Wake UP your ABILITY!

What a great quote! I heard it this morning from one of the Olympians. This is something each one of us can use in our life.
I have been eagerly been awaiting the olympics this year and have enjoyed every minute of it.

Game

Yesterday afternoon was our 2nd to last game not including the tournament, which will be sometime next week. Reluctantly I didn't play, however, I came close to grabbing a shirt and jumping in & playing in my jeans. It was pure torture to sit on the sideline of this game. There were about 4-5 of us that didn't play. So it was up the really good players to carry the others. We started off really slow and then by the end which we usually pick up the pace we just couldn't get it back. We lost the game 46 -40!

Birthday cake

I had another order for this Sat. for a little girl turning 1. They wanted half white & half chocolate. I had done a ton of those at the bakery, which I thoroughly enjoyed making. Actually marble was my favorite but this is close enough. The mom was on overload with pink so she asked for purple. I did a light purple as the base and then dark and border and accent.

What a busy week too! Joel and I have had something every night this week except for Friday which we both ended up crashing and soaked up as much Olympics as possible. We've really enjoyed watching.

Monday was a basketball game which we won

Tuesday was my first class at the rec center doing P90 (wow is that tough) & Bible study with the ladies,

Wednesday was prayer meeting, choir practice and a deacons meeting for Joel which lasted until 10:15 &

Thursday was our new class of Grief share that we've started again.

Sunday Joel is preaching, our pastor is in Israel for a good week. Our last 2 games are coming up this coming week and then a tournament. Yes, we are still undefeated! I bailed out of the last 2 games due to my last throw down. Unfortunately I think I may bail on these last two also since my shoulder is giving me some issues. The last thing I need is another dislocated shoulder.

I cant wait for the summer when things hopefully slow down a little or maybe not!

Recipes

I decided today that I desperately needed to organize my recipes. I made an attempt this past summer but this is one of those things that you have to be in the mood for and prepared for a mess as well as a little insanity. Ok if you're like me you have recipes stashed everywhere, which is why I'm doing this. I will be going through all of the recipes that I have and typing up my favorites so that I have them on file and then I will be organizing them into my recipe binders that I have. By looking at the stash that I have this could take a while so with that I then decided that each Monday I would post one of my favorites until I run out, then I'll move on to find new favorites. There's nothing like finding a good recipe but it's horrible when you know you have it but just cant find it. Through this I'm hoping to branch out to other recipes or ones I had forgotten I even had. So I hope you can benefit from my attempt to organize!

Games!

We're still undefeated!
Our church team is a great mix and very go with the flow attitude. We start off all of our games slow and take it easy and we may even start off losing but then when the second half begins we throw it into full gear and pull off an amazing win.
With all of the snow that we've had the games were postponed and sure enough we got scheduled for a game on Valentines Day. ok so I wasn't too happy about that or the fact that tonight's game was at 8:30 but I guess since I'm attempting to come down with something it didn't really matter anyway. After tonight's game I believe we have 3 more games. What a fun year with a little "old times" of basketball games, skiing and sledding and yep all the snow I could ever ask for. Yes, I'm trying to talk Joel into getting sleds so we can hit some great hills that are around us. Everyone else is hating the snow but me ~ I'm loving it!!!! My plan when Joel and I have an afternoon free is to go on the trail and walk in the snow. I can only imagine how beautiful all of this snow is.

Happy Valentines Day!

A little over a month ago I found out that one of my friends at our church was planning on redecorating our church nursery. It is in much need of new decor. furnishings and a little construction to divide the toddlers from the newborns. The funds were smaller than she was planning so it hit me why not raise money for it? So I did! I decided what perfect timing with Valentines day being right around the corner. I came in Friday and Joel and I put up the tables, so that they would face the stage for our game. That afternoon I met Darlene, Gene & Paula and we started our decorating. We wanted to make it delicate and yet different and I think we accomplished that.

The arch was my plan for our photo op and it couldn't have turned out any better. Darlene, Paula and I did the decor and our Pastor put the all challenging arch together. Lets just say that will be on a list of replacing :)

For our centerpieces on the table I chose goldfish. My plan was to give them to the children that helped me. So I made a point of not buying the fish until the afternoon of the banquet. At a certain point during the banquet I was thanking the children for all their hard work and told them they each were going to be able to take the goldfish home and everyone said almost simultaneously - They're dead!!! I nearly gasp- yes those fish all died during the dinner and so while all of our guest were eating their dessert they were also watching the fish float to the top! ohhh how horrible.

We ended up with a great turnout & boy was I pleased with how well the kids did.

The children were the waiters and waitresses. They did such a great job. As our guest arrived the children would take the adults to their tables. Each child was assigned a table to take care of and served drinks, dinner and dessert. After our dinner the adults played a game while the kids took a brownie break and watched a movie. After that we went to dessert.

I unfortunately was not able to take as many pictures as I had hoped because well I had kids, and the kitchen to keep looking after so Joel ended up taking pictures of everyone who came and then I got in what I had time for.

These were the kids that worked with me to make the banquet such a great success. I had the 2 older girls that were directing the kids while I was taking care of the food and other events. We ended up raising over $200 for the nursery. I could not have been happier with how everything turned out.

Great snack!

This week since Joel was in Ohio I got an itch to try something new. I made the cheerio snack & the great Broccoli & Cheese soup. This is a great little snack that both adults and kids would enjoy. I would use less sugar, the cereal tends to have a sweetness even though it's healthy.
1 egg white and whip until foamy
add 1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
stir in 3 cups multiGrain cheerios cereal
Make sure it's well mixed and then plop it on a lightly greased pan. Spread it out some and put it in the oven at 300deg. for 12-15min. When it's done tranfer it on a cold pan or bowl and let it cool. Ready to snack on in 20min.

Don't forget to try out the Broccoli and Cheese soup. It turned out sooo delicious and is perfect after coming in from shoveling your driveway a few times. We got pummled with snow and then came the ice. I tromped through the back yard to get all the snow off the door and it came to my knees. It's beautiful though.

Great Deal!

This post is for those of you who appreciate a good deal when not expecting it. Today was the one day that looked like the weather was going to turn out great and it was. The drive to Roanoke was beautiful. The mountains all covered with a beautiful crystal topped white snow. I arrived at the mall only to get some fresh air and walk around. Being cooped up in the house all day yesterday was a little too much for me. So I walked into Macy's and noticed that the majority of their clothes were on sale. I started looking and picked up a cute pink Cotton top that was on sale for $14 and then saw a group of cashmere sweaters. There it was a sign that said $24. No way it had to be wrong as most of us find out once we get to the counter with what we think is a great deal only to find that "I'm sorry mam but that sign was placed on the wrong stand". I thought I'd give it a try and took both tops and asked about the sweater first, wow it was on sale so I got my first official cashmere sweater for under $25. The other top I got, YEP that was on sale too for $4.00. YAAAA I couldn't believe it!!! I stopped while I was ahead:)
So for those of you who could use a good sale, drop in at Macy's and see what you can find.