Seventh

Notice anything interesting about all the posts for September? Take a look at all the post titles for this month and see if you can figure it out. There are two things to look for.

Anyway...

I took the following pics a few weeks back, around the middle of August. The girls and I went to a nearby park and stopped to feed some ducks. As you can see in the first few pics, the light was really nice, and then the sun started goin' down and the lighting changed in the last few pics...

Did you take notice of the number 7 playing a big part in a few of this month's posts, including this one... it's the "seventh" post for this month, and there are seven pics in this post. Did you notice how all the posts start with an S? Exciting, right? I bet you can't wait to see what I come up with for the month of October.
  
  
  
  
   
 
  

Simple, Scrumptious Brownies

I found this recipe at allrecipes.com. I like that website; I find lots of good recipes there with ratings and comments. The comments sometimes offer adjustments to ingredients and ways of cooking that make the outcome of certain recipes much better. That's what happened with this recipe. I adjusted some of the ingredients after reading through the comments, and this is my version of that brownie recipe. I like my brownies more chewy than cake-like. If you like the latter more, you might want to go by the original recipe for these brownies. The original recipe is here.

This recipe is fast and easy. I think I've made it three times in the last couple of weeks. I blame these brownies on my not being able to start my diet, which I need now more than ever thanks to these brownies.

My version...

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup (two sticks) melted butter

1/2 cup + 1/3 cup cocoa (i experimented with the measurement and this is what i think i ended up using to get the amount of chocolate flavor i wanted; i haven't done exact measuring when it comes to the cocoa. i love chocolate, so i put more than what the original recipe calls for.)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

*You can add walnuts if you like; I don't add them.

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. In a large bowl blend both sugars and the melted butter, then add all other ingredients in the order given above. Grease a 9x13 baking pan. I use Pam for Baking, which smells wonderful.  Add the brownie batter to the pan and bake in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes. I usually bake for 25 minutes. Cool before cutting. It's that easy.

Enjoy! :)

   

   

       

Seasons

I love fall; it's my favorite season. The heat is departing... slowly, but surely. Halloween is comin' up. The search for pumpkins and costumes begins; it's the official start of the holiday season. The holidays come in quick succession... after Halloween it's Thanksgiving, then the winter holidays follow close behind... Christmas and then New Year's... It's just a really neat time of year. The holidays are a great excuse for eating lots of candy and all kinds of sweets (yes!), not that I need an excuse, it just gives me an excuse to eat even more. It's time to open all the windows and doors and let the house get a breath of fresh air throughout... Ahhh... So nice. I wish it could stay fall forever, but if it did, it would soon lose its luster and no longer be so special. The same goes for all the good we have in our lives... without the bad, we wouldn't notice the good, there would be nothing to compare it to. So let's enjoy this season of our lives... whether it be good or bad... neither one will last... it will always fluctuate... and that's a good thing. :) And always know that God will be with you through it all... the good and the bad... you are never alone.

  

 

 

 

Smiles and Stuff

Smiles:

Today is picture day at Caitie's school; both portrait and class picture. I hope she's all smiles today... a natural smile, that is, not forced. We shall see. I curled her hair last night, but didn't put anything to help hold the curls; I don't like to put hairspray, gel, or mousse in her hair, I like to keep it natural. She had some stray hairs by her bangs, I hope those settle down before picture time today.

She looks a bit tense in the pic below. I think I may have stressed her out a bit by telling her to not play rough on the playground at recess if pictures hadn't been taken by then, and also telling her to not touch her hair or her face, which she seems to do out of habit. I told her to not scratch her skin, which she did while getting ready for school; it shows how dry her skin is. When I asked her to go outside and pose for this pic before heading to school, I swept away what spider webs I saw and told her to go that way to get her pic... she saw a web and freaked out, but I made her go that way anyway due to running late. I'm not sure what to expect in her school pictures today... she may rebel and push her hair back behind her ears, which she wants to do to make sure her earrings show, of which I told her they show without having to do that. She may scratch her skin due to being irritated at being told not to. She may decide to do a forced smile instead of a natural smile, if she smiles at all to begin with, to show me that she'll do as she wants to do, and that's that. Or maybe it's just I'm feeling guilty for making her do all those things instead of wishing her a happy school day today like I usually do.

I was in a hurry to get the pic below, so didn't notice the lovely faded green quad in the background. ha

Stuff:

Bailey has a hacking cough again; she seems to have a cold every few weeks. I just got over a cold; I'm still coughing from 'tickling' in my throat, but that's it. I came down with the cold the day before Caitie's birthday. I had a fever on her birthday, but we were able to get everything done we wanted to on that day.

Caitie's school lets out early on one Friday every month due to the teachers having meetings in the afternoons on those days; last Friday was one of those days. When I picked Caitie up from school we decided to go to the park. It was really nice out; it was breezy and not too hot. We spent quite a bit of time there swinging, climbing, sliding, and playing in the sand. (there's a spot on the camera lens; that's what you see on the left of some pics. also, don't pay attention to the girls wearing the same thing they wore on the friday before, except for caitie's shorts, that is, she did have on different shorts. makes me wonder if i subconsciously plan for them to wear the same clothes on certain days each week. ha)

Bailey's on the big kid swings now.

Michael is still working on the Cadillac. It sat for a while due to battery problems, but it's fixed now. The Cadillac still needs a lot of work, but we're able to go on Sunday evening drives once again. We missed that. It was probably for the best that it wasn't running during the hottest days of summer though since there's no AC in the Cadillac yet.

Michael washed all three vehicles on Sunday... the Jag, the Cadillac, and the SUV. Here he is taking the Cadillac for a drive after washing it. Gotta love his 'farmers hat'. ha :) Can you see it in these pics?

Later that evening we took the Cadillac for a drive... it was our Sunday evening drive. :) We went to a nearby park to go hiking.

Here we are in the parking lot right before going for a hike. It's the best time of day for a hike, in my opinion. It's cooled off some, and the sun is setting, which makes for a nice hike and some nice pics. If you look at the back part of the Cadillac, you can see my shadow/reflection with camera in hand. ha

Overlooking the area below. Our neighborhood is to the right of the pic.

Love this pic.

I'm trying to update the blog more with recent pics. I do have some pics that I took a while back I still need to blog about, but I'll save those for another day.

Stay tuned for a fast, easy, and yummy brownie recipe coming your way...

   

    

   

   

   

    

        

    

Something to think about

A few questions for you... in no particular order...

Do you live for God, yourself, or others?  Do you try to impress others, hoping you'll 'fit in' with the 'in crowd'? How do you live your life? To glorify God? Are you doing whatever makes you feel good in the moment? Do you live to please others in order to feel accepted? What has your day been like so far? Is it all about you? Are you looking to God? Are you trying to fit in? What are you doing with your life? What should you change about your life? Do you depend on someone else to show you the way? Is there anyone more important in your life than God? Do you have idols in your life? What you think about most becomes your idol. Be careful of what you do and what you think each and every minute of each and every day. Have you given your life to God? A person's life here on earth is short, one ought to be living to glorify God, which means you're living for eternity, and that's what really matters.

Just something to think about.

I don't know about you, but I have a lot of changin' to do while I have the chance.

The things in this world are only temporary and easily destroyed...

2 Corinthians 4:18
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Matthew 6:20
But store up yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Psalm 23:6
Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

If you would like to find out how to accept Jesus Christ as your Personal Savior, click here. It's the most important decision you will ever make.

  
  
  
  
  
  
   

Sept 7th

On Friday the 7th it rained. *gasp* I know, I know... so strange... well, sort of. It doesn't rain much here in the desert, with the exception of some rainy days during the winter months and thunderstorms during the monsoon season, which is what we're in now, or at the tail end of, anyway. It usually rains in the late afternoons during the monsoon season, but it rained in the morning on the 7th. It started out as a thunderstorm, but by the time I got Caitie to school it was just raining... there was no more thunder.

It was the first 'flag day' of the school year; one would think it would be called off due to the 100% possibility of getting wet while standing in the courtyard area where the flags are, but it wasn't. An overhead announcement stated that the storm was moving on and all would be fine at the start of the 'flagpole ceremony', which was less than three minutes away. Well, the storm hadn't moved on by then (surprise, surprise) and pretty much everyone got wet, except for the lucky few that actually had umbrellas. Some of us Arizonan's actually do... we even have two! (sounds like the rhyming from a 'cat in the hat' kinda book, doesn't it? i've been reading too many kids books lately). I was planning to take my camera to the flagpole ceremony, but I didn't want it to get wet. After Bailey and I dropped Caitie off, we went back to the truck and I pulled up a bit and got a pic of the end of the flagpole ceremony... which lasted about two minutes, if that. As you can see in the pic below, everyone was scurrying off to their classes... I'm sure glad they made time for that 'speed of light' flagpole ceremony... I'm sure it was a memorable one for everyone. ha



I picked Caitie up from school early that day; she and Bailey had a dr's appointment that afternoon. I don't usually take Caitie out of school for dr's appointments, I don't like to interfere with school time, but I had the appointment scheduled for some time, and it included allergy testing, and that was the best time of day for it. It felt strange picking her up just a couple of hours after dropping her off.

It was time for Caitie's annual check-up, and past-due for Bailey's two year check-up. Neither of them needed shots, they're up-to-date on those. I think I posted stats on Caitie's annual check-ups for the first few years, so I'll do the same for Bailey; what I can remember of them, anyway. Let me see... Bailey weighed in at around 26 pounds, I believe, and she's around three feet tall. She's 30 percentile on weight and head size, and 90 percentile on height, so she's still long and lean. Caitie is on the thin side, but that's the way it's been since day one. As I mentioned above, Caitie got an allergy test that day. I thought it was going to be by pricking her back several times to test for different allergens, but all they did was take blood. Caitie thought she had it made when she found out she didn't need any shots, but then freaked out when she realized they were going to stick a needle in her arm to draw blood. It took me, the person drawing blood, and a nurse, to hold her down to get her blood drawn. Once it was over, she calmed down and after getting a sucker at check-out, she was okay. Caitie also had her eyes checked; she complained of having slight blurriness when looking at things far away. Her vision is 20/30, which means nothing is to be done at this point; she'll be tested again next year to see if it's changed. In the pic below you can see that Caitie's right arm has a bandaid/cotton ball... poor thing. Bailey escaped the needle this time.

Seven

She turned seven with a cut here and a poke there, along with some sprinkles, fur, and Pete...

We started Caitie's birthday off with tasty Dunkin' Donuts... Caitie loves her some sprinkles...

We then headed to the JC Penney salon for a haircut.  The last and only other time she had a salon haircut was back in January of 2011.  I didn't trim her hair in all that time either, so she was due for a trim. I think it turned out really cute. I made sure her hair was cut before...

getting her ears pierced. Yes, Caitie now has pierced ears, and she looks so pretty. She's been wanting to get her ears pierced for a while now, so I finally gave in and said she could. I had mine done around the age of seven, I believe, so I figured she could handle it at the same age. I made sure to schedule her haircut before the ear piercing; I didn't want her earlobes touched after the ear piercing. She was a bit nervous at first, but she did really well. She did cry a bit when it was done, but she recovered quickly and was excited about having pierced ears. The lady giving her a lollipop helped too. :) We went to Claire's in the same mall the JC Penney salon is at. I'm not crazy about the store's layout, but it was a nice experience. Caitie picked out the crystal daisy starter earrings; she has good taste. We made sure to have two women do the piercing, one do each ear at the same time, due to Caitie being so nervous, otherwise Caitie may have ended up with one ear pierced instead of two. ha It did hurt, and I doubt she would have allowed the other ear to be pierced. She looks older with her new haircut and pierced ears. We then headed to...

the Build-A-Bear Workshop at the same mall. We let Caitie pick out an animal, she picked a cat. Well, it's not technically a cat, it's a dog, but it looks more like a cat in the face, so Caitie said it's a cat, and that's that. ha Outside the shop was a guy selling balloons for missionaries, so we got a couple for Caitie and Bailey. From there we headed to Walmart to get mini cupcakes to take to...

Peter Piper Pizza that evening. Yes, the same place as always. We'll probably change it up next year. Games were played and lots of tickets were spent on junk stuff at the prize counter. Then it was time to open gifts. She got a lot of money and nice gifts. Then it was time for cupcakes.

Caitie said it was her best birthday ever. Mostly due to the ear piercing, I think. She was so excited about that... still is. :)

The next day, Monday, she celebrated with her class. She took in chocolate mini cupcakes for all the kids and she got a party hat, birthday sticker, birthday pencil, and a birthday book with pictures from her classmates; she also got a bear to bring home for the day along with a journal to write about her birthday experience, of which she read to her class the next day.

One of her favorite gifts was a Legos set her Nana got for her. She loves it! I love it! It's so much fun! It's a house with furniture, people, and accessories. Thanks, Nana! :)

Before and after haircut and ear piercing pics...

So there ya have it... It was a snippy, piercing, sprinkly, purrfect, 'pete'acular birthday. (i couldn't resist)

One more pic... it's too cute to not share...