A Change in Blogging

I've decided to try a new approach to my blog. I've changed host sites. Sorry, Blogger! It's not that I don't like Blogger, because I really do, but I couldn't ever get the layout exactly the way I wanted it. Even in viewing the templates made by other people, I couldn't get what I wanted. Most didn't offer to update the comment page along with everything else. Too, I'm not a CSS person. I can do HTML all day long, but throw CSS my way, and I'm as lost as the webmaster newbie.

Maybe some day I'll come back to Blogger, but for now, I really doubt I'll be missed in this community of wonderful bloggers much.

Happy Blogging!

Mood Ring

Your Mood Ring is Yellow

Imaginative Wondering Thoughts Peaceful

Mood Ring Generator

Mean People Suck

It has recently come to my attention that people are mean. Not all people, mind you, but there are a few who have chosen this path--the path of self-destructive behavior, or just as sad, the destruction of others. They dig at the heart, finding a place where it is most weak and picks at it until the pain starts pouring, seeping out like blood trickling from a wound that hasn't quite healed. These people seem to forget that others have feelings and that words are powerful daggars that can maime even the strongest of hearts. They also seem to have forgotten the power of posititive thinking. I would imagine their lives are full of turmoil and strife, since it is so easily seen in the way they react to things. Forget the "do unto others", they have already done a significant injustice to themselves. It's a sad world we live in today, considering the wars across the world. You'd think we could live in harmony in our own country. Peace is a myth...a hope that will never be granted...not until we learn to find it within ourselves first. I know I'm not perfect, but that is my goal: to find complete inner peace.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."~1 Corinthians 13:13

Whole Wheat Poundcake (recipe)

Ingredients

1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
3 eggs
2-1/4 cups sifted whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 salt
1 cup plain yogurt


Instructions

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2) Cream the butter until light. Gradually beat in the sugar. Beat in the eggs very well one at a time. Add the remaining ingredients and blend with an electric mixer at low speed. Beat for 3 minutes at medium speed, scraping the bowl occasionally.
3) Pour the better into a well-buttered and floured 10-inch tube cake pan. Bake for 65 minutes, or until done. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Yields: 12 servings

This recipe is not my own. It comes from an old natural cookbook I have that is torn and tattered.

Celebrate Good Times...C'mon!

Yesterday was Nik's fourteenth birthday. Am I getting old, or what?! Not really, but some days I feel it. She had summer theatre camp all day, but I'd already spoken to her camp director to see if I could take a cake up to her for her group to eat. The counselor thought that was a great idea. So I ordered her one that had a Volkswagon bug kind of car on it, as well as other flower power things, like a peace sign and the word love. She's into that kind of stuff. The car itself is a toy, but it'll be a good piece of memorabilia for her to keep.

When I went to pick the cake up, I also picked up a plates and such, but I found a pin that said "Birthday Girl" on it, so I grabbed it, too. I also found a package of orangy-red mini roses, and decided to get some yellow tissue paper to wrap them in. Once I checked out, I stopped at the tables they have near one of the exits to wrap the flowers up. It was then that I realized I didn't buy any scissors to cut the ribbon I bought to hold the tissue paper together. But quick thinking skills saved the day! I took the rubber band from the flowers and placed it around the tissuepaper-wrapped-flowers and put the pin over it. It turned out really cute.

Nik was totally surprised when I walked in carrying the cake and flowers. She said her eyes starting watering when everyone began singing happy birthday to her. One of her leaders even played it on the keyboard. Well, once we got the candles on the cake and lit, everyone sang it again. Her camp director and I "made" her wear her bday girl pin, too. A good time was had by all.

After cleaning up a bit, the kids did a full rehearsal of their play they'll be doing next Friday. It was really fun to get a sneak preview of it. Can't wait to see it next week. My sister and Mom are coming up for it, as well as to take Nik out for a birthday celebration with a few of her friends. They'll be staying the weekend, so it should be fun. I haven't seen my sister in about a year!

Tonight, Dan & I took Nik out to eat at the Texas Roadhouse, since last night she went to see a movie with a friend. She didn't want me to tell them it was her birthday, so I didn't. Instead, I dared her to eat a Rattlesnake Bite (a jalepano & cheese stuffed something or other) and told her I'd give her $20 if she ate the whole thing in two bites. To my surprise, she was successful! Although, she gagged on the second bite and had to take it out before it was chewed, but she ate it all in one piece. Me, I counted my losses and handed the girl her twenty bucks. Who would've thought...

Anyway, that's the party news for the past two days. More to come next week when we party once again.

In the meantime, party hardy in your own way, even if it's just to celebrate a brand new day!

Enjoy!

The World is Crazy

The headline reads Attacks on London: 40 Reported Dead in London Blasts. Just one day after London gets awarded the 2012 Olympics, this happens. London is one of the few places I would've thought had a better grip on the terrorism issue. Just goes to show that no place is safe, not even the states. The world is crazy. Not only are the terrorists out of their minds, but it's crazy that there's more strength in the evil of this world than there is in the good; otherwise, wouldn't we be able to get a better handle on this?

Even in the states, we have our issues. (I know, no secret there.) Our court system is so messed up, that people who should go to jail don't, and money is spent on the most stupid things. Time is spent less on making the world a better, safer place, and more on petty bullshit. Take this idiot (hmm, do I dare call them a cult? Yes, I think I will...) there's this idiot cult in my home town that owns a whole block in the city. They call themselves a church, so all their property in this block is tax free. The whole family lives there. On certain days of the week, at the most busy times, they gather up their flourescent signs, and meet at a prominent corner of the ciy. Their signs say such things as "YOUR PASTOR IS WRONG" (wondering what makes theirs the only one that's right...), and "FAG NATION" (whatever that means...), GOD HATES AMERICA, etc, and they also fly the flag upside down. To me, it's an atrocity. I turn my head the other way when I pass so as not to give them the satisfaction of me looking on. Sometimes they're so "in your face" you have to look, however. Public sidewalks are never safe from this group. I've been told they are all very knowledged and skilled in law, so it's difficult to fight them, so no one tries. They know more what their rights are than most people, which is a sad situation. To me, if they hate America so damn much, why don't they move to another part of the world?

I guess terrorism comes in all shapes & sizes. It goes back to everyone wanting world peace, but when our own backyards are so full of filth, how can we expect the rest of the world to come clean? This world is travelling fast in its hand-basket. Let's just hope God doesn't let go of that basket just yet. We'd all better pray that He doesn't give up on us anytime soon.

Hello, again...it's me...

Wow, time is just zipping right along. There's so much that goes on in my life, I rarely have time to sit down and write about it.

Summer is in full swing. Thunderstorms have made their way to our little part of the world, which is a wonderful change to the sometimes unbearable heat. The flowers of spring are already gone, but the grass stays pretty green.

Fourth of July was a good one, although we stayed at home and didn't party too much. Well, except for the watermelon we filled with vodka. Talk about a real lip-puckering experience! We decided we may make it a tradition though *eg*.

All around us were the booms and bright sparkles of the fireworks as they went off, one right after the other. I came to the realization that even the 4th of July, just as any other holiday, has become too commercialized. I'm sure the ba-booming of the fireworks is symbolic to the "rockets red glare...the bombs bursting in air", but no one thinks of it that way anymore. Our troops that are fighting our current war hear those noises everyday of their lives right now. To think that there are bombs and "fireworks" going off constantly on the other side of the world is actually a sad thought. Not to sound negetive or anything, but the whole idea of world peace is nothing but a fairy tale dream. There's too much evil on this planet to make it anything else. Perhaps, if we all keep hoping and praying, that will someday change, but I foresee fireworks continuing well into the future.

just my $.02 worth...