Pinterest Sminterest Can Only Do So Much

Well tonight my sweet officer decided to make some cookies.  He likes to bake every so often.  

My nice brother-in-law took a picture of him baking.  The officer was so involve in baking he was caught a little off guard.  To be silly, my brother-in-law posted the photo on Facebook.  Playing along, I liked the photo, commented on the photo, and encouraged others to "share" it.  :)  

A little later, the officer decided to go run to Sonic to get me a Vanilla Coke (I do love that man) and to Braums to get milk.  He had some cookies in the oven.  The timer went off just before he was walking out the door.  He came over to look at the cookies and said, "They need just a minute more.  I'll be back."  (No, he didn't use the "Arnold"voice.)  

I put the cookies back in the oven and went back to the game Draw Something.  I was trying to figure out what the officer's picture was (it was a picture of a man "planking")  and I heard the oven making noise.  No big deal.  It clicks and makes other noises when it's on.  The officer just wanted me to leave it on and not put the next batch in because he thought I'd burn them.  Silly man.  

I figured out the planking picture and was working on my "meter" picture.  I started to smell a burned chocolate chip.  I wondered to myself if a piece of cookie had fallen down to the bottom of the oven.

Even this passing thought did not motivate me to check before I finished my "meter" picture.  As soon as I finished I got up scrape the burned cookie off the bottom of the oven.  I opened the oven and found this....
 

I forgot he wanted to bake the cookies "just a minute" more.  Hockey pucks.  So he's not so silly after all.  Sadly, this is not the first time this kind of thing has occurred.  

Pinterest has been great with finding ideas for birthday parties, new recipes to try, great craft project, and getting a giggle, but it can't help me stop from burning a batch of cookies.  

Luckily the officer came home and finished the last batch.  I told him I would just tell the kids they are double chocolate chip cookies.  What do you think??? 

     

Answers in Genesis is Coming

I just wanted to let you know that Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis is coming to First Southern Baptist Church in Del City, Oklahoma. 

We first heard Ken Ham speak about six years ago at the homeschool convention.  The officer and I were blown away.  God made the world in a literal six days?  Dinosaurs were made on the fifth day?  Dinosaurs lived with men?  Dinosaurs were on the ark?  Dinosaurs were did not live millions and millions of years ago???  We are descendants of apes?  We are indoctrinated with this every day, sometimes without even knowing it.  We started seeing "millions and millions of years ago" everywhere.  In baby books (about dinosaurs which we had a ton of because my son was obsessed with them when he was two), in movies, and in museums.

Then a couple of years later we went to the Creation Museum in Ohio.  It was really amazing.  The museum was state of the art.  It had life size dinosaurs.  A life size section of Noah's ark so you could visualize how dinosaurs could fit on the ark.  It was worth the 16 hour drive. :)

Now you can hear Ken Ham speak also.  He is coming to First Southern Baptist Church in Del City, Oklahoma on Nov. 11 and Nov. 12, 2012.  The event is FREE to attend.  Here is the schedule:

Sun, Nov 11

10:30 a.m. -11:30 a.m. Ken Ham Reaching Today’s Culture with the Gospel
5 p.m. -6 p.m. Ken Ham One Race, One Blood
6 p.m. -6:30 p.m. Break
6:30 p.m. -7:30 p.m. Gary Parker From Evolution to Creation

Mon, Nov 12

9 a.m. -10:30 a.m. Ken Ham Dinosaurs for Kids (Grades K-6)
11 a.m. -12:30 p.m. Ken Ham Defending the Christian Faith Biblically and Scientifically (Grades 7-12)
6 p.m. -7 p.m. Ken Ham Communicating the Christian Message in a Secular World
7 p.m. -7:30 p.m. Break
7:30 p.m. -8:30 p.m. Gary Parker Geology and Genesis

 Childcare for children Pre-K and under will be provided on both session on Sunday and Monday evening session ONLY, but you have to contact the church by Nov. 6 at (405) 732-1300 to make reservations because space is limited.  You can also email them at Preschool@firstsouthern.tv to let them know you will need childcare.  Include the child and parent name, child's age and a cell phone number.

A Yorkshire Village Twist

Today, my mom came to visit.  She brought over a cool "book".  It is James Herriot's Yorkshire Village.  You open this book and fold the cover back on itself.  You tie to the covers together.  The inside of a book transforms into a Yorkshire Village you can play with.  

Each side (there are four sides) shows a different part of the Yorkshire Village.  Each of the sides has doors and windows that open.  You can access each side from a doorway or breezeway from another side.  There is a church, a cottage, a storefront, and barn with house.

The kids were very intrigued with this village.  They immediately got their small toys out to set up their village.  Knights and army men for my son and LEGO Friends for my daughter.  They each chose a side.   It amused me how much of a "boy" and "girl" side they made.  I took pictures of their village.  You can tell whose side is whose.

 

Here's an aerial view.

 

Grandma loves to spark imagination.  She has a lot of great things to help all her grandkids use their imagination.  That's a mark of a great grandma.  :) 

Grandma also helped my son with his science today.  They made apple cinnamon vanilla perfume.  They also made onion perfume.  Although I love onions the perfume strange. 

Fall Festivities with the Grandparents

On Friday, we went to the officer's parents to spend the day.  When we drove in, we saw this big sign.  So cute!

 
and this sign...

The officer and Papa spent a little bit of time making "Thor" hammers for the kids.  Not so sure this was a good idea.  We'll see.

After cousins arrived, we all loaded up on the trailer for a hayride to the pumpkin patch.  We drove around a little corner and there was the homemade pumpkin patch right in the field. 

The kids were so excited.  They all hopped off the trailer and ran to pick the perfect pumpkin.  

 

The pumpkins were heavy and some needed help to get them back to the trailer.  However, not one of the kids noticed that Papa had staked the pumpkins to the ground. Papa even stapled some foliage to the pumpkins so it would seem like they were really in a pumpkin patch. 

Grandma had a table set up outside where the kids could decorate their pumpkins with stickers and markers. 

A little later in the day Papa took us all on a hayride.  Last year's hayride was.... extreme.  Down steep slopes, tight fits fence posts, and through trees with tree branches slapping us on our faces.  this year was much smoother.  Halfway through our hayride, we saw this giant pumpkin.  Grandma had hidden little treat cups for the kids.   

 

We rode back to the house and the officer got the campfire started.  Something about a campfire that is so relaxing and mezmerizing.  We roasted hot dogs and had s'mores. 

 

The kids opened their glowsticks from their treat cups.  That in and of itself provided a hour of entertainment for them.  The rain stayed away all day.  It was a nice night sitting around the fire listening to it crackling, talking with family, and enjoying listening to the kids laugh and play. 

My two kids stayed the night with their cousins.  The next morning, the officer and I were able to go eat breakfast at Panera Bread together.  

How cute of a breakfast date is he??  :)

Unexpected Surprises

Today has been an interesting day.  I had a coupon class scheduled for tonight.  This past month I went from just having Treasure Hunt for Coupon on Facebook to starting my own coupon blog by the same name.  

It has been a lot of fun starting the blog, but it's also been a learning experience.  About a month ago, I had several other coupon bloggers start to email me and say, "You should get paid for what you are doing on Facebook.  You're doing all the hard work already, you should get paid for it."  I thought it would require more time from me and I honestly just didn't anymore to it.  However, my mind slowly began to change.  

So at the beginning of September, I stumbled my way through starting a coupon blog.  I have enjoyed it immensely.  However, I really have no idea what I'm doing.  A few fellow coupon bloggers have helped and encouraged me along the way.  There's a lot more involved in a good coupon blog than I ever realized.  I'm just slowly figuring things out and moving along.  I'm constantly trying to find a balance between posting the great deals I find and doing all the other things that I need to do.  Some days are better than others.

Today I had to prepare for my coupon class.  I only put on a coupon class probably once every six months.  I wait until five to six people start asking when I'll be putting on the next one and then I try to plan one. I spent most of the morning running errands and then the afternoon cleaning the house.  The officer was great because even though he is sick, he left with the kids this morning at 8:30 a.m. and ran around with them so I could get some things done.  He took them to tae kwon do and brought them home.  He did this in the middle of his fever induced chills.  The kids were great because they cleaned their rooms, help me prepare for my class, and there wasn't even one fit today.  :)

I had a couple of people cancel on Wednesday and Thursday.  Two people cancelled tonight and two others just didn't show up.  That left me with one.  The bright side?  It was a good friend.  The even brighter side?  She brought an awesome artichoke dip with yummy crackers.  The brightest side?  We ended up having a great evening just chatting about coupons (of course), family, and our lives.  Oh and most of my house had a good cleaning.  Nothing like company coming over to get me to clean my house.  :)  Can I get an "Amen!"?

So even though I was a bit discouraged in the beginning, God showed me everything works out.  I ended my day with another encouraging word from one of the coupon bloggers.  God knows just what I need when I need it.  

Psalms 139:4
Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. 

Parmesan Baked Potato.......

I tried a new recipe from Pinterest tonight.  From reading the recipe and directions, it sounded fairly easy to make. It was Parmesan Baked Potato Halves.  The original recipe came from the FavFamilyRecipes.com.   Don't they look yummy?  You can find the recipe here.  

Parmesan Baked Potatoes

Ingredients 

6 small potatoes, scrubbed and cut in half 

1/4 cup butter 

Grated parmesan cheese 

Garlic powder (I used minced garlic) 

Other seasonings (To personal preference)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

2.  Melt butter and pour into a 9x13 inch pan and spread evenly across the bottom. 

3.  Generously sprinkle Parmesan cheese and lightly sprinkle other seasonings all over the butter. 

4.  Place potato halves face down on the butter and seasonings. 

5.  Place in preheated oven and bake for 40 to 45 minutes. 

6.  Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan. 

Serve on a plate with a side of sour cream for dipping.

This is what it looked like before I put it in the oven.  They smelled delicious as the Parmesan cheese, butter, and garlic melted into yummy goodness.  

I had my sour cream at the ready on a plate.  I pulled out the pan and I noticed the Parmesan cheese was pretty brown on the edges.  This didn't matter to me because I like things a little on the brown side.  The browned Parmesan cheese was not the issue.  The fact that the cheese mixture stuck to the bottom of the pan was the issue.  

Remember this is what FavFamilyRecipes.com's looked like:
 

and this was mine....

NAILED IT!

Next time I will put these with the cut side up and top the potatoes with the Parmesan mixture and see how that goes.  I am unsure how this could turn out any different if I did it again.  Have any ideas?  Leave me a comment.  :)

Loaded Baked Potato Salad

I go through phases. I  got through a phase where I want to try new recipes, then I got back to cooking in a rut, and then I get tired of eating the same old things and go back to trying new recipes.

I'm in the trying new recipes phase.  I went back to my Pinterest "Food I have to Try" board and choose a recipe for a birthday party we are going to tonight.  We are having sandwiches so I thought I would try the Loaded Baked Potato Salad recipe that sounded so yummy to me when I pinned it.

You can get the link to the original recipe from a blog called No Ordinary Moments here.  Her picture of the potato salad is much better too.  Here's mine:

This potato salad is so yummy, creamy, and delicious.  I'm completely sure it's fat-free.  NOT!  It has mayo, sour cream, cheese, potatoes and bacon so it's certainly not fat-free, but I can guarantee it's awesome.

Here's the recipe:  

Loaded Baked Potato Salad Recipe

Ingredients

3 pounds of small, red potatoes, washed and diced 
1 1/2 C. of sour cream
1/2 C. cup mayonnaise
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. granulated garlic
1/2 lb. bacon, cooked and chopped
6 green onions, diced
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
  
Directions

1. Cut red potatoes into chunks. Boil until potatoes are just shy of being cooked. Drain.
2. While potatoes are cooking, mix sour cream, mayonnaise, spices, green onions, and bacon together.
3. Mix potatoes in with sour cream mixture. Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour.
4. Add shredded cheese to cooled mixture and mix well.
5. Chill until ready to serve. Enjoy!

So good.

Girls Night - Heart to Art at Cafe Pranzo

This evening my friend, Mrs. Jill, and I spent the evening painting.  I had purchased a Groupon for two to Heart to Art.  You can go to Heart to Art and choose a picture you would like to paint.  After you choose your painting, you find out what restaurant where you will spend the evening.  We choose "Make Lemonade" at Cafe Pranza. 

When we arrived, Jennifer, the owner of Heart to Art, and Danielle, the instructor were still setting up.  They set up our canvases, paints, brushes, and aprons.  There were about nine women present. 

Danielle starts by telling us how she will do each step.  She has a finished painting of what we are going to paint, a bowl of lemons sitting on a table.  She also has a blank canvas and a dry erase board. For each step, she will show us what to do on the dry erase board.  After that, she paints it on her canvas as we follow along.  

Danielle has us start by painting a red line just below the half way mark of our canvas.  Each step she tells us which brush to use, how wet to have our brush and which paint/paints to use. 

We paint the bottom portion of our canvases reddish.  This will be our tablecloth.  Everyone's red is a little different, depending on how much white they mixed with their red.  

Next we painted our background.  Again everyone's background are different shades of green.  As we are painting, a lot of questions start arising.  "Am I doing this right?"  "Why does mine have lines."  "What blend of colors did you do?" 

Danielle shows us each step.  She is very patient and encouraging.  As we all start to doubt ourselves a bit, she encourages us to not worry about the small things.  It will all work out in the end.  She tells us to blend a little here or add a little here.  Never making us feel like we are horrible job.  Even though it might seem repetitive that she draws what she is going to do on the dry erase board and then paints it on her canvases, it isn't.  It is very helpful.

Danielle has us add our gingham stripes to our tablecloth.  We then as small highlights to the white stripes. 

Oh yeah, somewhere between, we have small breaks to let our paint dry.  Jill and I order some brushutto and garlic bread.  Yummy!!!

Danielle offered to take our picture while we were adding our lemons.  This is where I had to concentrate a little more.  It required more detail and a steadier hand. 

After we painted our lemons, the rest was just adding shading, outlining and detail to our lemons and the bowl.  When we were finished we took a group picture.  Jennifer took our pictures to post on Facebook.  When she posts it, I will add it to this post.  

It was very cool to see everyone's painting.  We all had painting a picture of the same thing, but each picture was different.  Some bowls were large, some bowls were more round.  Some had more lemons, and some had less.  Mrs. Jill and I took a picture together.

I took a picture with Danielle and what our painting is supposed to look like. 

This was such a fun Girl's Night Out.  It was something different to do other than just go out to eat.  Anyone, and I mean anyone can do this.  If I can do it, anyone can.  

Jennifer had Heart to Art loyalty cards.  Paint with them five times, get the sixth time free.  Mrs. Jill and I enjoyed it so much we purchased a gift certificate to do it again.  

Here's my finished painting. 

The End of the Journey - Day 12

Day 12 is Monday, June 4.  It is our last morning in Korea.  Mistie and I woke up around 6:45 a.m. and got ready.   Around 8 a.m., we walked to Dunkin Donuts with my mom and Gina for breakfast.  I had a couple of munchkins, 1/2 a bagel sandwich and got another iced caramel latte.  My mom told me she slept great all night.

Dunkin Donuts had some cute donuts.  The donuts below in pink box were smaller than the size of your palm.  If I thought I would get those back without getting smashed, I would have purchased them.  My kids would have loved donuts from Korea.   

It was nice to eat somewhere familiar for our last breakfast.  No rice.

We did not have to check out of our hotel until 12 p.m. so we walked around for a while.  We decided to go to Lotte Mart.  My mom hadn't been yet.  I purchased some pink rain boots with frogs for my daughter.  I think everyone purchased a couple of small things. We were trying to get rid of our wons.

This is a pharmacy.  It was nothing like CVS or Walgreens.  I wanted to go into it, but I didn't have my coupon book with me.  :)

 

Gunsan is the fifth largest city in Korea.  I thought it would be much smaller.  There were still a lot of tall buildings and large crosswalks.  Not nearly as many people as there were in Seoul.

After shopping, we went back to our hotel to check out.  While Mistie and I were in the lobby waiting and man said, "I just saw you at Lotte Mart!!!" He rode the shuttle with us to the airport. 

When we got to the Seoul airport, we were on the hunt for the Harley Davidson shop. I don't think any of us had purchased much for our husbands.  Mistie's husband and Gina's husband own street bikes, so we all wanted to get a Korea Harley Davidson shirt for our husbands.  Gina finally found the shop.  Their t-shirts were expensive, but we were all happy to finally have something besides toothpicks to give to our husbands.

We had to wait a while to check in.  When it was time, there was some nervousness about the weight of our luggage (and when I saw "our" I mean Gina's luggage).  It seemed to be twice her weight.   Mistie's suitcase was fine.  Gina checked her suitcase and found out it was 14 lbs. over the limit.  She took some stuff out and put some in my mom's suitcase.  She put the rest of her stuff into an extra backpack.  My luggage and my mom's were under the weight requirement.

When I got up to the check-in counter, the nice United lady told me I would have to my passport stamped at the immigration office.  She kept my boarding pass while I went to the immigration office to get it stamped.  It was no problem, but just one more thing you have to do when you lose your passport.  Wear it as a necklace when you travel people!!!

 After we check-in, we had time to eat lunch.  There was a restaurant  called Global Chow Buffet in the airport.  Hopefully everyone would find something they liked at the buffet.  I was fascinated by the napkins, so I took a picture of them.  There's nothing really fascinating about them except they were so small.  Everything was small.  The bowls rice.  The drinking glasses.  We are used to Sonic Rt. 44 drinks in America.  The glasses at Global Chow Buffet were juice size.  Three drinks and you needed to refill your glass.  The napkins were so small that you could probably only wipe your mouth twice before you'd need another one.

The buffet was amazing!  They had many toppings for your steamed rice.

 

Several different types of salads.

  

Spring rolls - our favorite at our table.

 

Sushi.  My mom was the only one who tried it.   She will try anything.  She said it was okay.

 

 

All the fixins for noodle soup.  I thought it would taste like the kind of noodle soup we our first night in Gunsan.  It didn't have as much flavor, but it was good.

One of my favorites, besides the spring rolls was the zucchini.  It was cooked with a little bit of sesame oil.  Delicious.  I tried a new fruit too.  When I had gone through the buffet, I had seen the fruit in a bowl.  In the picture below, it's round reddish hairy looking thing at the top of my plate.  I had wondered what it was, but was too much of chicken to pick it up.  When my mom had gotten her sushi, she brought one back on her plate.  She tried it first.  It totally grossed me out just looking at it.  She said it was citrus-y. 

I thought, "Okay, it can't be that bad."  I broke it open and juices spilled onto my plate.  Gag.  It looked like an eyeball.  It felt like an eyeball. I almost couldn't do it just because of that. 

 

I broke open the white "fruit" and there was a seed/pit inside. I ate the fruit and it wasn't bad.  It tasted a lot like an orange.  Our waitress told us the fruit was a rambutan.  I have never seen anything like it in America. 

We finished our lunch and shopped a little bit more in the airport.  Not at the all the stores we saw though.  Gina went into Tiffanys, but we didn't go into any of the others.

While we were shopping, a parade came through the airport.  There were beautifully dressed men and women.  I thought maybe it was a wedding.  Leaving the airport the day before we saw many cars decorated with paper flowers.  Daniel had told us for people who had just gotten married.  We asked a worker what it was the parade was for.  She told it was the King's Parade.  They do it twice a day in the airport and we were very lucky to get to see it.  Aren't they beautiful?

We got on our last subway to get to the our gate.  I don't think Gina was too sad it was our last ride. 

 

We went through security.  When I put my backpack on the belt and walked through, they pulled my backpack to the side.  A TSA lady opened the backpack, got my cosmetic travel bag out, and pulled out some small foldable scissors.  She knew exactly what she was looking for.  My mouth dropped open.  I had forgotten to put them in my checked luggage.  I had brought them to make the gift bags for all the students we were meeting.  I had just put them in my travel bag without even thinking.  They told me I wasn't allowed to have them on the plane and confiscated them.  I know - it doesn't seem like a big deal.  However, they weren't my scissors.  They belong to the officer.  He got them when he was 17 years old when he went to boot camp.  He's kept them for that long.  In fact, I'm not really even allowed to have them or use them.  He's afraid I'll lose or break them.  I couldn't believe I had gotten them taken away.  I was actually a little more nervous to tell him I had lost then than to tell him about my passport. 

We tried to spend the last of our wons.  I kept a few wons as "souvenirs".  Mistie had purchased a bottled water and Vitamin water for the plane ride.  However, when we went though the line to board the plane there was a second baggage check.  They took her drinks away.  Not a big deal, it's not like it was a pair sentimental foldable scissors that are over 20 years old.

We were all very excited because we were sitting in row 49 just below the television screens.  There was not a row in front of us so we had extra leg room. This made a huge difference in our comfort on the flight home.  Plus, the flight home was only nine and a half hours long as opposed to the 12 hour flight to Korea.  

Between all the movies and television shows, a screen would pop up that would tell us how far we had traveled, the temperature, how high we were, and how much further we had to go.  It was pretty neat to see the progress.  The dotted line depicted how far we had to go.

We watched Journey 2:  Journey to Mystery Island, The Office, There's a Rhino in my House, This Means War, One for the Money, and Adele at the Prince Albert Hall.

At the beginning of the movies, Gina turned to me and told me she had a problem with her earphones. She couldn't hear the video.  They weren't plugged in.  I think my mom did that on the flight over.  Maybe they are actually blood-related.

For lunch we had our choice of beef bulgogi or chicken and noodles.  I choose the bulgogi.  My mom actually got her choice this time. 

This flight home is a piece of cake.  I didn't sleep at all because I was trying to reset my internal clock.  It's very strange to fly from Dallas, Texas to Seoul, Korea, traveling for 24 hours without it ever being nighttime.  It did make it a little easier to not sleep on the flight home.  We traveled over 4,900 miles on the way to San Francisco and arrived at 11 a.m. (Monday morning) California time. 

When we arrived in San Francisco, my mom went to meet Angela, the other girl who was adopted the same time as Gina and me.  Angela lives in San Francisco so my mom was excited to get to visit her.  Our flight was scheduled to leave at 2 p.m. for Dallas.  However, it had been raining all day in San Francisco and all the flights starting at 6:30 a.m. were delayed because of it.  We were delayed two hours and left at 4 p.m.  Those two hour seemed longer than the nine and half hours flight to San Francisco.  I think the jet lag was already catching up to us.

Just before we were going to board the plane I called Andy.  I told him we were rain delayed.  He said, "Do you want me to tell you a surprise?"  I said, "Is there a  new motorcycle in the garage?!"  He laughed and said, "There is a new motorcycle sitting in the garage!!!"  I knew he had been looking but I didn't know he found one and had purchased it.  As he laughed, I blurted out, "Oh well then this is perfect time to tell you I lost your army scissors!!!"  He immediately groaned, "OHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!  You should have folded them up!"  "I did, and they still took them!", I replied.  He was not mad at me, but it bothered him more that I lost his scissors than my passport.

Gina and my mom were in one row.  Gina was by the window.  Mistie and I were in the middle row.  Gina was trying to get some sleep, but her window shade (which pulled downward) kept falling.  She had to stuff paper into the shade to keep it from falling.  It worked about 3/4 of the time.  

We arrived in Dallas, Texas around 10 p.m.  We were all exhausted!!  Somehow, Mistie still look cute after all that traveling. 

We piled all our junk into my mom's van and headed to Oklahoma.  We dropped Gina off around 1:30 a.m. about 45 minutes from her house.  Glenn and her two kids picked her up.  My mom and Mistie dropped me off at 2:30 a.m. My mom took Mistie home and then made it home a little after 3 a.m.

When I got home, the officer woke up to helped me get all my stuff in.  He told me the kids wanted to be woken up when I got home no matter the time.  My son requested to be sprayed with water to help him get up.  My daughter requested to be woken up with kisses.  I obliged them both.  

They woke up and I gave them their presents.  My son opened his wooden samurai sword and loved it.  My daughter loved her tae kwon do socks and rain boots.  I told them a little bit about my trip and we had to make them go back to bed at 3:45 a.m.  They were very excited I was home.  The officer and I stayed up until 5 a.m. talking.  It was good to be home.  There's no place like home (even if the officer woke me up at 9 a.m. the next morning to run errands all morning with the family.)

I had to take a nap from 1-5:30 p.m.  It took me at least a week and half to get over the jet lag.  I had no trouble adjusting in Korea, but back home.  I went to sleep every night and slept all night.  I woke up pretty easily - well as easily as I ever did, but I had to take a nap every afternoon.  I'm sure my mom had another great night sleep.  :)