A request

We bought this really cool rain gauge!May we have some rain now?

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*:-:¦: Leigh Ann :¦:-:*
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Bird Watching

We noticed some birds around the house yesterday. In the tree, is a Momma Robin sitting on her nest. I'm not the best nature photographer (I think it has something to do with the loud audience I have while taking pictures), but we scared the momma and she flew out of the tree.

She landed on the small rock wall below the front porch, so I snapped another picture of her.

Here is a...uh...stuffed bluejay, local to the region of PA called our playroom!

Here is the same bluejay perched on the swing set!

Here is the bluejay and his perch advisor. I think Quintin looks like a canary sitting on that bar!

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*:-:¦: Leigh Ann :¦:-:*
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My countertop

Heather asked about my kitchen countertop, it is called jamocha granite, but it is formica. My brother in law makes and installs formica countertops and he put it in for us. The darker formica is on the upper counter of our eat in counter and the rest of my countertop is a formica that has a texture to it, rather than being flat, but I forget the name of it. :)

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*:-:¦: Leigh Ann :¦:-:*
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Strawberry Delight

I just had to share a second recipe for strawberries. It is similar to the other one, but I actually prefer this one! This is the one I made over the weekend.




Strawberry Delight
1 box Angel food cake mix
8 oz cream cheese
1 1/2 c 10x sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 c cool whip
2 Tbsp cook clear gel (I replace with corn starch)
1/3 c water
1 1/2 c water
3 oz strawberry Jell-O
2 small boxes strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced

Bake angel food cake mix according to directions. (You can buy one from store, but they don't give as much cake as the box.) Mix sugar, cream cheese, vanilla and fold in cool whip. In saucepan, mix clear gel/corn starch with 1/3 c water and add the 1 1/2 c water to it. Boil until thick. Take off heat and add Jell-O. Allow it to cool before adding strawberries. Cut or tear the cake into bite-sized pieces. Layer the cake, cream mixture and strawberries in dish; I like to use my trifle dish, but a glass 9x13 works well, too. Let it chill in the refrigerator a few hours to firm up the Jell-O.

I poured the strawberries on a little too soon, I think, because it ran to the bottom. I usually put the saucepan in the fridge for a bit to let it chill there first.

Enjoy!!
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*:-:¦: Leigh Ann :¦:-:*
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Bumper Sticker - Just for fun

Bloggers - face to face

Every day I amazed at how many bloggers are out there with my same interests. I am always excited to meet new people and get to know them better through their blogs.

Imagine my surprise, while I’m reading a Canadian blogger’s page and I come across a blogger that lives just minutes from me. As I was reading Dawnelle’s blog, I came across Ghost Girl. I found her name intriguing and her comment was written with such an inviting style, I wanted to read more. I clicked on her profile and visited her blog. I couldn’t believe it when I realized how close we were. I left a comment and heard back from her shortly thereafter. I've had the opportunity to email with her a few times.

Then, just this past Tuesday, we met. I offered to take her to a local farmer’s market/flea market to show her around. Unlike me, Mary Ann didn’t grow up here. We talked and shopped and had a wonderful time at the market (and Mary Ann, I have just one chocolate whoopie pie left). I am still amazed at the opportunity to meet a fellow blogger. I had a great time getting to know her better and listening to her current writing projects and her family.

I really enjoyed myself and look forward to getting together again sometime. I had to chuckle as I followed her out of the parking lot, because on the back of her car is this bumper sticker, “Don't Annoy the Writer--She might put you in a book and kill you!” A sudden panic struck, leaving me to wonder on the ride home, if I had annoyed her and if Momma Roar is going to show up in her next book only to be killed off? ;-D

With a future blog post in the making, I grabbed my camera before we parted – please excuse the fact that I look like I just swallowed a balloon and that my head is 10 times larger than Mary Ann’s! I had such a fun time Mary Ann! And if I did annoy you, please don’t put me in a book and kill me! Haa

Have you met any bloggers? And I don’t mean those you knew before you started, but have you had a chance to meet someone you didn’t know before you started blogging? I just can't say enough how surprised I am at how many great friends I've met since I've started blogging. This has certainly added variety to my life - and I love it! Have a wonderful day!

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*:-:¦: Leigh Ann :¦:-:*
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Ketchup Lover's Special

Is this how they came up with the idea to use a clown for advertising?

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*:-:¦: Leigh Ann :¦:-:*
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What's your wallpaper?

What is your current computer wallpaper? Here's mine:

I love this picture!

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*:-:¦: Leigh Ann :¦:-:*
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It's official...

...I am addicted to thinking!

Because these are 100% accurate, right? ;-)

You Are Royal Blue

People find you difficult to understand. In fact, you often find it hard to understand yourself. You think so much that sometimes you get lost in your own thoughts!

What Color Blue Are You?

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*:-:¦: Leigh Ann :¦:-:*
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Strawberries!!

Yesterday, Devildog Wife shared her recipe for Strawberry Jam and asked for some good recipes for strawberries. I told her I'd share my favorite for strawberry pie.


But first, let me say, I am not a big lover of pies. For me, dessert requires chocolate, not fruit! But, this recipe has a few extras (sugar and cream cheese) to make up for it! I recived this from a dear friend years ago, she has since moved on to a different strawberry pie recipe, but this is still my favorite! Enjoy!

1 1/2 c bisquick
1/4 c butter
3 T boiling water
4 oz cream cheese
1/4 c 10x sugar
1 c cool whip
1 box Danish dessert, strawberry
1 1/2 qts sliced strawberries


Mix first 3 ingredients together and pat in 10" pie dish. Bake at 325 for 10-15 minutes. Mix next 3 ingredients and spread into cooled crust. Bake Danish Dessert according to box and cool. Add strawberries and add to pie. If you double the recipe, it fills a 9x13 pan.

UPDATE: Junket Danish Dessert

I find it in the jello aisle - hope this helps!

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*:-:¦: Leigh Ann :¦:-:*
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Delivering our friendship bread

Well, the baking of our friendship bread (read more here) was fun. The kids enjoyed mashing the bananas and adding the chocolate chips (while eating a few, too).











We doubled the recipe and made 8 loaves of our banana chocolate chip loaf. I had Quintin name 6 'friends' he'd like to take it to. We talked about the different children in his Sunday School class and his friends, and I put a limit on how far away they lived, lol.









Here's our first stop. Nolan (in the orange shirt) is in Quintin's SS class. His mom, Heidi, his brother, and a friend posed for this shot. Where was Quintin? Hiding in the van. He was so bashful about giving the poem and bread to his friends.





Our next stop was Adrianne and Jaimie's (Adrianne was at kindergarten) so I had a very willing Jaimie pose with a not-so-willing Elle. We left just as a storm was coming. So, off to bed with plans to finish the next day.





YAY! My son in a picture with his buddy, Jess. She is also in his SS class and her mom and T grew up together. Jess' mom is expecting their second child any day now!! Will banana bread make you go into labor? ;-)





Here's Elliott (he's Jess' cousin, too). He's also in their SS class. Quintin had been poking Elliott in SS so he thought it would be nice to take him some bread (don't think he came up with that on his own, he had some help).

Next stop - John's house! John is also in Quintin's SS class. He is also the little guy we made the Prayer Comforter for (read more here)- can you tell he likes his new blanket? I'm sure his sister and 2 brothers will love it too - I told him to snuggle up in it and eat some banana bread!

We also stopped and shared some with the Grandmas/Grandpas, but we didn't snap their pictures! We had a great time doing this and I hope think Quintin learned something.

Friendship

This week I've been talking with Quintin about Adam and Eve and how God made Eve as a friend and helper for Adam. We've also talked about needing friends and how special friends are. One of the suggested activities is to bake a friendship cake (carrot cake is suggested) and take it to a friend. Today, we're going to make our favorite Banana Chocolate Chip Loaf and deliver it to some friends with a poem about friendship.

I wish I could share some of the bread with each of you, but, since I can't, I'll share the recipe! This recipe was given to me by my mom, we made it a lot growing up!

Banana Chocolate Chip Loaf
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
3 bananas (mashed)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (we usually add a little more!!)

Cream together sugar and butter. Add beaten eggs. Measure dry ingredients. Add bananas and dry ingredients alternately to creamed mixture. Add chocolate chips. Bake in a greased loaf pan for 45 min at 350. *I like to bake mine in small loaf pans and I get 4 loaves out of this recipe. Enjoy!!

Did you ever...

...wash your dishes in the sink to clean up after supper because you were too lazy to unload the clean dishes from the dishwasher?

It's okay, I'm raising my hand too! :)

Right on the Button!!

Trella had this fun quiz on her blog and I gave it a try after seeing hers. I couldn't believe how accurate it was - so, I had to share! Share yours with me if you give it a try!

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

Mid-Atlantic. This is what everyone calls a Philadelphia accent although it's also the accent of south Jersey, Baltimore, and Wilmington. Well, everyone that lives near there, that is. Outsiders can tell you talk differently from them even though they can't tell what your accent is.

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

We're going to start with "cot" and "caught." When you say those words do they sound the same or different?

Same Different Same, no wait I mean different, maybe, a little bit different...

Baby Dedication

Each Mother's Day, our church has a Baby Dedication Service for the babies born since last Mother's Day. This morning T and I participated in this special service for Colin. We, along with the other parents, went to the front of the church to here the minister read,

You have been truly blessed by the Father above with these beautiful new lives. Will you promise to support and love your children providing the opportunity for them to grow up in the family of faith, with the hope that they will someday confess Christ as Lord and Savior?

We responded, "We will."

Will you, to the best of your ability and with God's help, provide a loving family environment in which your child can grow in love, loyalty and obedience to God by regularly reading the Bible, praying and worshipping together?

We responded, "We will."

God has heard you. You have promised before God and this congregation to raise this child for the service of Christ. We ask you to be faithful to the promises that you have made. May the blessing of God be upon each family standing here in the days, months and years ahead.

Next, the congregation stood and together responded, "We joyfully accept these little ones into the fellowship of our church family. With God's help, we will follow Jesus' example, sharing in the spiritual growth of your children. We will help you surround your children with love, establish them in the faith, and show them the way that leads to eternal life."

There were 15 babies dedicated this morning!! I have always enjoyed this service, even when we aren't the ones up front. We feel very blessed to be a part our church and we are always blessed by the families who attend!

Quintin took this picture for us! Sorry it's blurry, I believe the camera auto-focused on the lampshade!

"Why my lips stayed chapped on Mother's Day"

Mother's Day Story - this was sent to me from Kelly, a friend from my homeschool email group. She had received it from her husband and we don't know where the story started, or who wrote it. If you know who wrote it, would you please share it with me?

"So, we had this great 10 year old cat named Jack who just recently died. Jack was a great cat and the kids would carry him around and sit on him and nothing ever bothered him. He used to hang out and nap all day long on this mat in our bathroom.

Well, we have 3 kids and at the time of this story they were 4 years old, 3 years old and 1 year old. The middle one is Eli. Eli really loves chapstick. LOVES it. He kept asking to use my chapstick and then losing it. So finally one day I showed him where in the bathroom I keep my chapstick and how he could use it whenever he wanted to but he needed to put it right back in the drawer when he was done.

Last year on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around and try to get ready for Church with everyone crying and carrying on. My two boys are fighting over the toy in the cereal box. I am trying to nurse my little one at the same time I am putting on my make-up. Everything is a mess and everyone has long forgotten that this is a wonderful day to honor me and the amazing job that is motherhood.

We finally have the older one and the baby loaded in the car and I am looking for Eli. I have searched everywhere and I finally round the corner to go into the bathroom. And there was Eli. He was applying my chapstick very carefully to Jack's . . . rear end. Eli looked right into my eyes and said "chapped." Now if you have a cat, you know that he is right--their little butts do look pretty chapped. And, frankly, Jack didn’t seem to mind.And the only question to really ask at that point was whether it was the FIRST time Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth.

And THAT is my favorite Mother's Day moment ever because it reminds us that no matter how hard we try to civilize these glorious little creatures, there will always be that day when you realize they've been using your chapstick on the cat's butt."

I laughed at this story because my oldest two both know where I keep my chapstick! I apologize for not having a more "serious" post for mother's day, but I thought you might appreciate the laughs!

I wish each of you great ladies a wonderful Mother's Day and a chapstick-free day, as well!

Show & Tell #3

I thought I'd share some more pictures of me in HS - I got started, so why stop, right?


I thought I would also turn this into my Show & Tell. To read more, head over to Kelli's! And while you there, check out her blog, she has a lot of great things to share! Thanks for hosting this again Kelli!


After showing my 'short do' yesterday, I thought I'd show you that by my senior year, I had let my hair grow out. I was a victim of the 90's perms and I don't think there were shoulder pads in this sweater!!

I even brought T along to my senior pictures! Wow, this picture was taken 15 years ago, we had been dating for 1 year. The sweater I'm wearing, he gave me, with the Bible (last week's show and tell), on our first Christmas.

This has been fun going back through these photos. I'd love to see your senior class pictures. Let me know if you share some, I'd love to come and see them!

this & that

Thank you for all your kind words on my 100th post - it was fun trying to come up with new things about myself. The hardest thing was thinking of something, and then deleting it because I thought I'd save it for a post! lol

We are finishing up school in the next week, and I have been trying to houseclean a few rooms on the first floor. The weather here as been simply gorgeous and we are spending a lot of time outdoors, too!

I thought it would be fun to post some pictures to go along with the 100th post.

This is me around 9 years old - I was a serious ball player, was I not? Look at that game face! haa

And, here is my picture from my freshman yearbook. This is the haircut my dear sister talked me into. Maybe it would have been a better look without the braces! I think that sweater even has shoulder pads. Did you wear them in high school, too?
I've got to admit, it was a great time saver!! lol