September 27, 2010

As I typed the date, I am ashamed of how few postings there were this month.  Time has just gotten away from me, plain and simple.

If any of you see Mr. Time out there, would you please let him know I would like for him to come back?  Thanks.

I was busy with work, (the job that actually pays the bills), Kyle being in school and still behind in homework due, birthdays, chores and soap.  Don't forget the soap.

The one birthday in particular was my Mom's.  We took her to dinner with friends and had a wonderful time.  Of course, we went to MJ's.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures and also, I didn't even have time to edit the red eye.  How remarkably lazy of me.  

This week won't be much better.  I still have to work, as does Jeff.  Kyle will undoubtably have homework.  I'm now coming into October, which means I'm running down to the wire on getting everything ready for Hunsaders Pumpkin Festival.

If you don't hear from me until November, don't send out a search party.  No, I am vowing now to write more. 

Write more on this blog, I should say.  Because I do write a lot each and every day. 

Happy Monday everyone!  Here's to a great week!

Busy, Busy

Our weekend started off with dinner at our friends house.  And yes, I did wear my yoga pants.  It was wonderful and believe it or not, the weather was just dandy.  We were able to sit outside on the patio and enjoy good food, good wine and great conversation with friends.

The rest of the weekend was a complete blur.  A blur of how fast I could swipe my credit card for one more thing that needed to be replaced. 

First, came our printer.  We have been printing a lot lately.  Jeff just purchased a pool business to add on to the lawn business so that we can grow what we offer clients.  This means letters of explanation need to go to our current customers, and letters of introduction needed to go to our new customers.  Add in labels for soap, and you have a whole lot of printin' going on! 

Unless your printer decides to go on strike.  Which is exactly what ours did.  You want to print a couple of pages, no problem.  You want to print 175 pages?  Forget about it.  So, off to the office supply store we went.  I caved and bought a color laser printer.  And I have to admit, I was a giddy school girl again printing envelopes, and letters in a flash.  I will be a giddy school girl until I have to pay to replace the drums.  Then I will be a crying school girl.

We had to visit Verizon to get our phones updated.  Jeff is currently carrying 3 cell phones.  It is kind of crazy.  We needed to update one phone, which they informed us couldn't be done.  I'm not even going to get in to it here.  Lets just say that we spent 3 hours at the store and really got nothing accomplished.  But, they would call me on Monday.  Today is Tuesday, I have not received any call. 

Sunday we got up, and Jeff and Kyle went out to work on the yard and equipment to get ready for the week.  I was still updating customer information and rewriting letters.  Jeff came in around 1 and asked why I shut the air conditioning off in the soap shop. 

You guessed it, I didn't.  The air conditioner obviously decided it wasn't going to work anymore either.  So, off to Lowe's to replace our air conditioner.  They no longer make an air conditioner that fits the opening of the old one, so Jeff has to cut the space to be a tad bit larger.  As he and Kyle lifted it to position, Jeff went to plug it in, and the plug is different than the one we had.  Still no air in the shop.

On a final note, Happy Birthday today to my Mom!  And to my sister in law Stacey.  May you both enjoy your day and future days to come!

Yoga Pants

We are invited to a friends house for dinner tonight.  I called her and asked her a very important question.

"Can I wear my yoga pants to dinner tonight?" 

I mean, after all it is in their home.  We aren't going anywhere and it is just the four of us.  I received a resounding yes.  ( I think I may show up and she will be in her yoga pants too!) 

I know, some of you may be rolling your eyes and thinking I may need to secretly be nominated for "What Not To Wear".  But I really, really want to wear my yoga pants tonight, oh, with my flip flops.  My feet hurt from a week of 4 inch heels.  Really, 4 inches, what can I say, my parents didn't offer me much in the height department.  Good hair?  Check!  Pretty blue eyes?  Check!  Average height so I don't have to actually buy pants that say SHORT on them?  NOPE!

Okay, a little off track....

As I said to her, I am planning on putting my yoga pants on tonight after work and not removing them until Monday when I return to work.  Well, I may switch them out with another pair or even wash them.

So there you have it.  My plans for the weekend.  Dinner with friends and yoga pants. Oh, yeah.  Soap.  How could I forget?  By the end of October I won't want to use soap either along with not changing out of my comfortable yoga pants. 

Just kidding....on the soap part.  Not the yoga pant part!

My Version of Alice's Spring Chicken

Last night I sat staring at the chicken that I had taken out of the freezer for dinner wondering what I would do with it.  I was in the mood for something different.  And then I remember Alice's Spring Chicken from the Outback Steakhouse.

I took regular mustard and mixed it with honey until I had the taste and consistency that I was looking for in a honey mustard.  I sprinkled All Seasoning on the chicken and let it sit for about 10 minutes before placing the chicken in a ziplock bag with the honey mustard.  I sprayed a baking dish with cooking spray, took the chicken out of the ziplock, wrapped each piece in thick sliced bacon and baked at 350 for about 50 minutes.  During the last 10 minutes of cooking, I sprinkled on shredded cheddar cheese.

While this was baking, I boiled some red potatoes in salt water until tender.  After they were done, I drained them, added in butter and half &half and mixed. 

This was the end result.

I usually take photos of all ingredients and as it is being cooked, but I didn't think it would turn out as good as it did. 

Soapy Weekend

Back to making soap this weekend.  Have to say, I'm really excited about the few I did today.  I also have an update to show on a soap I did a few weeks back.

Remember this soap?  I did this one a few weeks back.  This is what it

looks like now:

I'm going to call this one Camo Soap.  It is a mans fragrance and smells fantastic!

The fragrance oil causes it to darken up a bit.

This I poured yesterday.  Not sure what to call it yet, but I used Energy fragrance oil.

Took a peek at it today, and I think I am in love:

The color changes have me super excited!  (Sorry for the picture quality, I was in a hurry!)

This is one I did today. Yuzu fragrance, I'm hoping the color stays!

More soap planned for the week.  Then on to Bath Bombs and Bath Salts.  Trying to finish it up so I can spend the first few weeks of October on packaging.  Pumpkin Festival starts October 16th.  It will be here before we know it!

Ft Wilderness

As I said in my last post, we spent the weekend camping at Ft Wilderness.  It is always enjoyable, quiet and relaxing.  It was supposed to be just Jeff and I, however, after Kyle's ear infection, he didn't go with his Dad, so he had to tag along with us.  Then Nico, our Shiba Inu, who loves the camper, whimpered and cried when he saw the camper come around front and he realized he wasn't included.  So, our trip turned into a family vacation instead of relaxation for two.

What would life be without these little changes?  Boring and lonely.  That is what I say!

Here are a few photos from our trip:

Nico and Jeff taking a ride

Nico:  How does he drive this thing?

Our campsite

Nico keeping an eye out for us

Nico's campsite

Play area and Dog Park

The sign speaks for itself

Entrance to Hoop Dee Doo Review

Hoop Dee Doo Review Show, Kyle was actually brought up on stage for this when he was around the age of 8.

Kyle just lounging, literally.  Look at the size of those feet!  Don't you feel for me and the fact that I have to pay for shoes to fit those?

New store at Downtown Disney, you design your radio control car.  Jeff and Kyle putting their batteries in.

Kids stopped from all over to check out the new cars.

It was a good time, and I enjoyed getting out in the camper for a change.  I hadn't been camping in over a year and a half.  Jeff takes it 4 wheeling quite often, but I don't go.

The next few weeks will be filled with soap making since the pumpkin festival will be upon us soon.  Looking forward to some cooler weather and the Holidays!

It's the 7th of September

It is the 7th of September already.  I'm not ready for how quickly time is going by me.  The last few weeks have just been one big blur.

Kyle returned to the doctor on the 2nd and had his ear suctioned out.  It was disgusting to watch and painful to for Kyle.  The improvement in him though within an hour of having this done was amazing.  He finally returned to school today.  Can't wait to see the amount of homework he comes home with this week.

We spent the weekend at Fort Wilderness at Disney.  We love to camp there.  As does Nico.  We were not planning on taking any animals, but Nico was making such a fuss that we decided he could tag along. 

Nico riding shot gun

A good time was had by all and I will post a few more pictures later!  Have a good week everyone!