What time is it where you are?

This is Palm Desert, Ca. time...

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Tackle-It Tuesdays!!! #11


Just dropping in quickly to show you our hall closet, being changed into a "game closet"...Dad and Cope are building this together, and I am documenting...

The gals over at 5MinutesFromMom.Com host these Tackle-it-Tuesdays....so what are you tackling?
(Big or small- it doesn't matter- this is time to toot your own horn about anything you tackled)





Dad, measuring from the coat rod, how many inches down will each shelf go? 3 shelves? 4 shelves? Hummm....





















Making it look official...notice his 'tan lines'? Can you tell he works outside everyday in the desert sun?

















Dad helping Cope steady the drill as he drills his first screw into the wall...and yes, he had to have his black Spider Man costume on while doing so.




















All shelves complete! Now please sweep up all the dust bunies and saw dust!















A proud Cope and Dad...we have yet to fill the shelves with games, but we will! The nights just go by so quickly! Ill post "after" pics when it is completed!
*See my little princess trying to snake her way into the pic behind daddy?

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Menu Plan Monday October 13th











Well! It is that time of the week to menu plan good, hearty, wholesome meals to feed our family.
I'm going on "You on a Diet" again, (been away and not practiced it for two weeks) and just love the meals because they are not only quick- but very delish!
OrgJunkie.com is hosting these Mondays and if you go to their website- you will find 300 other people who are menu planning too! It is a blast to sit down and see what others are planning for the week. Maybe it will inspire you, help you remember a forgotten recipe, pique your interest to try something new....go check them out!

Monday: Chicken Kabobs with fruit salad, corn and a crisp salad (version altered from p. 294)


Tuesday: Royal Pasta Primavera Provencale with Rock Asparagus, and yellow squash p. 290, and 301 respectively


Wednesday: Apricot Chicken with Green Beans and Almond Slivers, crescent rolls, and salad wedges p. 291


Thursday: Asian Salmon with Brown Rice Pilaf (substitute pilaf for Rice-a-Roni), crisp salad and bread p. 285


Friday: Turkey Tortilla Wraps and Red Baked Potatoes (with the works) p. 292

I have had all of these already- all very yummy and nutritious- as well as FAST!

Buy the book! It will save you time and give you great ideas for eating healthy!
Amazon has used copies for .99 cents! Can't beat that price! I got mine at Costco for around $12.00, hardback.

PS- anything in red is NIR= Not In Recipe I've added it because my family wants it :)

Keeping up with the Jones' is hard to do....

I cant believe it has been a little over a week since my last post!

I am having a very hard time finding time to keep up with my blogging friends, and it is bumming me out!
Maybe it is just me, maybe everyone is like this, but my days begin at 5:30am, and finally slows down around 8:30pm...by the time I sit for a second, I'm pooped, and don't have the energy to get on the computer!
I am apologizing for not keeping up this week!

I do have things happening around here, but not always good (like my son having a hard time at school). This week I start off with meetings on Monday, and Parent-Teacher Conferences on Wed-Friday....the school day goes by quickly, and before I know it- I'm picking up the kids, squeezing in homework, going to karate, coming home to dinner and baths, then its bedtime, and I can barely rest before my eyes start drooping! Did I mention my classes have started a recycling program at school and we have blue recycle bins in each classroom? We collect them all for the first time this coming Friday! (and it is a minimum day!)
My Yearbook class is also selling waters and flavors after school- so I am in charge of that too!
How does our life get so busy?
Is your life like this? Please send me a comment and let me know I'm not going crazy!

Beth Ann

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Vintage Thingies Thursdays #10


As much as I love these days....I'm afraid I'm running out of stuff! (giggle)

Lisa, the Apron Queen, over at Confessions of an Apron Queen, has created these wonderful Thursdays for us to show off our vintage items! Go see her and tell her Beth Ann said hi!

So here is my turn at something vintage....





My vintage Hankie Collection

courtesy of my Great Aunt Betty Welton


What you are looking at is my mom's lingerie sachet with the blue ribbon. She used to keep secret things in there, and I guess gave up because I kept getting in it. She finally let me have it and I have kept it ever since! I have kept the following in there because they are too special to have anywhere else.

Let's start with the gloves... those are actually from my Grandma Wynne, and I used to watch her get ready for our get-togethers. She would take curlers out, brush through her hair, put on Oil of Olay, and then put on her high-heeled shoes. She used to have so many neat things in her drawers...she saw me admiring these one day and gave them to me. They used to fit, but I never wanted to get them dirty. I kept them in the plastic sleeve they came in. The have beautiful dainty flowers hand sewn into the fronts.
The tan and red scarves are from my Grandma McDonough...she always wore a hair bonnet when we went out. She would get her hair done each week, and took great lengths to keep it looking good. She had plain ones and fancy ones, then the plastic see-through one for when it rained.
These hankies are from my Great Aunt Betty....she became my "Grandma Betty" because I already had an Aunt Bette, and it was very confusing for me as to which was which...so she came up with the idea of Grandma Betty. How she loved to set the proper table with centerpieces every time we all got together.
We usually got together at Aunt Bette's house, so walking out into the woods to find nature items was easy, and her tables always looked so beautiful!
She was the first person to let me light a candle with stick matches. I was so nervous I couldn't do it!
Each one of these has a completely different look:
First white one on top has delicate yellow flowers sewn into each corner,
Second one is pale blue with white flowers sewn into the corners,
Third white one has white flowers with green stems sewn in

These top two are really neat because the pattern is in them already, and they are each scalloped in a different way on the corners.... click on the pics to enlarge them.
Blue with big pink flowers,
White with a garland of colored flowers,
White with a dainty garland all around

Here is a silky feeling hankie of Ireland, which it wouldn't surprise me if Grandma Betty had gone there....my mom's side is Irish, so this was really neat to get... and each time I got one, I just stuck it in my secret sachet.... so they are terribly wrinkled!

Tierney was watching me lay them out to snap pictures of them, (she is 7, going on 13) and Oh'd and Ah'd over them... and just had to try the gloves on...and the anal part of me wanted to say no...she had dirty hands, she would rip them, she would do something to ruin them....but I bit my lip and allowed her to slip her hands inside...she put them on backwards (which was funny) and she still talks about it..."Hey mom, member when you let me try those pretty gloves on?"....
So it was so worth it! One day they will be hers, and she cant wait!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Wacky Wednesday

I'm ready for a contest- and what a contest it is!

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting this incredible contest for a girls bedroom set!

I'm going to enter my "sleeping angel" in this contest, as this contest is for a wonderfully beautiful bedroom set!
Jeff and I have been tossing around the idea that soon it will be time for the twins to have separate rooms, and Tierney will need her own room and also new furniture! So this could work out to be perfect!

There are actually two designs for the bedroom set:

Either the Lily Rose Youth Bookcase Bedroom Set









or the Summer Breeze Youth Bookcase Bedroom Set










Both are made by the South Shore Furniture Company....“South Shore Furniture has been making Bedroom Furniture that is beautiful and reasonably priced for more than 65 years. Offering many well priced Platform Beds, Childrens Beds and Bookcase Headboards they offer a wide variety of styles. Their Products have a five year warranty and their innovative Smart Glide Drawer Slide comes with a lifetime warranty.” How can you go wrong with that?

Check it out here if you want to enter it too!

So here is my "Sleeping Angel"....
Don't you want to pinch her chubby little cheeks?? (giggle)

If I had to choose for Tierney, I would choose the, the... the Lily Rose Bedroom Set in Pine! Oh that was so hard to pick one! They are both incredible for girls!!!!

So now hurry- if you want to enter- you have until Oct 13th at 3:00pm EST before the contest ends. Then they will choose finalists on Wednesday, Oct 15th! Final winner will be announced Wednesday, Oct 29th at 3:00pm EST! I'll be asking you to vote for me if I am a finalist!
Wish me luck!!! (as well as everyone else!)