Perfect evening

My honey and I went to Steamers for dinner last night - *delish*. We parked our car by this park and after dinner we asked some kids playing basketball to please take our picture - *with our cheapy camera phone. It was a perfect evening spent with my fella.

Pinwheel wreath

My step-daughter Erin made a cute spring wreath from a Dollar Tree pool noodle, yarn and flowers. I caught my inspiration for this one from her, using a pool noodle and green clothes line from Dollar Tree, and left over paper scraps.

I love crazy signs

I love to make fun of crazy signs too.

I made a cake this morning. From scratch. Mostly from my own little head. I mean is there any recipe that is totally made up by anyone? But it turned out pretty darn yum-o-licious.

I was inspired by a recipe for strawberry lemon bundt cake I got off of Pinterest. I love Pinterest, you can find just about anything on there...the strawberry lemon bundt cake I made the other day looked so good, and it was, except I really don't like chunks of mushy warm fruit in anything. Whether I'm making banana bread or jam, I have to puree the fruit. So having globs of warm strawberries in my cake >shudder<...well, lesson learned. Where was I? Oh yeah, the triple chocolate cake I invented (hey, if Al Gore can take credit for inventing the internet, I can take credit for inventing a triple chocolate bundt cake!) Here's the recipe if you want to try it.

******************************************************************* TRIPLE CHOCOLATE BUNDT CAKE *1 C. (2 sticks) butter - don't go cheap on me, use the real stuff. *2 C. sugar *3 eggs *1 tsp. vanilla *10 oz. plain Greek yogurt - that's what gives the cake it's moistness! *2 C. flour *1/4 C. baking cocoa powder *1/2 tsp. baking soda *1/2 tsp. salt *1 C. (or more!)really good quality chocolate chips Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees. grease and flour a 10" bundt pan. If you want to be super fancy, you can dust your pan with cocoa powder instead of flour. ******************************************************************* Sift flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda, set aside. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla. Alternate beating in flour mixture and yogurt until just incorporated. fold in chocolate chips. Pour into prepared bundt pan. Bake @ 325 for 50 (fifty) minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before turning out onto a serving dish. Drizzle with warm fudge glaze over the top. ******************************************************************* Here's the recipe for the fudge glaze: *3/4 C. heavy cream *1/4 C. light corn syrup *8 oz. bittersweet chocolate- I used Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate baking chips- SOOO GOOD! *1/2 tsp. vanilla Warm the first three ingredients until the chocolate is melted, stirring constantly. Once melted, remove from heat and add the vanilla. Stir until nice and smooth. Drizzle over cake and serve warm. Yumm-O! I know this looks like the Magna Carta of recipes...but it is super easy I promise! Enjoy!

How not to start a talk

We know we've all been there.

Post Mother's Day thoughts

I've had some thoughts on Mother's Day that have been jumping around in my head for the past couple days. These thoughts have gone from my head to my fingertips several times, but I haven't had the courage emotional energy to put them into my computer. This is for my own journaling purposes and not for clever entertainment, like I think I sometimes do. So >taking a deep breath< here goes. Mother's Day was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for me for several reasons. Here are some of those reasons in no particular order: All three of our block meetings were spiritually uplifting. There were moments in each of the meetings that the Spirit was nearly tangible for me. Speaking on mothers gave me pause to reflect on the mother I was/am to my children. I gave birth to three amazing children, one of whom chooses not to speak to me. It makes my heart hurt, I miss him that much. I'm married to a man who treats me like a queen, not just on Mother's Day, but every day. When I'd hear women say "I'm married to my best friend", I use think "Nuh uh, that is so hokey". Well it turns out that you can actually be married to your best friend and I am. This best friend came with five (grown) children of his own. They are without their mother, and I know what that feels like. My own mom died when I was 21 and had, just three weeks before her passing, had my first baby. I wanted my kids to know their grandma...how kind and smart and funny she was. I wanted to know her woman to woman, not just child to parent. I've been sad, but not bitter or angry that she was taken from me this earth life at such a young age, because I know that Heavenly Father's plan is what I signed up for in the pre-existence. My dad never remarried after her passing. In hind sight, I wonder if I was encouraging him enough to date again, or if I was comfortable with him being alone. So Ron and I have 8 kids and 16, nearly 18 grand children. His... mine... the lines have blurred with our grandchildren as to their lineage. We just know that we love them all. Our children, while neither one of us can take "credit"(??) for raising all eight of them, were born Erin, Amy, Shannon, Jon, Sean, Janae, Daniel and Christopher, and that mix gives both he and I the ability to relate to all of them as if they were our own respectively. I find that the "mother bear" comes out in me as easily for Ron's kids as my own. I would like to think that when I meet Ron's first Kathy I'll be able to say " I loved your kids and was there for them as if they were my own. Did I do OK?"

Instructions (the English version) to our new Carbon Monoxide (CO) detector:

Or it could just read: