Christmas Card

This is my first linky dink - I sure hope I did it right...if not someone feel free to instruct me!!

Our Christmas Card. Sometimes it is planned out for days and then WOW. Sometimes I slave over my stamp sets and paper for weeks preparing the masterpiece (at least it is to me the gal that really wants to be crafty but it does not come naturally to me). And then there are some years that "Oh, Christmas cards...guess I better do that." Well this year is one of those years. Thanks to Faith for starting the Christmas Card Carousel , it inspired me to go for it. Many of you know how much I love my computer and really love creating things with it...well here is what I came up with thanks to Scrapblog for the template!

The transformation has begun!!!

John is on vacation this week and he LOVES to do hunny do's on his vacation (he would really rather be fishing but he loves me and does the hunny do's first). This vacation he is starting off by painting my kitchen. Many of you that have been over in the last year may have noticed that we got new countertops in January...but we did not paint the kitchen and we had this cool new texture - glue from the back of old formica on the walls. Well not anymore!!! I can't wait to show you the pictures. It will be done tonight so stay tuned!!!

Halloween 2008

We had a fun evening planned but when we got word of some not so fun stuff happening at John's work this week we decided to cancel in case we needed to be more focused on something else...So when we were saved from this months layoffs we decided to go ahead and just take the kids down the street to trick or treat. This was our first year to get to trick or treat. The kids usually go to a Fall Festival or we just don't do anything because they had enough Halloween fun at preschool.

James was a Recycling Man...he was totally excited about it - not many others really knew what he was but he did not care one bit!

Jorja was a Fairy Princess...she could not decide if she wanted to be a fairy, princess or a pumpkin...my original thought was to make her an orange fairy princess but that idea came to an end when the only wings we could find were pastel. So here we have a beautiful fairy princess.

Kirstin's Meme - Quirky Things About Me

My dear friend Tamara has tagged me. I am to do a meme - 5 quirky things about me. Glad there is a limit - because I am pretty quirky!

5 Quirky Things About Me:
The rules: Post 5 quirky things about yourself. Post a recent picture so we can all look at you and laugh as we read about how interesting (weird) you are.

1. I never use the first toilet in a public restroom. No need to explain.

2. All the Christmas wrapping paper has to match. I can't stand to look under my tree and see an assortment of unmatching wrapping paper. This actually drives John crazy - so I try not to be too vocal about it but inside I just want to re-wrap everything.

3. It takes me twice as long to go through the meat department at the grocery store than it does to do the rest of the grocery shopping. In HS and College I was on the Meat Judging Team. I really enjoyed it and still love comparing and judging beef, pork and lamb. Sometimes I set up my own judging class at the store and sometimes I just like to identify the cut without looking at the label.

4. Love organizational stuff. Buy it all the time. Mainly because I am REALLY unorganized but REALLY want to be organized. Can't seem to make it happen - even with all the cool stuff!

5. I tell everyone I am allergic to sour cream and mushrooms. I am not, I just REALLY don't like it and it seems like that is the only way that people won't make you try something with either item in it. I know that is really a lie not a quirk but now you know so it will just be a quirk!

Now I get to tag someone....I choose...Kristen B.

Souptacular Crockpotalooza

Boo Mama is hosting a Souptacular/Crockpotalooza over on her blog today. I love her recipes. The Best Ever Pasta salad is oh so fabulous!

Anyway, love the fall for lots of reasons. Mainly because I start making soups and stews and such. I don't use my crockpot - not sure why - everyone raves about how much easier it makes things. So I am copying down recipes and am going to give it a shot. I have a great crockpot but I think I have only used it to make rotel dip!

Ok...On of my favorite cooks is Rachel Ray - I am always running out of time so her meals work great for me. This chicken soup is WOW!

Chili Chicken & Vegetable Soup

2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 baking potato, peeled and chopped
One 32-ounce container (4 cups) chicken broth
One 16-ounce bag frozen corn kernels
2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken meat (from 1/2 rotisserie chicken)
One 10-ounce bag frozen green beans
Sour cream, for serving

1. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring, until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chili powder and cook for 2 minutes. Add the potato and chicken broth and bring to a boil; lower the heat and simmer until the potato is tender, about 10 minutes.

2. Stir in the corn, chicken and green beans and cook until heated through. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with the sour cream.

Carving Pumpkins

JAMES' --------------- JORJA'S

We have not carved pumpkins with the kids before this year. Kinda makes you feel sorry for all the work your parents went through back in the day when we were begging to help carve pumpkins!

Well we were determined to make it a family event - originally it was going to be a girls pumpkin and a boys pumpkin but it ended up that James wanted mommy's help and Jorja always wants Daddy's help!!

No one got cut and the pumpkins are not too bad.

Most important - we had some GREAT family time. We are so thankful for days like yesterday. We don't get them often but the memories will do us good until we have another special family day!

Fall is here!!! I have always thought that spring was my favorite time of the year but I am beginning to change my mind! It is so refreshing to walk outside the house and feel the cool breeze.

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to go to our favorite pumpkin patch, Love Creek Orchards, and this year we invited friends to join us for fun fall day to go and enjoy. We built scarecrows, painted pumpkins, went on a tour of the orchards and had the best apple pie.

What a great way to start the fall season!