Wednesday, August 12, 2009

My Pretty Pumpkins!


Are you growing pumpkins in your backyard?



Does it look like my punkies are growing words on them??


My cousin told me that if you scrape words or designs on a pumpkin while it is still growing, the scraped parts will "heal" over and looked etched in!
Isn't that COOL?



I LOVE IT!


Here's our last name etched in a pumpkin that hasn't turned orange yet.


My daughter plucked this beauty from the garden 2 weeks ago 'cause she was so excited to have a pumpkin. Hopefully he'll last 'til Halloween!


It may be only August...
but never too early to get excited about PUMPKINS!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Reunion Time

I spent all of last weekend celebrating at my
Annual Family Reunion {my father's family} and
at my 25th High School Reunion!

If there's two things that Chinese people know how to do...
it's EAT and PLAY GAMES.

The reunion was at my parent's home. All day long relatives were
dropping in with boxes and platters of food. Yummy!


My Aunt Michelle got a good game of Mah Jong going

The teenage boys hung out at the computer, of course. {Zach & Jarod}

The teenage girls hung out in the pool. {Devynn & Summer}

Young adult girl cousins {Tara, Amanda & Sharlene}.

Me and Brian

Every year we all go out to dinner at our Uncle's Dave's restaurant
for a gourmet Chinese feast.
Here's the lobster...mmmm so good!


More girl cousins.


Cousins Carson and Jake.
Jake came all the way from Germany to visit us!



More game playing...Texas Hold'em.

The little cousins crash in the living room for the night.

Yummy breakfast served in the morning by Grandma Louie!

Now, on to my 25th high school reunion...
I can't believe I'm THAT old!!!!

It was such a blast to see old friends!

I've known some these people since junior high!


What a fun night!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Surfing- valley style

What do you do when there's no ocean around and you really want to go surfing?


Well, of course, you drive to Elk Grove Dream Extreme, and ride the Flowrider!


Here goes my son...about to wipe-out!


HOLD ON Zach! Don't FALL!



It only took about 5 tries until he could actually stay standing for longer than 2 seconds!



Now here's my best-buddy, Roxanne about to go for it.


What kind of best-buddy would I be if I didn't post pictures of her wiping out too??

Hold on, hold on! Don't fall YET! I gotta get my picture first!

Okay, NOW you can fall! Hahaha!

Friday, July 24, 2009

A Few Junkin' Finds

I haven't done too much junkin' this summer only because I'm making a concerted effort to SCALE DOWN and NOT bring more things into the home.

However, I have been hauling lots of things to Goodwill, giving things away and dumping things in the garbage!

So last week my daughter wanted to go garage sale-ing and I allowed myself to bring home a few things...

I found this picnic basket at a garage sale and couldn't part without it.


I spray painted it white...


and displayed on top of my armoire for now with my daughter's baby hat.

Here are few more things I picked up at another garage sale.

The tray and shutters will get painted...the tic-tac-toe will get taken to work to use with my students.

Here's my tray sportin' it's new "beachy" look!


Stay tuned for the shutter re-do!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Cookies, S'mores and a Pie!

Since I've been off for the summer I've been doing a lot more baking than usual. Here are a few things I've made:

Chicken Pot Pie


My friend, Karen, taught me how to do this one, and it's REALLY EASY!
This is a standard 9 inch pie. All you need is:
Ready-made pie crust that comes in a box and you unroll it.
Cooked chicken {I used leftovers from a roasted chicken}
A package of frozen mixed veggies {carrots, corn, peas etc.}
Cooked potatoes cut up in chunks.
A can of cream of mushroom or chicken soup.

Lay down the first pie crust layer in the pie pan and trim the edge.
Layer in all the ingredients.
Cover it all with the last pie crust layer.
Pinch the edges and cut slits on top to vent steam.
Turned out yummy!


During our rv trip to Oregon I got addicted to these.


I saw on somebody's blog that they made them in the oven- so I copied!
They got perfectly toasted in the toaster oven!

This week I had to make 6 dozen cookies to bring to some meetings.

Crinkle Cookies!
{Just like everyone's grandma used to bake!}

Ingredients:
half a cup a butter
1 and half cup of sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. of vanilla
4 (1 oz) squares of unsweetened chocolate (melted)
2 cups of flour
2 tsp. of baking powder
one-quarter tsp. of salt
powdered sugar

Set oven at 350 degrees. Mix ingredients. Refrigerate dough for 2 hours.
Roll into balls and coat with powdered sugar before baking.

They are so yummy!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Love is in the Air!

Love must be in the air...
'cause I noticed that Emilie's hubby brought her home
some beautiful cabbage roses for no reason at all, and
Jen's sweetie whisked her away on a romantic get-a-way here.

Then out of nowhere, my hubby came home with these:


It's not often that this happens so I was quite excited.
I wondered why, but the card just said,
"I love you very much. Thanks for being you."


I guess I'll keep him.



Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Clipboard for Carol

Hi Everyone!
Meet Carol. She is a beautiful person inside and out.
Carol works so hard at our church
as the Children's Ministry Director. I just wanted to
make Carol a little something to thank her for her hard work.



I saw this tutorial for making decorated clipboards at Imperfectly Beautiful.


I LOVE how it came out!
Here are front and back pics. Just use scrapbook paper and Modge Podge- easy!

I added a little tag.



I attached Carol's wishlist for Vacation Bible School this summer
and then got her a few items off her list.

Carol was quite happy and glad to cross off a few things on her list!

Thanks Carol for all you do!!!

BTW, these cute, little guys AND the original clipboard came from the .99 Cent Store!