Two things for YOU

I want to share a couple things with you that I've recently discovered ~ one is a giveaway and one is a great recipe that was gone in a flash!  Well, the recipe wasn't gone in a flash, but the food we made from it was.  YUM

First, the giveaway...

My friend Monica, The Mennobrarian, is hosting a giveaway for a $40 gift certificate that can be used at any of CSN's 250+ online stores.  FUN!  Look at these sweet little samples she chose to show us:

I am very happy I didn't jump through the screen to try and grab that flower and butterfly plate!  Close call, that was.  Pop on over to visit Monica if you'd like to enter ~ she's adorable.  You'll love her blog and pictures and recipes as well.

Speaking of recipes...

If you're watching your weight, or diet, or whatever, just zone out for a minute because this recipe is not gonna make you skinny.  Just put on your stretchy clothes for the night - you'll be fine.  I ran into one of the hot lunch ladies from our church/school at the grocery store and got the recipe for this FABULOUS chicken dish they serve the kiddos.  They call it Sweet & Sour Chicken, but it's similar to some wing sauce at the grocery store that's called Spicy Glazed.  Take your pick.  All I know is that all five of us devoured ate it and liked it!  Pause.  Let that sink in (those of you with a family of picky eaters).

Here's what you'll need:

Some chicken chunks (they use popcorn chicken at school).  I bought these weird round chicken token-looking things that you could probably use in a slot machine.  Hey, they were on sale - don't judge me, I overspent that day.  With a little forethought I probably would've bought some breaded chicken tenders and cut them up.  You can of course make them, but this is for a quick meal when you didn't thaw anything out that day.

1 cup of hot sauce (they use Frank's and so do I)

2 sticks of butter

1/2 a bag of brown suger (which is about 1 lb.)


Heat it all up (except the chicken) on the stove or in the microwave, stirring occasionally.  Cook the chicken and then serve over rice*.  At school they coat the chicken in the sauce first and serve it over rice.  I let everybody put their own sauce on so I didn't have to listen to "there's too much" or "there's not enough".  It was long day, what can I say?

*If you've never made rice in the microwave, it's beyond easy.  I use 1-1/2 cups of rice (not Minute Rice) and 3 cups of water; put it in the microwave uncovered and cook it for 20 minutes.  Poof - done.  If your family is smaller, use 1 cup of rice and 2 cups of water and cook it for 15 minutes.  I use the microwave for about 3 different things and rice is one of them.

ENJOY!!

Blogger, meet Blogger*

*I posted this a day or so ago and only half of it posted so I'm going to try this again - fingers crossed!

Remember when you first started blogging and you felt like an outsider looking in on everyone else's life?  Little by little, a handful of blogs became your very favorites and all of a sudden you felt like you knew these people.  I like to visit a lot of blogs but I always find myself going back again and again to those I feel I know best.  I've made friends (and I'm sure you have too, or will soon if you're just starting out) that even though we've never met face-to-face, I feel like we've known each other forever.  It's so fun to find things in common whether it's jobs, age, children, gripes, chocolate, animals, you name it!  And when you're having a bad day, don't you just love to read your comments and know that you're not alone?  Awwwe...

Almost a year ago, I posted a recipe for lemonade cookies and I had a picture of the ingredients.  I used the store brand instead of name brand for some of the things.  My husband works for a regional grocery chain here in the Midwest called Schnucks so I use a lot of Schnucks ingredients, no biggie.  Well, it was such a surprise when I received the following comment that day:

"Oh my word...had to leave you a comment about your brand of lemonade mix and baking soda!!  My husband would be so PROUD to see this on a blog.  He works for them!  Glad to see you shop there.  Yeah you!!!"

After I saw her comment, I quick sent her a message asking who her husband was and then we'd find out if our husbands knew each other.  They had met a few times and did know one another, but Darcie and her family don't live in St. Louis and John (Darcie's husband) works in one of the out-of-state stores!  That just made the world all that much smaller - how fun is that!?

I'd been reading Darcie's blog for a while, Life's Unfolding Story, and knew what was going on with her children, their sweet adoption story of their daughter from China, and the regular daily happenings of things in their lives.  We knew each other from Blogland but that's about it. 

Soooo....every year Schnucks has their awards dinner downtown (in St. Louis) and I got an e-mail from Darcie asking if we'd be there because they were coming in town for it, and SURE ENOUGH we would.  We'd finally get to meet!  This would be the first time for me to meet a blogging friend face-to-face.  The good news was we'd meet, but the bad news was that we couldn't sit together and we had very little time to spend chit-chatting.

Being the nice, giving person that I am, I quick put on 50 lbs. to make sure that Darcie would look good in any pictures we might take.  Then I also made sure one piece of my hair was completely out of place on my forehead.  Could I get any nicer??  As you can see, Darcie just looks cute and happy and tall.  She obviously didn't eat any extra Oreos for ME!  She's as sweet as the day is long though, and I'm glad we finally met face-to-face.  I would've been nicer if we'd had more time to spend together and talk.   

I hope to meet more and more of my blog friends in the months and years to come because it is a GREAT group out there!  Have you ever met any blog friends?  Go visit Darcie and tell her hello ~  ♥

Re-do on its way...

I'm going to work on my post that I just posted today.  When I went to look at it, it left a huge chunk out of the story of meeting my blogging friend, Darcie.  This post has been in my head since February and the day I decide to post it, it won't let me.  Wahhhh.  I have to leave for work in a bit but hopefully I'll get it back up tomorrow.  

I'm cracking up that the comments were as sweet as ever and nobody said, "Wow, that's neat but your story really didn't make sense."  That's why I love blogging ~ I ♥ my blog friends!!  OK, back in a bit...

Photo bomb?

We all know what a photo bomb is, right - when you take picture of something and something else inadvertently (or purposely) gets in the picture?  This must be from around 1967 or 68 and I'm not sure if the goose is the photo bomb or I am - or neither.  I'm the blurry one, so who knows?  Maybe mom just wasn't used to close-ups.  Nice scarf, huh?  :D

For more pre-digital photo fun, pop on over to Alicia's for her Friday Photo Flashback - and have a good weekend!

We'll be back after these messages...

While I have temporary computer access (my husband's laptop), I wanted to tell you I'll be back after: A) My regular computer UN-crashes; B) We RE-get-rid-of the RAT that seems to have made itself at home in our backyard...again; C) I'm less stressed out; D) All of the above.

This is a multiple choice quiz but there are no wrong answers - yay!  I'll let you know how it all turns out, my sweet blog friends, and I'll see you soon ~

Breakfast with Ginger

This isn't my pup, but I got this video in an e-mail from my friend Annette, and I cracked up!  I thought it would be fun for a Tuesday's Show & Tail, so enjoy and I'll see you tomorrow where I will BEG for a blog tutorial (yep, I'm blog-challenged and I need some H-E-L-P) ~  

Be sure and visit Angela and West Virginia Treasures for more animal fun.

Watch out Macy's!

The grade school my siblings went to had a parade every year for the families or something (everyone's memory is vague for some reason - selective amnesia I'd say by the looks of our "floats") and every family would decorate their car.  I do know that by the time my older brother and I came along and were at a different school, they DID have a parade every year before the school picnic.  


Now I understand when you have six kids, things can get a bit hectic but wouldn't you think at least ONE person would just really want to step up and say, "Hey, let's go all out this year!!"??  Who knows, maybe we were going for the "understated elegance" look.  Or the "we don't want to be obnoxious and ostentatious" look.  And that, my friends, is what we've achieved.  I think if you're going to do something right, you need to give a good hearty 20% to it!  I think I honestly laughed out loud when I saw these pictures - good thing Macy's wasn't recruiting for their Thanksgiving Day Parade!  Can you imagine how expensive it would be to have flown our whole family up there??

 This was before I came along - look at the X kids!  OK, simmer down.

OK, now I've joined the crowd and I'm turned around thinking, 

"Is it like that on purpose or on accident?"

Whew, getting better - we're spelling out words.  It was my brother that was in second grade at the time.

And finally, we've graduated to the Kleenex flowers - ta dah!!  Again, we didn't go hog wild, but I remember those and I still remember helping to make them.  I'm glad my dress wasn't any shorter - I think this is where the, "I see Mars, I see stars..." phrase would come in handy.

For more pre-digital photo flashback fun visit Alicia at More Than Words ~

Baptism day!

 

My godfather just passed away a couple months ago and my godmother, his wife, just came in the library yesterday where I work.  She and my mom are still very good friends.  I thought a good Friday Photo Flashback would be a couple pictures that I have of him (my godfather), that also just happen to be my baptism.  

On a side note, they'd send me a birthday card every year with $5 in it and to this day I still open cards and hope money falls out - from anybody. :D

This was, I believe, January of 1965 and you can tell how long ago it was because I don't even remember the days of women wearing veils on their heads in church, but they did forever.  Every so often, even now, there will be one or two older women who still will wear a small veil. 

Mr. and Mrs. Belobradic

I was baptized at St. Sabina and our family moved when I was a year old to a different neighborhood, which meant a different parish.  However, I now live back near St. Sabina and it has been our church since our children started school there in 1993.  The baptismal dress is over 100 years old and has been in the family since my grandfather and his siblings were babies, which I love.  All three of my children have worn it as well.  Maybe that will be another flashback.

For more pre-digital photo fun, visit Alicia at More Than Words and have a good weekend! 

The Happy Family

Talk about a blog post falling right into my lap!  When I get the chance, I like to participate in the Tuesdays Show & Tail, hosted by Angela at West Virginia Treasures.  It's a chance to show off pictures of pets or animals of any kind.  Even if you don't like animals, that's a post right there.

A good friend from church has two dogs.  That's a half-truth because yes she does, but she's a softy so there could be any number of flora or fauna at their house at any given time and there usually is.  She also has five of her own children so there's always something going on.  Well, if you haven't furrowed your brow in a head tilt yet today, I'm here to help.

We won't have a biology lesson because I don't think I could explain it even if I wanted to.  However, when you have dogs that haven't been "fixed" yet, sometimes you get a little surprise - and sometimes you're a bit more surprised than others.  One dog is a dachshund and one dog is a bigger black something-or-other.  

Awwwe, here is the little puppy.  There was only ONE pup in the litter and it looks just like a little bitty dachshund.  There's nothing strange about that.

Hmmm, here's the mama - the big black dog.  Now if SHE'S the mom, and she only had one pup that looks like a dachshund, we don't need Jerry Springer to figure out who the dad is...

That's right, the dachshund is the DAD.  Yep.  Let's not think about what was involved - it's personal.  He needs one of those dog T-shirts that says, "Stud" in rhinestones or something though - he deserves it. 

For more fun animal stories, visit Angela at her blog and visit the others who've joined in.