Been ill lately

I was in the hospital the other day due to a severe pain in my abdomen. I will have to have gall bladder surgery. I have to do some things to get ready for surgery, such as pump milk for my baby and get the house in order since I will be taking it easy for awhile. I will try my best to post those promised pictures, but that is not the most important thing right now. Sorry for the wait. I expect I will have surgery early in Oct. and should be back to nearly normal just a couple weeks later.

God Is Not Finished With Me Yet

My grandpa woke up one night, because God spoke to him. He decided to have a family gathering and tell all his decendants about Jesus. He also spent $500 to buy a Bible for all his grandkids, their spouses and children! He gave DS the cutest little board book Bible about a little bear. It is so sweet and the cover is soft and furry! DD got a thicker Bible with Board Book type pages and longer stories than DS's. It is perfectly written for a 3 yr. old and has plenty of pictures. DH and I got a Thinline Bible in NIV. Grandpa told everyone that he reads his Bible every day and wants us to read the Word and have a relationship with Christ. I am so sorry I was unable to go to the family gathering since I had a vender fair w/ Homemade Gourmet to do. DD was w/ my parents and got to thank Grandpa and Grandma in person. I love that my new Bible is thin and easy to take with me. I can stick it in the diaper bag without it weighing it down.

After the Wind Storm...

we picked apples and pears from the ground that fell off the trees in the backyard. I am going to make apple butter, apple sauce, poached pears, and whatever else I find to do w/ them. We live far from the coast, but the wind was thanks to Hurricane Ike. I can't imagine what it would have been like if the wind was twice as fast. The victims of the hurricane are in our thoughts and prayers. Many people are without electricity, including my parents. They brought their food over to put in my freezer and took the rest to work to use the freezer there. They have a gas hot water heater, so they can at least have a hot shower in the dim light of a lantern. They bought a camp stove to cook, and at least it was not too hot today to be without air conditioning. There is even flooding in the northern part of my state and 7 people have died in Indiana from the Wind Storm and flooding. We are forunate that our power only went off for a quick moment twice.

I know I thought I'd get those pics taken and posted, but I have not had a chance yet. I will do it tomorrow. I have been learning the art of couponing lately and went to Walgreen's and got over $100 of stuff for $35 w/ all the coupons. I can also send in for three $1 rebates. DH got me the Buxton Bag that is now available at Target. It is my early b-day present.

Sorry for unplanned hiatus

I have been very busy with the kids, Homemade Gourmet gatherings, babysitting, mystery shops, and life lately. I have finally got some extra rest and feel like I can sit down and blog more. I have made a small scrapbook w/ DD in it wearing the dress her grandma made her for her 3rd birthday. I will add a post about it w/ pics this week.

I am also going to make myself a Home Management Binder and will post pics once I get it decorated. I am on the steering (leadership) team of MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and have to present it to everyone in Jan. and help them decorate one and then give tips on what to put inside theirs. It will have a planner, mystery shopping section, HG section (with my HG preferred customers and newsletter customers as well as orders placed, etc), a Quixtar section w/ similar info to the HG section, a grocery list, menus, freezer inventory checklist, chores and daily routines, zipper bags for receipts, mileage track, records of doctor visits and kids' weight, a Kids' Say the Darndest Things sheet for each of my kids (I can jot down funny things they say), websites I like (for when I clear the history on my computer), etc. etc. I think it will take me until Jan. to get it completed!

CrockPotting Blog

I saw Stephanie on Rachael Ray's show a couple weeks ago, since she made a resolution to use her crockpot every day for a year and blog about it. She was getting over 4000 hits per day before she was on TV. I wish I found her blog sooner. I am really enjoying it and have already tried a couple recipes. (the 5 layer brownies and chicken nachos). Go here and check out her blog. She makes me laugh all the time and tells if the recipe was good or a flop. She is quick to write back when you email her, too. I shared the crockpot recipes I have on my blog with her.

Breakfast Pizza

1 lb. breakfast sausage, cooked and crumbled
1 tube crescent roll dough or pizza crust
6 eggs, beaten
2 Tbsp. Homemade Gourmet Grandmother's Sunday Roast Seasoning
2 c. shredded Cheddar

Cook, drain, crumble the sausage. Turkey sausage is a great substitute. Unroll the dough into a rectangle on a cookie sheet. Use fingers or dough roller to smooth out and seal seams if using crescent dough. If using a pizza crust, create an edge to keep egg onto crust. Beat 6 eggs in a bowl w/ Grandmother's Sunday Seasoning. Pour onto crust. Spread cooked sausage on top, then add cheese to that. Cook in preheated oven at 35o Fahrenheit for 10-15 min.

I made this Saturday and it was so simple. I think I will cook the meat up ahead of time to make it even quicker next time. It was a hit w/ DH and DD decided not to try it, but I know she would like it. She is not a morning person!

This double page layout is the beginning of the pages for DD's 1st birthday party (and she just turned 3!). We did a Hula theme w/ decorations and DD's and my clothes. No one else dressed the part. She had a cake w/ Lilo and Stitch on it and a surfboard. I used the SU set Do the Hula for invitations. I did this layout for a VSBN challenge on SCS to grab items to use in only 3 min. and complete the page in only 1 hr. I did get the left page in an hour, but I needed about 30 min. to do the right page. So, I guess I did the challenge, since each page was under one hour.

Products used: CTMH Giggle Alpha, black ink, SU Simply Scrappin' kit, metal edge tags, hemp