Grandma Time Anniversary

This past weekend was GRANDMA TIME!  It was my daughter and her husbands anniversary.  Her husband set plans in motion (unbeknownst to my daughter) for me to come stay the night while he surprised her and took her overnight to a dinner/play at the Mystique Theater and then to Swan’s Inn for the night.  The next day they went to a movie and shopping.  I’m sure they had a great time, but I’m think’n I got the better end of the deal.  Grandma time is precious!  Even though my little grandson had a bad cold and his nose was constantly running, he was a very good boy.  My daughter checked in frequently to see how he was doing, but like I stated before…..he was such a good little boy.  He has his own little camo tunnel that he loves crawling through.  He would come through one end, turn around and head back through the other end.

He love to play peek-a-boo.  Every time you say the words, peek-a-boo, he covers his eyes and waits for you to say…there he is, then he moves his hands away from his face.  So-o-o-o-o-o darling!

And here he is making his lion sounds.  Too bad you can’t hear pictures because I’m sure you would be laughing if you could hear this picture, too……..”What Does the Lion Say”? 

We also had a lot of video time.  He loves, and I don’t say that lightly, he totally loves to watch his cousins on the youtube.  They do a video blog (vlog), everyday and where he was not feeling well, grandma overdid it and let him watch their vlog, over and over and over again.  He sure knows what grandma’s Kindle is.  It got to the point that every time I picked up my Kindle, he would toddle over to the couch, climb up, turn around and sit, then wait for me to come sit by him so we could watch vlogs. 

I ended up staying overnight so I could go to church in my daughters ward because her husband was giving a talk and I wanted to hear him.  Then, I even stayed another night because my other daughter who lives in Utah is going to the temple for the first time on her birthday so we went to Idaho Falls and bought her all the things she would need for this special occasion. 
I think….no, I KNOW…it was a better anniversary for grandma than it was for my daughter and her husband.

Oven-Fried Pork Chops

I am forever and ever looking at and saving recipes off the net.  I came across these oven-fried pork chops a week or two ago.  I found the recipe at the allrecipes.com site and decided I would make them.  They turned out pretty tasty so I filed this recipe in my
“Keeper” recipe book.
I changed things up just a bit in this recipe so I am posting my version below.  The recipe does not state it, but I used boneless pork cutlets and I cooked mine for a longer time than called for and they still turned out moist and tasted great.
Besides the pork chops and dressing, I added green beans and roasted potatoes to my meal with a mandarin orange jello on the side, which made it all come together nicely.  Mmmmm – good meal. 
I know the table setting in my picture is not correct but when it’s just me and my husband, I’m not too particular about where my silverware is placed.  Half the time I don’t even have silverware on the table and as we’re sitting down to eat, I realize it and have to go get it out of the silverware drawer……nope, nothing fancy about us.

 

Bunny & Robins Skippity-Hopping

A few mornings ago, as I looked out my bedroom window, I saw the cutest thing.  I had a bunny and 3 robins hopping all around,  under, and through the spirea (bridal wreath) bushes.  Well, the bunny was hopping and the birds were skippity-hopping.  It was fun to watch nature at its best.  I didn’t get a picture of the robins because they flew off by the time I got my camera, but the bunny, he posed perfectly.

Spring Is Busting Out All Over

I took a step out our door, walked around the yard, and I SAW SPRING!  It was so nice to see Spring, but…..it’s a bit too early for our neck of the woods – scary!

Deer For Sis

I called my sister the other day and told her we had over 35 head of deer by our place.  She said, “oh, you don’t have that many…show me pictures”.  So tonight around 8pm while I was looking out the window,  I thought about our conversation so I snuck out the back door and took some pictures.  There are more deer surrounding the area but I couldn’t get them all in one shot.  Anyways……these are for you sis.

Mi Nest Cafe

Today we, a friend and I, ventured away from home for absolutely no reason at all, other than to go eat and play.  To start off, we headed to a new eating place not too far from where we live.  The place is called “Mi Nest Café”.  It is in the same building where I first learned how to tole paint….somewhere between 25 – 30 years ago.  Wow, is the earth really that old, or is it me?  We arrived around 11am and were the only ones there but by the time we left, the place was packed!  From the outside, you would never know there is a small restaurant inside. 

When I say small, we’re talking that it holds approximately 22 to maybe 26 people, max.  When you first walk in the door, you are greeted with a very simple, hometown atmosphere.  And clean, the place was very clean!  I did not get permission to show the cashier and so that is why I have face blurred out.

The menu was simple too…..having the menu on the front side and their logo on the back.  I liked the fact that the menu was very basic and not over-kill, having too many options.  Besides menus, they had a chalkboard (three photos up) hanging on the wall above the cash register, where they posted the special of the day, desserts, and a few other items.  Let’s talk menu prices – VERY GOOD!

 

I ordered a baked potato with butter and sour cream, and a side salad with ranch dressing on the side….best side salad I’ve ever had.  Besides lettuce, this salad was loaded with strawberries, carrots, beets, tomatoes, olives, cucumbers, green peppers, and cheese.

My friend ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and fries.  The fries are homemade, cooked to perfection, and they were delish.  We kind of swapped food around so we could taste a little bit of everything.  They brought us an extra bowl so we could split the salad then each of us took some fries.

Can you believe it, we got all that food for under $10 for the both of us!  When we went up to pay, there were some business cards sitting by the cash register.  I tucked one away in my purse so I could show it to you in case you wanted to go there (hint, hint…I think you should go).

As we left, I tried to get a picture of their business hours that they had posted in the front window but with all the reflection, it was difficult to get.  They are open every day of the week, except for Sundays.  Their hours are from 6:30am till 7pm.

I have a blogger friend that says I should take a new picture of me and post it on my blog photo.  I told her I don’t do pictures of myself.  But, then again, today as I was taking the first photo posted in this blog, I could see my reflection in the window.  I actually turned sideways before snapping the shot so my full reflection would not be in the photo.  If you really zoom in on the photo and look close, you can see my side shot in the reflection in the window.  I am behind the second post from the right-hand side of the picture.  There, selfie accomplished!

He Sent His Son

A few months ago, I filled in one Sunday for the Primary Chorister at our church and I needed to help the children learn the song…”He Sent His Son”.  While holding that position before, I thought it was difficult to teach the children songs without some kind of visual aid so I got some ideas from around the internet and set out to make some posters.  I tweaked my posters a little before adding them to this blog and I think I like them better than the ones I originally made.  I tried to make them with just a little color so it wouldn’t take much of my ink cartridge to print them out on cardstock.  The last three pictures on the right-hand side of the page did not print out very dark…more of a greyish outline, so I had to use a marker and trace over those three pictures.  After I had them all printed and outlined, I placed each one in a protective sheet cover.
First, I would post the question on the magnetic chalkboard and then I would have the children give me the answer.  After correctly answering the question, I then posted the answer next to the question.  The children really had a fun time doing this and although they kind of knew the song before-hand, this game helped them to really learn the words.

 

 

 

 

 

Chicken Noodle Soup – Home Storage Style

I enjoy soup…..not only during winter months, but all year round.  I wanted to see if I could come up with a recipe for chicken noodle soup, using only items I had in my food storage.  The following is the recipe I came up with a few months ago.  It’s actually a pretty tasty soup and my husband and I enjoy it.  You might want to add less salt to this recipe than I added.  Just add seasonings to suit your taste buds.

How To Coil a Long Cord

As I was reviewing Jillee’s blog, she posted about 49 creative uses for your hair dryer.  Among those 49 uses, there was one on how to coil a USB cord and from there, it directed me to the Instructables site with the instructions on how to do this.  The cord to my Kindle is 6 ft. long and always getting in the way.  So, per the instructions on the Instructables site, I proceeded to coil my Kindle cord. 

After measuring out 6” of cord, I taped my cord to a pencil and wrapped the remaining cord around the pencil.  I wrapped my cord until I had 6” left and then taped the other end down.

I laid my coiled cord (still wrapped around the pencil) on a towel, turned my hairdryer on high, held it fairly close to my coiled cord and proceeded to slowly heat the cord, rotating the pencil as I went.  After my cord was pretty warm to the touch, I quit using the hairdryer and placed my coiled cord in the refrigerator to cool down.  When it was totally cool, I removed the tape, pulled out the pencil and Voila, I had myself a nice, coiled Kindle cord.  It worked wonderful!  Bye-bye tangled up messy cord………hello new out-of-the-way, easy to use, cord.

I pulled and tugged on my cord slightly, just to see if it would stay coiled and, well, you can see for yourself the results.  It’s like the old telephone cords (ahem, of which I still have one in my home hanging on the wall)……..it stretches to where I need.

Snow – Beautiful April Snow

When I woke up this morning, I thought it sounded like wet roads as vehicles passed by our home.  When I got out of bed and looked out the windows, what a glorious site.  Snow, beautiful, April snow.  We received between 2.5” and 3”.  Outside was still kind of dawn-ish, so I waited for it to lighten up a bit before heading out the door to get some pictures.  Before heading out the door, I pulled on my new Bog (weather-proof) boots.  Love these boots and they kept my feet so warm.

 
Our Stake had a special “Fast” – (To voluntarily refrain from eating or drinking for the purpose of drawing closer to the Lord and requesting his blessings) for snow a few weeks ago because our little valley was so dry.  Some could call it nature, coincidence, etc., but I believe in fasting and the wonders God places in front of us because of our faithfulness.