her toothbrush in the bathroom along with her pillow and stuffed animals all tucked into her bed in HER bedroom. I think she's staying for awhile even if Grawma says No.

Growing up :(

It's really hard for me to accept that Adam is growing up. Today he got a letter for a college to come talk with him at school next week. I had a hard time with the girls growing up too, where did the years go, it was just yesterday that I was picking up toys every night, getting jammies on and having a reminder holler up the steps that it was time for sleeping not talking. I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to it. Why do they have to grow up? I try to remember that we raised our children to stretch their wings and learn how to fly on their own... We have done that quite well with 2 already so our parenting skills so far have been successful.

I'm not sure how long these trucks and Lego's will sit in the hallway but they are a nice reminder of our son still having a little boy in him yet. Masking tape for roads, hot wheels lined up, Lego's built into masterpieces. I pick them up every once in a while thinking it will be my last time but they always seem to find their way back out of the totes and lined up ready for someone to drive them around the new tape roads.

Best Burger Ever

Applebee's Quesadilla Burger Recipe Cracking

If you could only smell and taste this burger. The first time I had it was with Starla, Gayle and Jeannie during a shopping trip. We stopped for supper at Applebees and all had this fantastic Quesadilla Burger, I brought home half of it and John ate the leftovers and dreamed about it until we finally got down to Marshfield one night and he got to have his own. They are the best and it must be good coming from a girl who's food can't touch! Well today on my way home from the gym I was craving a burger, any burger was fine with me, I'm not sure if it's the weight lifting that is making me crave meat but that's all I can think of when I'm hungry. I used to be happy with anything but meat, a chicken breast once every 2 weeks was enough meat for me, now I want nothing but meat. Anyway.... since I don't feel like driving for my favorite burger I decide to try to make them at home. One word sums it all up "SUCCESS". I'll even share my recipe with all of you, it's fantastic.

Mexi-Ranch Dressing

1 T Salsa

3 T Ranch Dressing

Mix together

Yes Applebees Mexi-Ranch dressing is that easy and taste exactly like theirs.

Quesa Filling

3 cups Tomato's chopped

4 T Onion chopped

3 T Jalapeno chopped

2 T Cilantro chopped

2 T lime juice

1 Clove Garlic minced

Mix together

Connie's addition to the burger

Green Pepper chopped

Red Pepper chopped

Red Onion chopped

1 Garlic Clove minced

Jalapeno Pepper chopped

Saute in fry pan until done.

Now to start the assembly process

- Grill burgers with McCormick Broiled Steak Seasoning until done.

- 1 T olive oil in saute pan with high heat, fry tortilla shells (2) in hot oil until browned

- Place 1 shell on plate

- Quesa filling

- lettuce

- Mexi-Ranch dressing

- Burger

- Pepper Jack Cheese

- Connie's pepper mix

- Mexi-Ranch dressing (again? yes)

- 2nd shell

You'll have to cut them in half and use a fork to eat them, they are very messy but sooooo worth it.

My version of the Best Burger at Applebee's

Missed a Day 1/4/08

Well I knew it would happen so now I guess I get to make a decision on how to make up for the missed day of POTD. This time I am posting a picture a day later, next time I'm not sure what I'll do.

Here is Miss El's coloring technique, she only uses a #2 pencil and colors the entire picture, she colored this one on Tuesday during her visit. Silly girl!