Fun Monday - Purse Edition

This week our Fun Monday hostess is Church Lady over in PA and her assignment is to post a picture of our purse and describe the contents kept within the purse. Little did I know that our pictures would be VERY similar!

This is my purse I've been carrying for quite some time now. It was a gift from my awesome sister-in-law and I love how bright and fun it is.


The inside contents are pretty much what are always in my purse, although I usually have mints, which are absent right now from the inside. Here's a pic:



So lets see: There is a cell phone, a baggie with Tylenol, my son's prayer book, my sons spare pair of glasses, a pay stub from a parking spot at the train station,two post-it note pads, my wallet, the post card with the eye doctor's new address on it, tissues, my van insurance card, old move stubs and a movie coupon, two packs of gum for the kids, 6 pens, antibacterial hand lotion, coupons, my coupon organizer, old grocery lists, old receipts from Meijer and Menards, an expired Children's Place coupon, a reusable bag, my periodontist appointment card, a Fannie Mae gift card, my two PADS assignment tags, and crackers.

Now that that is done, I need to go and clean my purse! Go check out everyone else's purse!

Fun Monday - RAK edition

Mommy Wizdom is hosting Fun Monday this week. Her assignment is the following:

1) Your job this week is to go out and perform a random act of kindness. Now, before you freak out, please read on. This is actually really easy!! This act may be for someone you know or for a perfect stranger. It can be big or small, it'll all up to you. Obviously, it should be something within your means. For instance, don't go out and buy your next door neighbor a car and then complain to me that you can't make your mortgage payment, ok?

I am in a wonderful Bible Study group with an amazing group of ten women. We've been meeting for three years now, and while some members have left and new ones have come, the character of the group has never changed. Amazing women all trying to live and grow through Christ's love. It is through this group that I have gotten to participate in many random acts of kindness.

This past week, as a group, we adopted a family from our church who will not be able to have a regular Christmas due to financial difficulties. They are a family of seven and we each chose one of the family members and bought a present for them. (I got the four year old girl and bought her a double stroller with two baby dolls). We also all provided two food items and towards their Christmas main course (turkey, ham or whatever they decide) that will be turned into a gift card for their local grocery store so they can buy what they would like. I gave two cans of green beans and peach pie filling. I love that we can do this as a group because within our group of women there are a few who cannot afford much and would not be able to adopt a family on their own. But by going together, we can provide a really nice Christmas for a family who might otherwise not be able to have food, let alone gifts, and we all can do what we are able to afford. It is all done confidentially, and we do not know who the family is. We do know that this Christmas they will have a good meal to share and presents to open.

I also organized four families this year to go Christmas caroling. We went Friday night and visited five houses despite temperatures in the low teens. The ages ranged from adults in their 40's to toddlers not yet two years old. Some of the older kids started off a little embarrassed, but by the end everyone was singing their hearts out. I'm not sure any of my neighbor's knew what to think. But they all seemed to enjoy it. Afterwards we all came back to my house to warm up with hot apple cider and hot chocolate and enjoy each other's company. It was a great way to celebrate the Christmas season, and brought just as much joy to all of the carolers as it did to the recipients.

Now go visit Mommy Wizdom and read about everyone else's RAKs.

Fun Monday - Spooky Edition

Sayre, over at SayreSmiles is our hostess this week. Keeping with our Halloween time of the year she has given us the following assignment:

Tell us about your favorite Halloween as a kid (pictures, if you have them!), and show us your costume for this year. If you're not dressing up, show us a picture of a pumpkin carving that really tickled your fancy or how you decorated your house.

I grew up in England during my prime trick-or-treating years, and I don't know if it has changed much, but back in the early 1980's they didn't really trick or treat over there. I remember one Halloween my mom loading me and my two brothers and my sister into the car and driving us to all of our American friends houses to trick or treat. Needless to say, we didn't ever get a lot of candy while we lived there.

Another Halloween in England my mom threw a big Halloween party for all the different families we were friends with. She went all out and hung up creepy homemade decorations and had scary music playing. We had a long window over our stairs right at the front of the house that we could open. She strung a ghost made out of a white sheet to a tree outside and then strung the end of the rope into our house through that window. It was the kid's job to pull on (or let go of, I can't remember now!) the string and send the ghost flying right down to the entryway outside our front door. It was great fun scaring adults and kids alike, though my best friend at the time wouldn't come into my house after that! My mom also served foods with scary names like witch's brew for green kool-aid or Vampire's blood for red punch. I'm sure the adults had stronger concoctions, but I wasn't aware of it.

I don't have any Halloween pics of costumes for myself this year (though one of my favorite costumes was the first year after I was married and my new husband went as Fox Mulder and I went as Dana Scully!). So here are our pumpkins we carved for last year's Halloween. One is the traditional scary pumpkin, and the other is a little more artsy fartsy (we like to say "creative.")



Here's a close-up of the scary pumpkin.


And here's a close-up of our creative pumpkin.


Finally, here is a picture of my youngest daughter helping her Dad to make our creative pumpkin. She is 3 1/2 in this picture. (Yes, that's an electric drill if any of you were curious how we achieved such an effect.)

Fun Monday - Storytime

Our lovely hostess this week is Mommy Wizdom and she gives us the following:

So, this is the assignment:

Themes to choose from:

A visit by your mother in law

Bedtime Stories

Raising a Teenager


The words: Ostrich, goosebumps, magazines, soup, cats, lethargic, noodles, tequila, doorknob, biscuit

Wild card words: prehistoric, Jedi Knight, cactus, periscope, humor

Your job is to write a story (true or made-up), poem, song, letter... whatever strikes you ABOUT one of the three themes. You must INCLUDE all 10 words. Wild cards words may be used in addition to or in place of the main 10 words.

Sounds fun, huh?

Here's my entry:

Riiiiing. Riiing. "Hello?" I answer the phone.

"Hello, Heather. How are you doing?" It's my mother-in-law.

"Just fine, thanks. How are you today, Sally?"

"Great, just great. I was out running some errands, you know, picking up some noodles for the soup I was going to make for myself for dinner tonight. And since I had to stop at the Food Mart in Naperville, I was wondering if I could stop by for a visit. I've got biscuits!" (That last sentence was said in a sing song voice.)

"That sounds great! Come on over," I reply as I silently swear to myself. I hang up with Sally and start running around the house trying to clean up. I shake the lethargy out of my head as I wipe down every doorknob with an antibacterial wipe. I grab all the magazines strewn on the kitchen table and pile them neatly in the basket under our end table. I clean up the cat's litter box to ensure that there are no lingering smells in the house. Finally, I grab the tequila from the fridge, take a swig, and paste a great big smile on my face.

Ding Dong. The doorbell rings and I open the door with a smile that would fool even the most honorable Jedi Knight. He will not feel a disturbance in the Force from me today!

Sally walks in and immediately turns my thermostat up three degrees. Her goosebumps are visible through her two layers and she shivers just a little. I again silently swear to myself that I should have turned the heat up. Oh well.

We sit down to a cup of coffee and Sally gets the biscuits out of her bag. They are looking a little dry and old, but I don't want to insult her, so I smile sweetly and dip one of the prehistoric rocks into my coffee. It softens only slightly.

After a long discussion about her latest crocheting project, the fact that her Christmas cactus is blooming in July, and her possible investment in an ostrich farm, (I talked her out of it) she got up and decided it was time to go.

We hugged goodbye and I told her to come again anytime.


This account is purely fictional and any resemblance to my actual wonderful mother-in-law is purely coincidental!

Fun Monday - What's In Your Closet?

Cassie over at RDH Mom would like to know the following:

I want to see the inside of your closet!! I want to see if your closet is as messy as mine!!! You can't organize it before you take the picture!!

So, I followed the rules closely this week and will take you on a tour of my (walk in) closet.


Here's the look from outside the door. I have to share with my husband. I get the left side, he gets the right side.



These are my clothes. I don't care which way they hang and sometimes my winter clothes mingle with my summer clothes, though I try to keep them separate, mainly so they'll be easier to find when I want them.


These are my shoes on the floor. I try to use the shoe organizer, but I have too many shoes. So they get paired up on the floor.


These are more shoes, only they are in their boxes. These are mainly my nicer shoes that don't get worn as often.


This is one of the messier parts of my closet. On the shelf at the far end of my closet. Clothes that I don't have any other space for get folded up and put up here. But I'm lazy, so after I wear them, sometimes they get loosely folded and flung back up on top of the pile.


These are my crafts and other assorted junk I have collected. I used to do a lot of cross stitching and that basket holds most of my cross stitching stuff. I keep thinking I'll do it again someday.


Shhhhhhh! Don't tell my kids, but this is where some of their gifts are hidden. Obviously they are not very good lookers and finders or I couldn't do this!


Finally, these are clothes for my daughters and a few baby gifts. Sometimes I buy a gift when I see it and love it, and save it for the right person. And when I buy something at the end of the season for one of my daughters, I have to put it in my closet, otherwise they will want to wear it immediately and bug me to no end until they do. In my closet it is basically out of sight out of mind.

Well, that's my closet. Now, go check out everyone else's closets!

Hosting Responsibilities

Anyone interested in hosting next week's Fun Monday? Please leave me a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible!

Fun Monday - Sports Allegiances

I grew up and live in a family of sports fans. Every Sunday was devoted to football in the fall, and we followed the 1990 Cincinnati Reds go wire to wire. I was a three sport letterman in high school and went to sports camps in the summer and played slow pitch softball since I was in second grade. I love sports. So here are my teams, the ones I'm devoted to and would never forsake for another.



1. Ohio State Buckeyes football. Even though I now reside in Illinois, I am an Ohio girl, born and bred. My whole family lives and breathes Ohio State football. My sister and brother-in-law went to the 2003 Fiesta Bowl when the Buckeyes won the National Championship over Miami. We all love Jim Tressel and criticize anyone who doesn't wear scarlet and gray on game day. The marching band is The Best Damn Band in the Land and dotting the "i" in script Ohio rocks! Go Buckeyes!

2. The Cleveland Browns. I am forever disheartened and yet compelled to return year after year and root for the lovable, Super Bowl-less, Browns. I love the brown and orange jerseys (I wear mine many Sundays of the season), I love the Dawg pound, and I love Bernie Kosar. My hope springs eternal that one day they will get out of the playoffs and into the Super Bowl. One day.






The teams I hate:

1. Michigan. Need I say more? Really.

2. I used to hate the Denver Broncos (curse you John Elway!) because of all the years they dashed my beloved Browns hopes of a Super Bowl appearance. But I no longer have hatred for the Broncos. That is now reserved for the Baltimore Ravens, who stole my Browns out from under us and left the city of Cleveland without a team for almost four years. Luckily, the people of Cleveland would not allow this to happen to any other city and took an expansion team in 1999 over a relocated team. And because of Art Modell and the Baltimore Ravens, I can NEVER root for them to win.

That's about it!

Now, go check out everyone else's allegiances or share your own!

Players:

1. Tanya
2. Judysteapot
3. Hootin' Anni
4. Rayne
5. Gattina
6. Ali
7. Grace
8. Storyteller
9. HulaGirlAtHeart
10. Chrisb
11. jsi
12. Swampangel65
13. karmyn r
14. Alison
15. Jan
16. Swampy
17. {i}post
18. debs
19. sauntering soul
20. robocop
21. beedancer
22. margaret
23. tiggerlane
24. Mommywizdom
25. kitten
26.

Fun Monday - Sign Ups!

Fun Monday sign ups are done here!

The topic: Sports. More specifically, the sports team that you are rabid about. Maybe you love the Dallas Cowboys. Maybe you never miss a Cincinnati Reds game. Perhaps you follow every goal of the Fighting Illini Water Polo team. Or maybe nobody can tear you away from a Manchester United game. I want to hear about whatever sports team(s) that make you cry tears of joy when they win and tears of sorrow when they lose.

And on the flip side, I also want to hear about the teams you love to hate and why you hate them so much. You know what I mean. Like when you meet a new friend who is really cool and fun, and then you find out they root for your most hated rival team and you actually consider for a moment that you can't be friends anymore. Those teams.

That's it. And if you don't like any sports at all, I don't know what to say to you. Tell us something else you are impassioned about.

If you would like to sign up, leave me a comment with the link to your blog and I will get you signed up. Then come back Monday and make some new friends, maybe a few enemies, and get to know your fellow Fun Monday participants just a little bit better!

Fun Monday Participants

Having some trouble with Blogger, so leave a comment in the above post, and I'll list all players in this post.
Players:

1. Tanya
2. Judysteapot
3. Hootin' Anni
4. Rayne
5. Gattina
6. Ali
7. Grace
8. Storyteller
9. HulaGirlAtHeart
10. Chrisb
11. jsi
12. Swampangel65
13. karmyn r
14. Alison
15. Jan
16. Swampy
17. {i}post
18. debs
19. sauntering soul
20. robocop
21. beedancer
22. margaret
23. tiggerlane
24.

Fun Monday

Well, I've been away from Fun Monday for quite some time now, but I'm back! Our hostess, Rayne, over at Crunchy Bits gives us the following assignment:

Almost everyone I know keeps things that others would consider junk. Twist ties, used wrapping paper, etc. What thing or things do you hang on to, and why?
Or, if you are one of those super organized and practical people and don't hang on to things like that, do you have a collection that you would like to share with us?

I had to think awhile for this one. After all, everything I keep is important, right? But as the week went by, I came up with a few things that I keep that probably drive my neatnik husband crazy, but I do have my reasons!



1. I have a plastic box filled with pantyhose and tights. I no longer wear them in the warmer months, but I will occasionally wear them in the many cold months we have here in Illinois. I have a hard time getting rid of any of them unless they are terribly holey (yes, I keep some with holes, depending on the location of the hole(s).) I even keep colors that I will probably never wear, because there may be that one time that burgundy tights are necessary and I would kick myself for throwing them out for no good reason other than the fact that they are burgundy colored.



2. I keep almost all sizes of scraps from stamping and scrapbooking. This is just one of the folders filled with pieces of cardstock and designer paper pieces. I have at least two more.



3. This empty perfume bottle. I got it (full, of course) when I was a little girl and we went to Wales on vacation. My parents bought it for me because of the name on the bottle, "Welsh Heather" I still can smell it a little bit if I sniff the top of the bottle.



4. I keep these pop tabs for a neighbor girl who is collecting them for the Ronald McDonald house. As soon as the baggy gets decently full, I give them to her and start a new baggy for them.

Well, those are a few of the things I keep around my house. Go check out everyone else's junk stuff!

Fun Monday - Birthdays!

This week, Penny over at Dungarees Ablaze has given us our FM assignment, which is this:

Let’s hear about your favorite “Birthday”, it needn’t be your actual birthday just a "birthday" celebration. You can use one you planned, one you attended, one you crashed, just a fun time for this FUN MONDAY.

One of my most memorable birthdays was my 18th birthday. My birthday is December 30th, so even though my parents did an awesome job of keeping it separate from Christmas, I rarely got to celebrate with my friends on my actual birthday, just too busy a time for many people.

The day of my 18th birthday did not start well. Our basement flooded overnight the night before. I am the youngest, and therefore was the only one home with my parents. Guess what had to be done? Yes, I had to help clean the basement up, on MY 18th birthday.

After a long day of cleaning up, we were going to go out to dinner to celebrate my birthday. It is a long standing tradition in my family to take the birthday girl or boy to the restaurant of their choosing. My parents were lobbying for a pizza joint called the Rocking U. I just didn't feel like going there, and said, "No, I want to go somewhere else."

A little while later my mom got off the phone and announced that Ken and Jenni, my good friend Leah's parents and also friends of my parents, called, and that we were going to meet them at the Rocking U, and we'd go out to my restaurant another night.

Now, this should have been a HUGE tipoff to me. My parents had NEVER, EVER, in my life blown off my birthday, or my brothers' or sister's for that matter (excepting my sister's 16th, but that's another story for another time!). But, I had no idea. I just sulked as I called my boyfriend and told him we were going to the Rocking U for dinner. I mean after all, it was MY 18th BIRTHDAY, I had just spent the entire day cleaning up the basement, and now my parents were making me share my birthday dinner with Ken and Jenni at a restaurant I didn't want to go to!

I didn't complain to my mom and dad, although I'm sure they saw the sulking. My parents left ahead of me and the plan was for me to meet them there with my boyfriend. Derrick picked me up and let me tell you I gave him an earful about my parent's choices!

You can see where this is going, can't you? Well, in my 18 year old self-important haze, I didn't see it coming at all.

When we got to the restaurant we walked in the back and into a party room where there waiting were several of my friends. They all shout surprise and I collapsed onto the floor crying. I had no idea my parents had planned me a party and I was just about ready to chalk up my 18th birthday as my worst ever! What shocked me even more was who was there. It wasn't just my good friends, but some of the kids I considered "cool". Eric, and many of the other boys, who were my teammates in cross country, April and Heidi, popular girls who I played basketball with, Jason, my good childhood friend, as well as Carrie, Leah, and Allyson, my three best friends. There were others there, too. My mom had managed to invite all the different people who I spent most of my time with, who I cared about, who I cherished.

I think what made it so memorable was the horrible thoughts I was having about my parents were completely erased when I walked in that door that night. And I was truly surprised at some of the guests. If my mom had asked me who I wanted to invite to a party, some of those names wouldn't have been on there, not because I didn't like the person, but because I wouldn't have thought they would have wanted to come to a party for me. I knew my social place in high school, and I wasn't unpopular, but I wouldn't have put myself in the "popular" group, that's for sure! So to see some of those kids there, made me feel happy. Not because that meant I was popular, but because the friendships we had formed were important to them, too. I guess when it comes to judging others, it goes both ways.

Anyways! My 18th birthday was indeed a memorable and happy one for me. Now go check out everyone else's birthday plans!

Fun Monday - Quirks

Lisa Marie over at Lisa's Chaos is our host this week. She has asked us to divulge a little personal information with all of you this week. Her exact assignment is this:

A quirk is defined as a peculiarity of action, behavior, or personality; mannerism. We are all unique individuals, having quirks that help make us who we are. I would like to know what your quirks are. Confess to one, confess to ten, you decide. Just come back Monday ready to spill the beans, the rest of the world may look at you like you are from Mars, but you‘re among friends here. We won’t laugh, in fact that eccentricity just may endear you to us more.

I thought about this for awhile and came up with a few of my quirky behaviors.

1. I eat pancakes with butter and sugar - no syrup. (And it's not powdered sugar, either. It's the white granulated stuff.) I picked this habit up in college from one of my friends. I almost don't like them with syrup now. Now my kids will often eat pancakes this way; I think it drives my husband nuts.

2. I like to dip my french fries in ranch dressing. This habit started when I first began teaching. Several of the teachers would go out on Friday nights to a local bar/ restaurant and we always ordered fries to share, with an order of ranch dressing. Really delicious.

3. I sleep with a stuffed animal every night. It used to be my stuffed dog Henry that I received as an infant, but when he became in danger of disintegrating my husband bought me a Goofy toy that takes Henry's place now.

4. I weigh myself every day and write down the time and weight in a little notebook I keep in my bathroom drawer. (OK, this might be bordering on OCD, but it has helped me to lose weight and maintain my weight loss.)

5. I like almost all of my sandwiches plain. Hot dogs in a bun - no condiments. Hamburgers in a bun - again no condiments. Turkey sandwich - maybe some butter on the bread and some cheese - nothing else. Except for barbecue sauce and picante sauce, I dislike almost all condiments and would prefer my sandwiches without veggies, dressings or sauces.

6. I am a corn on the cob snob. We have to eat corn on the cob the day we buy it, or one day later at most. I never buy it from a grocery store, only from farmstands freshly picked daily. It stems from working at a a farm stand for two summers in high school and college and not trusting how long an ear of corn has travelled to get in the grocery stores. Try a fresh ear of corn, you'll taste the difference.

That's just a few of my quirks. Now go read about everyone else's strange eccentricities.

Fun Monday - Wardrobe Edition

HulaGirlatHeart is our thoughtful hostess this week. Her assignment is the following:

We all have at least one or two items of clothing that we can’t part with, even if we can’t or don’t wear them. I want to know about yours.

I wanted to get pictures, but this has been an incredibly hectic weekend. So, I have to describe the few items I cannot part with.

First item is a green blazer. I know, blazers are soooo out. But here's the thing. I'm really tall, and most clothes don't fit me properly unless I order a tall from the store. When blazers were really in (in the 90's sometime) my mom ordered me a blazer from JC Penney's in a tall, and it fit so perfectly. I was in heaven! I mean, a blazer of my own that actually fit the way it was supposed to. I honestly thought I would probably never own one. So now, despite the fact that I haven't worn it in years, it still hangs in my closet.

Second item, my high school letter jacket. I was a three sport letterman in high school (cross country, basketball, track) as well as having academic letters. My coat was navy blue with gold leather sleeves (all the girl athletes got boy's jackets - leaving the girl's high school jackets for cheerleaders, band members and majorettes) and had my name embroidered on the front in gold thread. When I went to college I removed all the letters and my high school's name and had my college name embroidered on it (John Carroll). The colors just happened to be the same as my high school's colors.

I have several T-shirts from high school that I still wear when working out or mowing the grass. One is a cross country long sleeve T-shirt, one is my state T-shirt from track when my relay team went to the Ohio State track championships - it has Snoopy wearing running gear on it, and one is a Harry Connick, Jr. T-shirt from college.

I have a few other things, too. But I have another busy week ahead and want to go to bed. Now go check out everyone else's clothes they can't get rid of!

Fun Monday - Wall to Wall Edition

Jan over at The Prytz Family is our lovely hostess this week. She has asked us to reveal what is on our walls, either inside or out.

We moved into our current house not quite two years ago and I am notoriously slow about getting a place decorated. It wasn't until we were moving out of our last house (after being there six years) that I had most of the house the way I liked it. So this house has a few nice touches, but it's not exactly where I would like it to be.

All of the rooms in our house, with the exception of my son's room and my daughters' room, is the color choice of the previous owners. We are working on getting the place painted, but since we are doing it ourselves, the work is slow going.

Let's start in our "office" (really the fourth bedroom that houses our computer, my craft stuff, and lots of our books).


These are two of my husband's pieces of artwork. He received the Batman and Joker piece for college graduation from one of his parents. It is an actual storyboard from "Batman - the Animated Series" and is signed by Mark Hamill, the voice of the Joker (and Luke Skywalker). The other piece is an actual page from a comic drawn by Scott McDaniel. Along with the page is the finished page from the comic book and a letter fromScott McDaniel himself. We had this framed ourselves.



This sign is above the window in our office. I had it made for my husband for Christmas one year. Next to it are four comic books. Eventually we plan on having the entire space above the window from left to right displayed with comic books.

Next let's move to the kitchen. I don't have a lot up in my kitchen, yet. But the two signs I do have up, I love.

This first picture is a sign I had made for myself. I love the old diner look, and I get lots of fun comments from guests when they see it.


This sign is over the walkthrough into my kitchen where our kitchen table is. I just love the sentiment.


This sign hangs in my entryway. We bought this sign when we went for a weekend to Stoughton, Wisconsin.


This artwork that my daughters and I made hangs on my front door. I know, not exactly a wall, but stuff like this hangs all over my house, especially the downstairs.




Definitely one of the favorite walls in my house is my stair hallway. I had an idea, put it together, and hung up each and every frame myself. The pictures are all black and white photos of the family.

Finally, let's go to my bedroom.





Above my husband's dresser are his three framed set of stamps. He is not a stamp collector but has these fun sets that are all interests of his. The first set are Elvis, the second set DC comic heroes, and the third Star Wars stamps.


And finally these are gifts I made for my husband on previous Father's Days. The top picture is just my two oldest and their handprints. The bottom is a photo collage of all three kids.

Now, I'm headed over to Jan's to see everyone else's walls. Why don't you come and check them out, too?

Fun Monday - Child's Play

Our lovely hostess, Molly, has given us the following assignment:

I would like you to describe a happy memory from your childhood. If possible, include pictures with your reminiscing. Perhaps, for some us remembering the past may bring back some unhappy times too. But, for today, let us remember the good times.

I was lucky, I had a wonderful childhood. Some of my best memories revolve around my family. I remember nights at the dinner table laughing so hard that my stomach hurt. These conversations usually involved talk of "eyebungers" (bees that only sting the eye) and how one of us had "skun" our knee.

I was the youngest of four kids. There were only four years between the first three kids, and then four years between the youngest of those three and me. So, I did get picked on a lot and called the "baby" a lot. But despite this my brothers and sister and I had a lot of fun together. There were nights playing Tripoley, peanuts or Boggle with our parents. The TV would be turned off and we would play for the entire night. We went on lots of great vacations when we lived in England for five years. We went to Scotland over Christmas one year and all agreed that it wasn't the same being in a hotel on Christmas morning instead of at home. We travelled to Italy with my parents and grandparents and went to the top of the leaning tower of Pisa while my Grandma and Grandpa worried constantly about our walking around the outside walkways on the tower. (There weren't safety railings). We teased my sister when the Italian guys hit on her. We went skiing in Austria and laughed at my brother because every meal he would order Wienerschnitzel (sp.?).

I remember spending hours with my best friend Angie. She lived down the street from me and we were always together. We played hospital with our dolls. We'd keep detailed records as to why they were in the hospital and either apply or remove cheap red nail polish for blood to the doll's skin. We built an actual clubhouse in Angie's backyard with the help of her brother and my brothers and sisters. We used old six foot fence pieces from a neighbor who was replacing their privacy fence. We even waterproofed it with garbage bags and put a gutter on the back of the sloping roof. We used rubber tubing and a ketchup pump, along with a bucket and an old sink to create "running water." (Don't worry - we didn't drink it!) We even cleaned out a whole area of leaves and tree branches to make a bike or trike parking area.

I remember cooking potatoes wrapped in foil in the fires built to burn the leaves. Not much tasted better than a potato cooked in the coals of a fire and then topped with butter and sea salt.

In the winter we would walk on Angie's frozen pool, without our parent's knowledge of course. Her brother, Jeff, would use a hammer to break off pieces of the ice and we'd look at how it broke into little pieces we called "shivers."

I remember making sugar cookies at Christmas that we'd decorate with egg yolk paint. I remember the smell of my mom's tea ring she'd make very Christmas. We had a great tradition where the kids would give each other their Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve, after midnight mass, and then in the morning we got our presents from Santa.

One of my best memories is Christmas carolling with our Family Group - five families who met once a month to grow spiritually as family and friends. WE went to Family Camp together every summer and all the kids slept in one cabin and all the adults slept in another cabin. Then in the winter we chose several families to go carolling to and we would load into all of our vans and head out to sing at the different houses. Afterwards we had apple cider and doughnuts at someone's house.

Indeed, I was very blessed. I can't wait to hear about everyone else's happy memories.

(Sorry - no pictures today because I signed up late!)

Fun Monday - Hand's On Edition

Our hostess this week is Karisma and she has given us the following assignment:

I would like to see or hear about things you have made with your own two hands (or feet, Im not fussy!) We all have different talents and abilities, maybe you like to sew or knit, chisel or sculpt, draw or paint? Whatever your talent is, please share it with us this week.

So I started racking my brain and came up with several things I have made myself:

First - Cakes & Cupcakes

I have made all of my kids birthday cakes, whatever they decide on. I have also made birthday cakes for many other family members. Here are some of them:

Emma's Care Bear Cake

Grandma McKillip's birthday cake - chocolate cake with peppermint buttercream filling and chocolate buttercream frosting

Ian's Power Ranger cake

Ian's Scooby Doo Cake

Ian's Treasure Chest Cake (for a pirate party)

Zoe's Zoe Cake

Here is the cake and cupcakes I made for my father-in-law's 60th birthday

Zoe's Batman Cakes

Ian's 1/2 Birthday Cupcakes

Martha's Bridal Shower Cake

Death By Chocolate Cupcakes

Grandma & Grandpa McKillip's 65th Anniversary Cake (everything on there is edible)

Here I am (9 months pregnant with Zoe) making my "Welcome Home" cake - the one's the kids frosdted and decorated with my husband for the day I came home form the hospital with Zoe.

And here's the actual cake

Next are cookies and desserts:
I love to cook, and I have several main dishes that are yummy, but my true passion is baked goods and desserts.

Charlotte's Web "Wilbur" cookies

Cherry Vanilla Ribbon Pie

Gingerbread Cookie Christmas Tree - I made this with my two daughters

My Mom's Birthday Apple Crisp (my parents are not cake people)

Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

Shamrock Pie - a St. Patrick's Day Tradition

Triple Chocolate Torte

Now here are a few things that are not edible that I have made.

Block Guy - made this while playing with my kids one day

This drawing of my three kids

The skeleton costume for my son when he was four years old

Zoe's Christmas stocking - (I've actually made all of my kid's Christmas stockings, this is the only one I have a picture of)



I have made lots of other thing, too. I can cross stitch and I scrapbook and make cards. But for now, this is what I have to show you. Can't wait to see what the rest of you have made!