Thank you, Mike

 I went hunting for a new shower curtain and bath mat.





Then I walked down the bedspread section and found this!!

Thank you Mike, for allowing me to express my inner purple self! I love you! 

Fun Day

We spent the day in Vegas. Mike needed some rank awards for our Lord's Army youth group. We took our pastor's son with us. We went to the surplus store. Then we ate lunch and went and visted one of our church brothers who is sick and in the hospital in Vegas. After, we stopped off at Bass Pro Shop and the kids played.

We had quite a windy day in Vegas. There were gusts of winds up to 65 MPH. We saw this on the way home. If you can't tell what it is from my blurry cell phone picture,  it's an over turned semi.

Beautiful!!!!

This beautiful girl...

Made me this beautiful Afghan.

I just love it!!

My Sore Back!!

 In Feb I started cleaning up the back yard. It was over taken in weeds, grass and leaves from our tree.  Our Chinaberry tree is a very messy tree. I hoed up the weeds around the tree and raked up the millions of leaves into a several huge piles. I never got around to cleaning up those piles. I finally got that done today. Brandon was HUGE help too. He raked and hauled and cut down weeds. His red wagon was put to use hauling the bags from one side of the yard to the other. Sadly, the wagon handle broke. We hope Daddy can fix it.

When we moved into this house, we were very concerned about this tree. The berries are highly toxic if ingested. Naturally, we were not worried about us, but we were worried about our dog. It has worked out. Newman has not bothered the tree at all. The tree went dormant over the winter and is now blooming. It is such a pretty tree and it smells WONDERFUL!! When it started blooming the flowers were purple. I wish I had taken a picture of that. Now they are white and  dark purple (they look black in the picture).  Again, this tree smells so sweet!  All the while I am cleaning up the berries and leaves I am singing the song "Just what makes this little old ant". It is going to be a never ending job just keeping the mess under some control.  I should have taken more before pictures. Believe me it was a huge mess. It is as cleaned up as it's every going to get, just in time for the rain the weekend. Ugh..

                                          The berries fall off constantly

I added about 6 more bags after I took this picture

Sorry Babe. We need more trash bags, a new rake (the handle broke)  and we need to make a run to the dump.  I need Tylenol and my heating pad. I never could have done this 38 lbs ago.. Yeah me!!

I Smell Smoke

My hubby called me from work. He wanted to know what all the smoke was coming from our direction. It was thick where he was. I looked outside and saw this. It's a huge fire at one of the fields. It went all day long. Tribal pd had roads blocked off. I am not sure if it was a controlled burn or if it was a unplanned brush fire. I am hoping the local newspaper will tell us Friday. It was less than 2 miles from out house. I was thankful the wind was blowing it to the north of us. Most of these pictures were taking from my driveway.

****Update** Here is the news paper report BRUSH FIRE

Hmmmm...

Maybe I should dust?

Wow!

Warning! The following picture will raise your blood sugar level!  After talking with my blogging friend Shelley (see the post below) I decided to make the cake she suggested. Wow! This cake was so simple to make but boy does it pack a sugar punch. It was incredibly rich. It was very very good.!! If you're not a chocolate lover, you will prob not enjoy this cake. LOL.  It does not need frosting, but I sprinkled it with powdered sugar. Prior to making the cake, I made two loaves of Banana bread. I just felt like baking today. It was fun.

Yummy!

What could be better than chocolate cake and a good book? My friend Shelley has released her latest book, Grace, this week. She also told me recently about a wonderful cake recipe . So pop on over to her website and check things out. You'll find the recipe and information on her books including the information on her  latest release. I've mentioned before how much I really enjoy her books.  I am looking forward to her next release in March of 2011. Happy reading and eating!!

Thank You Honey!!

Over the weekend my hubby gave me a late anniversary gift/early birthday present. Yes, it's purple!! I love it.

I know in the pic it might look more pink than purple. Sometimes in certain light the camera also looks more pink than purple, but it is really purple

eonvrye taht can raed tihs rsaie yuor hnad.

Isn't it interesing that only boys have their hands up?
 Only great minds can read this This is weird, but interesting!

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
 
 
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!
 
Thanks Mackenzie for sharing this with me!!

I Won! I Won! --Again!!

I've done other posts on this author before, on my old blog.  I really enjoy her books. I entered another of her contests and won an early released copy. This is book three in her Seasons in Sugar Creek Trilogy I hate to see it end. It's due to hit the book stands in August. But I am sure she has another series in the works. Right Shelley? As I've said before I just love her books. They are very a good read.   You can see all of her books by clicking HERE  Shelley, when is the actual release date?  I am anxiously keeping an eye on my mail box. LOL.  Thanks, Shelley!

Blog Changes

I am still in the process of tweaking my blog to my liking. So far, this week, I have added a chat box. My Swagbucks link  (Sure would like more folks to sign up and earn points--hint hint.. It's free, ya know). Now, I've added a link to keep track of our blistering weather. You can find it below my chat box.

I am still deciding what I want to do with the color.  Should I leave it plaid like it is, or get a solid purple? I would like a different blog title and am still asking for suggestions. Anyone have one?

Cbox (Chat Box)

I just installed my own cbox!! I am growing up.. I did it all by myself. LOL..
Anyone can leave me a message.. Just put your name in and then type away.

We Interrupted This Blog for ANOTHER Commercial Endorsement

I found this product at Wal*Mart (actually it found me). I was listening to another shopper who was telling another shopper about this product. Arizona water is HARD. If you don't have a water softner system in your house, the hard water ruins your dishes and makes it impossible to have clean dishes out of the dishwasher. Your dishes and tupperware come out coated. I could not use Cascade or Jet Dry--nothing worked. I've battled this for 1 year now and I've tried just about every product (including Vinegar) on the market-till I found this. This stuff is incredible!!. Our dishes are back to sparkling, the dishwasher is bright, clean and our silverware is shiny! Even our dingy tupperware is back to looking new again. It is well worth few bucks I paid at WM for it. I can even use it along with Cascade.

It can be used to clean other items too,. See their website..

Lemishine