The Epic Oil Top Off

Sadly, this is the best picture I have.
(taken through a screen window, March 2007)

I drive a VW New Beetle, and I love it and I try to take care of it. But I have to be honest, this winter has been a killer when it comes to me wanting to do things outside and I've been more than a little lax in the car upkeep department.

Do I put gas in before it reaches half a tank? Usually. Sometimes it's a little under half.
Do I make sure there's windshield wiper fluid? Absolutely!
Scrape the snow off the ENTIRE car? Every time there's snow on the car (TheHusband lets me have the garage so it's not as often as it could be). It's a safety issue for both me and others on the road, but that's an issue for another time.
Check the oil regularly? Umm, not so much, and this is where I get myself into trouble.

His Treasured Possession

“And the LORD has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments,” - Deuteronomy 26:18 (ESV)

Nancy had spent the day outside weeding her garden, mowing the lawn, and carefully nurturing her flowers.  It wasn’t until she went inside to make lunch that she realized her wedding ring was no longer on her finger.  She frantically searched her flowerbeds, garden shed, and everywhere else she could think of before calling her husband and confessing the loss. 

While her husband was saddened by the loss, he was very understanding.  It was, after all, only a ring and not what made their marriage work, and it could be replaced.  Nancy, however, was heartbroken.  Yes, it was only a ring, and really not that expensive when you got right down to it, but it was the ring her beloved had placed on her hand all those years ago when they pledged their lives to each other before their friends, family, and God.

Jello Cake

This past week brought the birthday of a good friend and coworker. To help her celebrate the auspicious occasion, I decided to make her a Jello Cake (and it didn't have anything to do with the fact that she basically said "if you guys love me, you'll make me something yummy for my b-day" - nope, nothing to do with that what so ever). So, yeah, I know, jello cake, it sounds weird (especially if you're not from the mid-west), but it's something I knew she liked, and something I personally love so if there were leftovers there wasn't a problem! You can make so many different variations of this, but I made a white/strawberry cake.

This is what happens . . .

... whenever I don't get home when TheAnnabelle thinks I should. She may not be in the window as I pull up, but all I have to do is give her a few seconds, and . .. POP . . . there's her cute little head peaking down on me. Now I wish I could say it's because she loves and misses me so much. But sadly, she's merely trying to figure out her timing.

"Is the human at the garage or right in front of the house?"
"Is she carrying something or are her hands free?"
"Is she walking fast or slow?"
"Is she distracted from being late?"

The snow finally came . . .

7:13AM Update:

   

We ended up getting about 8"-12" over night, which was a lot of fun to shovel this morning. In this set of pictures you can see how our friend "Twiggy" just barely is keeping his head above the snowline. It's still snowing, so I say good luck to our little friend.

AND as a bonus to everyone, here are some pictures of our abominable snow cat (aka: TheAnnabelle):

Waiting for the snow

The weather people are forecasting a 12" to 16" inch snowfall today and into tomorrow. Before I went to bed last night they were predicting that it would start sometime early morning, but it' 11:00AM right now and there's only a few flakes falling so far. Here's the view outside our office window now:

The tree in the picture on the left is in our neighbor's backyard. You can also see their grill if you look close (left side of window near the  bottom. The tree in the picture on the right is kind of in our backyard. So far you can still see the ground around both, but if you look closely at the street (just over the fence) you can see a slight dusting of snow. Let's see how deep the snow really gets out there . . .

Tator Tot Hotdish

So while perusing some of my favorite blogs I came across a post about tator tot hotdish. Now this is a dish that I L.O.V.E, but have never made. That's right, NEVER. So i figured if The Mothership's Galley can serve up some of this not so healthy fare, then I could too! So I was off to the internet in search of recipes, but couldn't really find any that seemed to suit my tastes, so I took the original recipe from The Mothership's Galley and made a few changes (which is something I love about hotdishes/casseroles - you can easily adjust them to suit your tastes or needs).

This is what happens . . .

. . . when I wait until the last minute to try to do something fabulous and new for a social event. These were supposed to be cookie pops (in the shape of daisies) to be used in a cookie bouquet (cute, right?) I was planning on making for a co-worker who was starting another job. The problem? I waited until the last minute to get all my supplies, including the daisy shaped pans. Instead of following the specific cookie dough recipe on the pan package, I decided to speed things up and purchased refrigerated cookie dough.

To My Husband

A couple of years ago TheHusband made a comment that he was surprised I haven't given him more poems as gifts over the years. And I suppose he has a point, I mean I do claim to be a writer. However, over the years, I've found that I just can't express my love for him (or how much I appreciate his love for me) any better than I did in the poem I wrote for him for our first Valentine's Day as husband and wife. So to remind him how I feel, here's that poem again.

This is what happens . . .

... when you help someone "find" $75,000.

Okay, so it wasn't really lost, just not entered in the correct place, but it would have taken her a lot longer to "find" it than the 5 minutes it took me. And I'll take a 12 inch vase filled with tootsie rolls any day. Yum!