Seizing My Day

it POURS.

I had to 2 teeth pulled on Friday.

I actually felt OK on the weekend.

It is now Monday night.

and my healing is NOT GOING SO WELL.

I think I feel worse today than the day after even!

Dang!

*sigh*

they had to “dig” one out…

and my face is swelling and not seemingly going down.

I am pretty sure I am getting worse at this point.

dang again!

Pray for me, okay?

Please pray!

My face hurts and my spirits are low!

Rats!

and

the forecast really is Rain today.

good day for a nap I guess.

anyway…

I will be back at it when I am on the up end of healing!

Maybe on the weekend.

Thank you for your prayers!!  =)

Jenn~

we did a little patio painting

don’t worry it was washable paint

our landlord would have come unglued had he seen us  =)

we didn’t even own a  home yet!

5 years ago We picked flowers

with the help of our trusty tricycles!   =)

and

We climbed trees.

with the help of our trusty tricycles

(which you can not see in this pic! *sigh*)

But we weren’t sure we liked climbing trees.

In the summer of 2005 we also did a little

Singin in the “Rain” with our Dora & Caillou  umbrellas

Oh how I miss those days when they were smaller =)

and my baby used to dig in the dirt

and he was still wearing a diaper!   =)

at a 4th of July Picnic that year

all the kids rode horses

Little girl LOVED horses back then

the summer before she started kindergarten!!  (sniff)

Sammy was not so sure about this!

I can’t believe how little they were 5 years ago!!

Abby was just learning to ride with training wheels!

Little boy was so cute on his Hot Wheels

He was only 3 back then!!

Oh my how they have grown in 5 years!

Why on earth am I posting about summer of 2005?

You see…

I NEEDED a certain picture from around then…

but you will have to wait until Sept 8th to see it!

I’ll explain then!

So for now you get to reminisce (sp?) with me!!

I love looking at old pictures

that wonderful tug on your heart

remember sweet days of their childhood..

*sigh*

I love my ‘older babies’ …

but I miss those days too!

*sigh*  =)

I am going to go snuggle my babies now!

What were you doing 5 years ago??  =)

Jenn~

Well.. I can not prove it… But….

Maybe they are a little more heart healthy with my changes!

remember I break rules and I don’t follow recipes

I am like that.

Chocolate Heaven on a plate!

don’t forget

… all my photos are being taken ‘blind’…

just sayin.  not the greatest pics…

But for a broken camera… I won’t complain!

So here’s my secret.

Buy the Reese’s Peanut butter chips

you know the one in the orange bag

You can’t miss them they are right next to the chocolate chips!

Flip over the bag

and Magic!  A recipe!  =)

OK .. that wasn’t really my secret

My secret is this

Substitute

Butter and Flours

and reduce sugar

I use 1/2 the butter and 1/2 lighter bake

When using Lighter bake just read the label on the back

it tells you how much to use per whatever measurement you need

So I use 1/2 the butter and substitute 1/2 the butter with lighter bake

then I add a bit more lighter bake so I can reduce the sugar!

I take away at least 1/3  or 1/2 of the sugar that the recipe calls for!

I take away 1/2 and I use brown sugar

I am weird that way!

OH… and When tossing in the eggs… I also leave out one yoke!

every little bit helps right?

then  I mixed all the wet ingredients

like this

and then you are ready for these

So the Reese’s recipe calls for all purpose flour

I use mostly oat flour and whole wheat white flour..

I might put in a 1/3 of a cup of all purpose white.

I have been tossing in two table spoons of ground flax seed also!

My heart loves me for it!

and I happen to have DARK chocolate powder right now

I can not tell you if it is better for you or not..

but it does offer a rich dark chocolate flavor if you like dark chocolate!

SO mix up the dry stuff in a little food processor or something!

Oops!  Don’t forget these ingredients in the wet mixture!

This is my Favorite part!!  YUM!

sweet chippys

eat a few right out of the bowl

they taste better that way!

The SAD truth

I cut the amount of chips in 1/2 also!

Reducing sugar folks! I am trying to trim the fat!

For those of you who said I don’t have fat on my middle…

Thank you… but you are wrong… it IS fat!

and it IS contributing to my high cholesterol!!  BAD fat!!

Go away!

So there you have it.

I didn’t write out the recipe b/c it is on the bag!

and it really is simple to switch to healthy flours

and I LOVE lighter bake!

Love it!

but a girl needs a little butter in her life!

things just don’t taste right with out SOME!

anyway…

if ya all want me to… I will type it up…

just comment you want me to stop being so dang lazy

and I will happily send it to you altered in black and white type!

I have been baking these cookies since I was a girl

I was about my daughters age…

WHAT?!   *sigh*

I didn’t reduce or substitute anything back then

I probably doubled the sugar intake actually!

**did I confess that outloud?**

they are still one of my favorite cookies!!

You can’t go wrong with Chocolate and Peanut butter!

Heck… throw in some Recess Pieces…

Now THAT really is Heaven on a plate!

I just didn’t have any on hand!

I would chop pecans and toss them in too…

except  my family are not NUTS about them!

Go Now… Bake yourself some Chocolate Cookies…

They are good for ya!!

(I think)

Happy Bakin y’all!

Jenn~

PS  Swim Lessons and end of summer play dates have kept me crazy busy

Thus keeping  me in the  lazy blogger mode

and Truth be told

I am having 2 teeth pulled on Friday

So if I don’t post for a few more days

Just remember

You still have all your teeth, mkay!?!!

I love my life, I love my life, I love my life.

just buyin a few things we need

so we can use our new key chains…

see the words Athletic club?

Yeah baby!

( I can’t believe I just said that I HATE Austin Powers!)

We took the financial plunge now that our kids are finally SWIMMERS!!  =)

It makes it feel more worth the monthly fee when we can all benefit from it!

We have been members now for 2 weeks…

walking right past the fun cardio/weight rooms…

to get to the pool!

I like the pool and we have had some great family fun/workouts!

but it is not MY favorite!!

This week we are going to stretch our wings and enter the cardio/weight rooms!  =)

Now that we have new workout shoes!

The Mister needs to bulk tone up his muscles…

he is “thin” =)

me?  well…

I have some inches to loose on my middle *sigh*

(there kk  I posted my fat tummy!)  =)

and I have a slightly unhealthy heart to care for!!

which I can not seem to tackle with green smoothies diet and walking!

So ~

We are excited to add this new chapter to our lives!

It has been a LONG time since I have joined a gym!

This week I am going to use the “dark” cardio/weight room!

The dark offers peace and quiet

and the dark hides the chub makes it less intimidating to workout!

Just my style!!  =)

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We are also Gettin Ready

*sigh*

for School

even though I am STILL in denial

the supplies are bought

and we have a good dent in the clothes & shoes

We are ready enough

*sigh*

I will miss my little girl!

*sigh*

Only 15 more days

*sigh*

I know ~ I know!

Half the world is already back to school ~

I will get over it !!

Right after I eat a chocolate cookie!

A semi heart healthy chocolate cookie that is!!  =)

hey…

Maybe I will start posting recipes again ~

and share the chocolate cookie one tomorrow?

OH ~

My pictures are taken with my broken camera ~ blindly ~ as the view screen is busted ~ so they are try my luck pictures ~ not bad, eh?!!!  =)

Really I am done now.

Bub Bye!

Jenn~

Can this really be happening?

Is MY dog…

My CAT chasing dog…

The wild and crazy Cat Harassing Dog…

the one who thinks the cat is a dog

or he is a cat

yep

That dog

has been doing a little of this lately

MY CRAZY dog is mellowing out

a little

and being nicer to the kitty

SOMETIMES

look at this

he rested his head

while she was on the floor

3 feet away!

once.

but I NEVER

EVER

thought I would see THIS

if I added some fill light

and over exposed it

you would be able to see both animals have at least one eye open

=)

There you have it folks

You heard it RIGHT here

Miracles DO Happen!  =)

(truth be told “I” did not “see” it… my man did… and he took the picture with his phone of course … b/c my camera is BROKEN.. remember?  Stop bringing that up… I don’t want to talk about it!!)

** I have been a VERY lazy blogger this summer… I hope to get back to my less lazy blogger attitude in the Fall… when life is in Routine… =)  I have 17 days to get my butt in gear!!  Until then we have swim lessons to complete, dog sitting,  eye appointments, school clothes shopping, school supply shopping, soccer starting, teeth to be pulled and a camping trip!  Being a mom is no small affair!! ha ha  I will be blogging…  Lazy blogging as I have been this summer!  funny enough… I thought I would have MORE time to blog in the summer!!  Ah ha ha ha ha… jokes on me!**

If you will excuse me I am off to the pool!!

Ciao!

LB ~

(lazy blogger)

B e e s

B e r r i e s

B e a u t i f u l  daisies

fo

b u i l d i n g   “houses”

b a d decor

aren’t those the ugliest end tables (?) you have ever seen??

(Sadly, I am almost sure we had these when I was a kid…

maybe I am crazy?  ** sister Kelly informed me it was the Roller Skating Rink that had these when we were kids**  We must have gone there A LOT!??  ha ha! )

B I G  Noses

B I R D S   ~

quack  quack….

B is for Bad Luck.

Man Alive.

this week alone

~ I gashed my thumb which still has a bruise, a lump and a cut but is healing nicely.

~I did something to my foot (???) pain near my ankle is limiting the use of my foot!?

what the ….???

AND…

Oh this is a good one…

~ I dropped my $200 camera !!!

B is for BUSTED!!

my less than one year old Nikon Coolpix L100…

I dropped it right onto the concrete this morning

Fabulous!  just fabulous!

Shattered the LCD viewing screen

There is NO other viewing options on that particular camera!!

no little peek hole thing… NOPE!

B is for Broken!!

what is up with my BAD LUCK?!!

B is for B U Z Z A R  D  !!!!

B is for Bummer

B is for Bad Mood

B is for cranky Blogger

B is for BED

I am SO going to bed now!

sleeping always makes everything all Better!

(All photos in this post are recently taken right BEFORE I BROKE my camera)

*sigh*

Please ~

Call me Mrs. Brown

Really

Mrs. Charlie Brown

Does anybody have a dollar I could BORROW?  =)
**  b is for bye bye Mrs. Grumpy Pants **   it is the day after now…

I went to bed and woke up on the right side of the bed today… =)

I will try to get a non-grumpy post up for later tonight!!  ha ha!

working on Pacific Standard time mind you… and you know… later for me means after 9 pm!!

Sittin in a tree

H. U. G. G. I. N. G.

(you thought I was going to say kissing didn’t you?!)

First came love

Then came marriage

( and then comes the honeymoon !! )

AND THEN

Came babies in the baby carriage!

(no pics sorry we hadn’t gone digital yet)

and the years go by

THEY grow up

and  then  YOU   join  THIS   club

And then comes…

what comes next?

Anniversaries?

yes sir E bob

Yesterday we celebrated our 12th anniversary !

For some reason we always end up here on our anniversary?!

I wonder why?

Only this year we brought the dog

the temps were so high we felt bad leaving him crated in this heat for too long!

nothing like a romantic walk with the dog!

We Did eat at a Fab Thai Restaurant

before we collected the dog for our Romantic walk!

after our romantic walk

we took the dog and went to buy fancy cupcakes

at a place called The Bearded Lady

I know!!!

I had to tell you b/c it is just WEIRD

and just the kind of thing we would do….  lol!

anywhooo…

I promised my hubby I would not gush over him on my blog

So … I won’t “gush”…

besides it is hard to feel all mushy and sentimental in 96 degree weather without AC!

more on that in a minute!

ha ha!

I love love love that we have laughed our way through 12 years ~ full of fun adventures and many trials in our married life together!  Life did not turn out the way we dreamed it would… it did however… turn out just the way God intended it to… we only have a glimpse of what God’s plan is for our lives… We have endured more than most couples endure… (you can click on the orange letters there and read “our story” )  It is amazing what you can go through with Christ in your heart… giving you the strength and love to make it through … and the laughter!!  I love that the most about US… We LAUGH!!  I love to laugh and it is a HUGE blessing!  We have learned much… grown much… and managed to laugh more than we cry I think!  Considering ALL the things we have been through in the short 12 years we have been together… I think we are DAM good together!  don’t get me wrong… we have had some breaking points… We are not perfect and have plenty of moments when we are irritated with each other.. =)  We have a long way to go… but we have come SO far!  God has blessed us with patience, kindness, thankfulness, selflessness (mostly) and a like minded sense of humor to get through all the bumps in our road.  We both put God and Family first… We respect each other … and show each other love… in between work, soccer, piano, schooling, girl scouts, swimming, etc. etc.  You get the idea!  I am grateful for him in my life!  He is a wonderful friend, a fabulous spouse and a great daddy to my babies … a girl couldn’t ask for anything more!   Except maybe a vacation Alone with my Man… now that would be fabulous!!  (one day.. *sigh*)  I can not imagine looking back at our life in 12 more years!  But I look forward to it!! I just hope that there are less trials and more adventures in the next 12 years!!  Keepin it real folks!  =)

Trying not to gush here…

do you think I did ok?

That wasn’t gushy was it?

Speaking of my man

Its HIS birthday today!

Yep… we got married the day before his birthday!

It is a brilliant idea ladies… he will NEVER forget our anniversary!

(um … wait…that is NOT true… he DID forget one year!! ha ha!)

*ahem*

see not gushy at all!

Right?!!

Tonight we will eat out at the Restaurant of his choice …

he picked Sushi!  YUM!  well.. alright … honestly…

I only eat the California Rolls.. but still… YUMMO!

and then we are going to go Swimming!

Because our anniversary present to each other was a gym membership to a local gym…

that has 4 pools!

Hallelujah!

=)

Looking forward to another  12 years of Healthy(er) living and Love … together!!

Thank you Lord for a Wonderful spouse to share my life with!

Amen!

If you will excuse me now…

Sushi is calling!

Jenn~

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PS  Our weather has been miserably HOT this week… 95 +++

so this is what I have resorted to…

no shame

this is me right after I dropped the hose…

Thank you Love for capturing me in one of my best moments!

at least I was cooler than him!!  =)

and for those of you who LIKE 95 degree weather…

WHAT is WRONG with you??!!   =)

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(the Monkey cards were purchase in Cannon Beach and can be found on the web at www.monkeymoments.net)

Thumbs up to me…

Late last night I managed to put a huge gash across the top of my thumb!

Are You Kidding Me??  is what came to mind!  =)

my life is full of never ending medical  “hiccups”…

Grrrr…

anyway…

I can hardly type now

see

Good Times!!

I am using a splint to keep it straight so I don’t bend open the huge cut!

it wasn’t pretty…

lots and lots of blood

clean cut though

just deep!!

if the location had been different

I would have gone for stitches it is that deep!

anyway…

blogging will be a little challenging this week!

maybe it will help me ramble less!!  (not likely) ha ha!

I have much to tell ya all…

for now photos will have to be worth a thousand words!!  =)

Here is a little of what we have been up to this week!

new shrub beds

cleaning EXTREMELY messy rooms

how does it get SOOOOO bad in kids rooms SO FAST!??

I told em off with their heads if I find messy rooms  next week!!  =)

I did…really!

I may have laughed when I said it…but I said it!!

This

Happened

5 times in 3 days !!!

I think

stupid toilet paper eating dog!!

for the record

he stops and drops it for my hubby almost instantly

not so much for me

there was a good 5 minute chase before I gave up

and got the camera!!!

Bad Merlin!!

and THIS

is AMAZING!!

my water fearing non-swimmers are swimming this summer!!!

Whaaaaaaaaaa Hoooooooo!

they went from nearly terrified of water

especially near the face or eyes

to THIS

AMAZING!!

We signed up for lessons right away before they changed their minds!

Now they are swimming the free style across the width of the pool!!

Fears tackled!

Amen!!

Now we are at the pool every chance we get!!

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alright… I need motrin!!

I would cry “mommy” and suck my thumb

right now

if I could

but it hurts!  =)

I will comment very short and sweet as I read your blogs this week…

m,kay?!!

excellent!

and I will use mostly photos this week for my blog updates!

because this was painful to type without my thumb!

meaning it takes too long, difficult to type ~ lots of typos being corrected and using my thumb literally hurts!

try it just for fun…

type your comments to me without your right thumb…

I dare ya!!

come on… it will be fun (ny) !!   =)

Blessings y’all ~

Jenn~

Oh ~ PS:

Blessing!!

My little man with low vision (20/200)  saw THREE shooting Stars!!  He thinks!

We could see hundreds of stars in the night sky …

Sammy counted about 5 stars he could see… =(

heart breaking!

We saw many meteors Thursday night…  Sammy only manged to see three meteors!!   Yay for little blessings!  I am thankful for the things he DOES see… and try not to dwell on what he can not!   =)

You just need to stop and SMELL the roses

or LOOK at the moon

ya know?

=)

Tonight is the start of the Perseid Meteor Shower…fun fun!

A great night to slow down and snuggle up in sleeping bags in the back yard!  =)

that is what we are planning to do!

blessings~

Jenn

This is my sista

KK

she funny.

We may or may not be mocking these fairy sunglasses at this moment

what on earth was that designer thinking?

I apologize if you like said fairy sunglasses….

I am sorry… really I am…

I don’t know why they made us laugh so hard! =)

anyway…

KK and I spent a LONG time in the car Friday..

just to spend 2 nights in Depoe Bay Oregon

before we spent a LONG time in the car on Sunday …

We stopped at Cannon Beach long enough to put our feet in the sand

and mock fairy sunglasses

before driving the rest of the way to Depoe Bay …

We arrived kinda late on Friday …

It didn’t seem crazy at the time we planned it… but that was a LOT of driving!

next time I think we would stay longer or go some where much closer! 

Saturday We played on Agate Beach Oregon

not to be confused with Agate Beach California

Beautiful!!  look at that sand!

yet there was not a shell nor an agate anywhere to be found!!

just beautiful  sand ~ under a sea of fog ~ which lifted as we were leaving!

The lack of shells & agates was odd for a beach called Agate beach!!

Funny!

Then we visited The Devils Punchbowl & Otter Rock

both of which were beautiful!!

Definitely worth stopping to admire and play if you have the time!

odd though

not a devil nor an otter were anywhere to be found there either!

snicker snicker  =)

I am hopeless!!

We saw a crazy man feeding these crazy squirrels

which you could pet if you were dumb enough to do so

We watched a wee fight break out between 2 squirrels

while a boy was petting them by the peanut bag

he could have lost a finger!!!

*shudder*

wild animals are exactly that

wild

don’t feed wild animals people!!

We fed a raccoon at our back door once…

Big mistake!!  just sayin!!

anywho…

We spent the rest of our afternoon shopping in Depoe Bay

the shops were a little too touristy

We didn’t come home with any treasures… =)

It was a lovely getaway with one of my sisters…

though next time I think we won’t drive so far!

I think we spent more time in the car than we did ‘playin’ …

oops!  =)

and I realized I thrive on exploring

I think I need to learn how to relax more!!

maybe?

what do you think KK??  =)

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What do you all do to “relax”  … especially when you are away for a few days?

do you prefer to explore or lay by the pool with a book?   or something like that?

curious minds want to know!  =)