Pronunciation Lession

I don't know about you, but I don't remember a lesson in English class on the pronunciation of the following words:

 Ms. 

Mrs.

Miss.

Maybe I was sick that day of class or "you just know" that kinda thing, but I never paid attention to the pronunciation until recently. I will admit that I am not the greatest on the use of correct grammar always or spelling perfectly, but this will be something I try to work on more because I am around so many proper and professional people who listen to the pronunciation of their salutation.

Here is what I have at my desk to help me with the pronunciation.

If you see me soon, try to correct me or remind me when I say your salutation and name.

Brown Friday

This year I participated in Brown Friday because it consisted of relaxing at home with these brown furry friends. One of Kona's boyfriends, Nelson came to stay with us. They played all day nonstop while I did this:

Later that afternoon, I found a good parking spot and made it to the mall to find a brown belt that was not snatched up in the mad rush. It just so happened to be Brown - to go with my Brown Friday theme. 

I hope everyone had a good Friday, no matter what color it might have been.

Turkey and Pies

I am so full right now as I type this post (in my sweat pants on the couch) about Ten things I love about Thanksgiving time:

1. Family getting together and a full kitchen of people
2. Good food to eat
3. Being off from work
4.Thinking about how blessed and thankful I am for many things
5. Wearing sweats so that I don't know how much I ate
6. Sales at the stores
7. Hearing what people are Thankful for
8. Mashed Potatoes
9. Leftovers
10. Movies on TV


What do you love about Thanksgiving?

 GOBBLE GOBBLE

Thankstmas

I made a scene that represents Thanksgiving and Christmas.

As you can see,  Frosty is coming from behind the Thanksgiving scene to illustrate that Christmas is just around the corner.

 

Time to Celebrate Thanksgiving, even though there is Christmas music playing on the radio and it's sunny and 70.

 

 

 

 

Would you rather?

• Find your zipper open yourself and have to think about who saw you, what underwear you are wearing, or even what you were doing the whole time it was unzipped (sitting, squatting, stretching) 

Or

• Have someone tell you and be a little embarrassed, maybe think about some of the things above, but be more grateful that you know now and can carry on.

I dont know about you, but when I find my pants unzipped, (like I did last Wednesday) my ears get hot and I start to think through everything. Sometimes I even unzip my pants again to see what it looked like when I sit or how I looked walking. I am so weird like that.  

We all have seen it on others and we think to ourselves "if they only knew..." or "should I tell them, no- they might be embarrassed..." I would hate for that person to go to the restroom and see that their pants are unzipped and know they have been talking to me for a long time and feel more embarrassed. 


It is a little different when you have to tell the opposite sex about their zipper, but I know they would still appreciate it. 


Anyone else think this way or have a story to tell?


P.S. - Everyone check your zipper now!

Allergy Nose

This picture is from a magazine ad I cut out a few weeks ago that looks so awkward when you first see it, but very real for me. If you look closely, you will see the lady on the left with her nose pushed up against a "cold" window with frost. The picture on the right shows another lady putting an ice cube up to her nose.

You might be wondering what type of magazines I read to find these pictures, but the truth is these pictures really are what I feel like doing during allergy season. After sneezing and blowing my nose hundreds of times, my nose starts to chafe, burn, and turn red. Sorry for the details, but I am sure you all have had it once in your life.

Lady's and Gentleman, let me introduce you to my noses new best friend Kleenex Cool Touch Tissue.  

 

 

Cool touch kleenex comes in a blue chrome box and can be found at all groceries and pharmacies. It is made with a blend of ingredients, including cooling moisturizers and aloe. When it comes in contact with your nose, your body heat activates the formula to release cooling comfort to so soothe your nose. (This is what the description says on the box)

Go out and get a box, your nose will be glad you did!

Mexico Bound....but Oregon Found - Part 1

Heaven's Backyard

Jonathan and I had planned on going to Mexico with friends in late October for vacation. When we realized that I could not go, we were itching to take a vacation somewhere. By this time it was July 20th and there were only a couple of weeks before work became busy for the Fall.

Both of us have never gone to Oregon before and to be honest, did not really know much about it. We had some friends who lived there and after seeing some of their pictures from facebook, we were hooked. We called them up and this is what awaited us:

• Lodging with a separate guest room
• Extra car (Subaru Outback - one of my favorites)
• Temperatures ranging anywhere from 30-80 degrees - "oh yeah"
• Tent and all the camping gear you would find at REI
• Road Bikes
• Great food
• All the hiking and rafting you can handle
• And 3 of the cutest little boys on the planet to entertain

With such irresistible amenities all in one package and at no extra cost, we were sold. We booked our tickets to Oregon and 2 weeks later arrived in Heaven's backyard. Here are some pictures from the first few days.

Hiking Spencer Butte

Sunset

Dinner with the Family

King Estate Winery - Known for their Pinot Gris

Brochure Shot

Self Guided Tour into the Vineyard

The first few days we relaxed, explored Eugene, ate outside almost every meal, hiked 2 buttes, and then visited this winery.

Enough for my first day back at blogging.
P.S. - I have learned my lesson not to talk about or promise on my blog about posting pictures of a certain vacation or event.... it only gets harder to blog with that on my conscience.

To Grandmothers House We Go

Soap from different places of stay

If you have ever gone to an estate sale or cleaned out someones house that has lived there a long time, you usually run across some interesting things. You learn so much about people by looking at the things they collected, saved, took pictures of or even things they kept as souvenirs.

We are currently in the process of cleaning out my Grandma's house that she and my Grandfather lived in for almost 50 years. As I go through their things to save, throw away or sell, I see so much stuff that made me think they have so much of these or question, What is this for? I  have to remember that they lived through the Great Depression and World War 2, so times were different in the way you lived.

My dad found a box full of my Grandparents recipes that they used to make food. My dad doesn't cook, but wanted to find his Dad's famous french toast recipe. Since I have a love for food and I do like looking at recipes, I decided to tackle the never ending box of recipes.

I had to remember that they did not have the internet or blogs to look up recipes, just newspaper, books, and passed down recipes.

In the end, I didn't find the french toast recipe in this pile, (only took 1 hour to sort through) but I did get some new recipes to try. This is what the pile looked like after I picked out the goods.

And here are the goods I found and will have to try:

Magic Casserole (does include my favorite: Mashed Potatoes in recipe)
Crunchy Oven Fried Chicken (made with cocktail peanuts and peanut butter)
Carrot Cake
Pineapple Cake
Lemon SUPREME cake (apricot nectar added)
Butler Chocolate Pie
Sock-It-To-Me-Cake
Lime Cheesecake (my mother in law will like this)
Banana Split Cake
Coconut Buttermilk Pie

Sounds like we will be having Chicken and lots of Cakes and Pies.


Not only did they collect all these recipes, I found so many soap bars (as pictures above), handkerchiefs, petite white gloves, aprons, scarfs from different places, doilies and my favorite: mason jars.

What type of things did your grandparents save or collect?

My blog is saying....

Forget-Me-Not

Melinda says, "Don't you worry, I haven't forgot about you. Life has just starting to calm down."

Blog says, "I thought you were on vacation, doesn't that mean you were calm with life slowing down?"

Melinda, "Yes and No. My vacation was that and more, it's just coming back from a vacation and having to catch up with all that you left out of sight, out of mind."

Blog, "I understand. Well, I expect to see all the pictures and hear all the stories about your trip soon."

Melinda, "Yes Ma'am, once I upload all the pictures we took and get my room cleaned."

Birthday Week is coming to end, but Vacation time starts!

I had a great birthday celebration that lasted all week with belated greetings from people, work lunches and all those Birthday Clubs I belong to. I am so thankful for my friends and family who always make me feel very loved on my birthday. I  have a better understanding now that I am older what my parents meant by "I don't need any birthday gifts." I am realizing that I appreciate the special birthday wishes and greetings that come from cards, Facebook post, phone calls, text, and even special kisses from my dog.

I was going to stop the post there. But as promised in the last post, I have a few pictures of my week, or my meals this week. 

Mom and I at Benihana's for a Hibachi experience and good food!

 

 

 

Went to Cups N' Crepes for breakfast on Saturday. Did not get a crepe, but got my favorite meal, it's called "Huddy" 

Ended the evening with Pasta Milano. I did not say favorite meal like usual when I order this because I don't know if I can call it my favorite anymore. They no longer make the dish with bow tie pasta, instead big tubes. Texture makes a huge difference and the dish was not the same. I still ate it and enjoyed it. For dessert, we had a chocolate cake with chocolate sauce on the side. The picture is the one at the top. 

 

 

This was actually from the week prior. We were at BJ's Brewery and ordered this Strawberry Beignet and Pizookie below with the birthday coupon. 

 
Let me pause here to say that I did not just eat all week, this was all spread out from the last 2 weeks. Back to the pictures. 

My work made it a special day on Wednesday when everyone was in the office

These M&M cupcakes are from my sweet co-workers. They had a pizza party for me since I LOVE pizza.

Special gift sent from my sister. She ordered these from ETSY and sent them. I have been wearing them since I took them out of the box.

 

The last few weeks in pictures...

Early Lunch Break

When: Tuesday, July 12th. 95 degrees outside

What: I was bending over to put a heavy box down and then RIP. Hearing my pants rip is not fun. Turning around to make sure nobody is around is a huge relief.

Where: UNT football stadium (cleaning out the old suite)

Why: I decided to bring some heavy boxes up and down football bleachers in nice dress pants that were loose.(promise)

How: You know how your clothes stick to you in hot and humid weather? I do. After they ripped, I still had 3 boxes sitting out at the top of the bleachers that I could not just leave out... had to finish the job fast. 

 

 

"Step Right Up"

 

When: Saturday, July 16th.

What: First Book Club Brunch. We discussed Water for Elephants

Where: My Big Top!

Why: I wanted to decorate so that we could feel like we were at a circus (please ignore the mess. This was taken night before) I put streamers up everywhere and made swings in random places. I even had circus music playing as you walked in. I love themes!

How: It was really fun! We talked about the book for about 30 minutes and chatted and ate the other 2 hours! This usually happens at every book club I have been too. 

 

 

 

Jovi came to visit

Taking breaks during play

Jovi's turn to dominate

 

Kona's Turn

So tired, they had to play while lying down

When: Saturday, July 16th - After Book Club

What: Jovi, the great dane puppy came to visit. We were dog sitting for Alex and Loryn Best

Where: Living room to outside. Back in the living room, then to guest room. Back in the living room. Same thing the whole day.

Why: They played so good together despite their sizes. Jovi is double the size of Kona. They were both the same size in March when we visited them in San Angelo. 

3 days after Jovi left, Kona was so sad and would walk by the room where Jovi slept to see if she was still there.

Next post I will post about all the food I have been eating for my Birthday Week. I have so many free coupons for restaurants that I have been taking advantage of. 

(P.S.- So many restaurants have free stuff for your birthday, look into it and sign up! I am part of at least 8 free meal or dessert clubs. Let's just say that during the month of July, I am a happy eater!) Here is the website I visited to get Free stuff! 

$2.99

Jonathan and I had a lovely 4th of July weekend! We got to run errands, shop, eat, clean, smoke ribs, lounge around the house and watch movies. On July 4th, we made our way to Dallas to look at external hard drives to buy so that we can finally upload pictures to our computer without using all our space. (The day is almost here when I will no longer use my iPhone for posting pictures) 


While in Dallas, we decided to visit the old stomping grounds we enjoyed while living in that area. After lunch, we popped into Sprinkles to get a cupcake. I ordered the carrot cake cupcake and Jonathan got the red velvet cupcake. While placing our order, the attendant asked us "would you like a cupcake for your dog?" Both Jonathan and I answered at the same time, but with a different answer. I said "No" thinking that he would say the same thing because we 

1.) Don't feed Kona human food 
2.) They are $2.99 a pop

When I heard a "Yes" come out of Jonathan's mouth, I was shocked. Happy 4th of July to Kona as well. Something she will NOT get used to. 

When we got home later that day, we decided to give her the $2.99 cupcake to enjoy hoping she would eat it slowly and really appreciate it, like I do desserts. This is how much she enjoyed it:

I was very shocked when she was done because it looked like she just sucked it up and didn't even chew. I just hope she knew it was something different and sweet - not fluffy dog food with white icing.

Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread

 As far as I can remember and probably smell, my mom would make monkey bread for any special occasion. My mom makes this breakfast bread every Christmas morning, Birthdays, friends sleeping over, biscuits being on sale, and many other holiday mornings. I love waking up to the smell of butter, cinnamon, and melted caramel on biscuits in the oven. It helped everyone wake up quicker knowing that it would be gone fast.

Over the last few years our family has grown, with last Christmas eve having 16 people staying the night at mom and dad's house. With that many people, we made 2 monkey bread dishes that morning to make sure everyone could have some.

Some of the family to stay the night. Christmas 2010

Standing around watching me cut portions to make sure it was equal (2009)

Carefully cutting (2009)

The reason I wrote this post was because I found a different way of making Monkey Bread. I will have to try it out on the next guest who stay with me. (hint hint) The recipe I found had the bread in individual jars. 

Source: Monkey Jars

Maybe this way will help make sure everyone gets the same portion of bread and leave no room for disagreement, which is sometimes funny to argue about, especially over food.

Cupcakes and Babies

Love both of these things. 

I have not had a cupcake in a while, but I did get to make some cupcakes for a friend who just had her baby on Saturday. The only difference is that her son gets to wear them. 

 

I saw the cupcake onesie's here and decided to make them. I forgot to take a picture of the final product, but I put a little tag on it that said "Cupcakes for a Sweet Baby"

To help celebrate 4th of July, I might just have to make some cupcakes, only edible this time.

Yum

 

 

 

Just add a little mint

The Texas heat has been so hot lately. I don't even want to be outside unless it is before 9:00am or after 7:00pm. It's funny, I play a mind game with myself during the winter time when I am out and about and bundled up, I mentally tell myself, "it's hot and I am sweating" just to feel a little warm, and I think it helps. I try not to be outside for long during the summer because after a while, I just feel myself starting to melt/sweat and I try to avoid that unless I am in the proper attire or I am about to jump in a pool.


Today my co-worker gave me a sprig of mint from her house since she knew that I wanting to start growing it. I kept it on my desk and it smelled so fresh and clean. After smelling it for one hour, I could not wait to use the mint at home, so I decided to make a refreshing mid-morning (9:30am) drink. 

This is my version of a "workplace" mint julep. Cool, refreshing, sweetened iced tea with a few pieces of mint. I think this will be an afternoon "must" when 3:00pm rolls around for the summer. 

Ahh, refreshing!

Remember your first everything.

Dove chocolates are one of my favorite chocolates to eat. I might be silly to say this, but what I love about this particular chocolate is the wrapper. I love the inside messages you find once you open the chocolate candy.  I try to open Dove chocolates very carefully so that I can save the wrapper, especially if I like the quote. One of my favorites quote wrappers can be found in our guest bathroom in a heart picture frame. It simply says "Remember your first everything." This was actually the other blog name I was going to use since I love thinking about how many firsts we have in life.  

It is fun to think about my firsts because it brings me back to that moment and creates a feeling of accomplishment or even thankfulness. Some examples (small and big) of my first include: 

-trying sushi (I hated it, but love it now)

-airplane ride (1 hour to Oklahoma)

-getting to sit in first class (one day I will on an international flight)

-love (my husband of course)

-house 

-half-marathon

-first day of work at new places

This past weekend, we started our First Garden! We are playing it safe with the vegetables we are growing and keeping in mind how Texas summers are brutal. We don't have high expectations on what will happen, we are just excited to try it out! But it will be fun to look back in a few years and reminisce about what we grew and how much we will learn from our initial harvest.

  

Kona is making sure we have a place to grow treats 

P.S. - What are some of your firsts you like to remember?

A Happy 1st Birthday!

When I opened my birthday card last year, a picture of Jonathan holding a cute wrinkled puppy was inside. After I looked at that picture, I was sold on having a puppy. (my first pet ever)  Little did we know after picking her up form the breeder, we weren't getting a cute, lazy, sleepy puppy, but we got a cute high energy velcro dog that would change the very way we experience life. Kona has been a great addition to our family, we definitely had times when we almost gave her back or wanted to get rid of her, but so happy we didn't. She has been a joy to have around and I never knew I would love a dog so much - coming from a girl who was afraid of any dog until college.

Yesterday Jonathan and I had a blast celebrating Kona's birthday. I'm sure she heard me say Happy Birthday at least 50 times that day. I know she did not understand it was her birthday, but I wanted to celebrate anyways.

Birthday girl got to sit in the front seat (only for a little bit) Don't worry, I told her not to get used to it

Earlier in the week, I thought about getting Kona a baby pool for her to lay and lounge in the backyard as a birthday present. Jonathan had a much better idea - taking her to swim in the lake. This was Kona's first time to go to the lake, and it looks like it will not be her last. Instead of just lounging in a small pool in the backyard, Jonathan and Kona had so much fun swimming and playing in the water.

 

After the swim, we wanted to bring her to Petsmart.  Shout Out: you can bring your pet inside with you and the best part is, they have FREE treats at the check out counter. (A small side note: This was a itch/dream I have wanted to do just so that she could get a treat) Back to her party- She was like a kid in a candy store just sniffing everything and looking at all the toys. (we left with 2 non stuffed toys. read here why) Also, while we were there, we finally made her a dog tag. - In case we forget her name and our phone number...

I think Jonathan and I had more fun than she did. Just watching her and making a bigger deal of her birthday than most people would was fun - A reason to celebrate! 

P.S. - I don't think I will do this every year, but I just wanted Kona to feel extra special this evening. 

Do you celebrate with your pets or secretly want to?