It was a Saturday to remember!

They kept showing a sign...It's Saturday...I love that. We had such a fun Saturday! Great fall weather. Great seats!!! Look at our view....we were only 30 rows up on the lower level.

Mom and Ben.

It was a bit loud.

After the game we walked around the stadium to go see the graves of all the UGA's. They are all buried near the end zone. When we walked under the bridge we saw a bunch of people standing near the car of the owner's of UGA...we noticed the Savannah tag with UGA on it. We backed into a corner just hoping to get a glimpse of him and low and behold his golf cart pulled up RIGHT NEXT TO US!

You know those crazy kids you see on the front row of the student section....they are painted up and put together they all spell Georgia....Here is Ben with a "G" whose name was Ben too.

Here we are after the game in front of the scoreboard...and right next to the hedges!

It's Friday!!!

On Fridays, both Ben and Madi have gymnastics. Gym Dawgs in the making? Here is Madi on the balance beam. Ben was way in the back practicing dive rolls and other stuff so I couldn't get his picture.

Georgia plays Tennessee tomorrow. Here is a picture of Lulu and Junior, I think they are the most famous Tennessee fans ever...I wonder why? There is this guy, Colonel Coxwell, that Steve knew in Germany and has served with twice in Iraq. He was stationed in North Carolina until this past summer when he got a job at the Pentagon. Well, he called today around 1 pm to let us know he had 4 extra tickets for tomorrow's game. Some members of his family didn't want to go tomorrow so did we want them? Colonel Coxwell always gets lots of season tickets and will just fly down every weekend for the game...must be nice huh. Needless to say, we are going to the game! So you can look for us on TV :)

Good luck Georgia!!!

Love Potion No. 9

When I saw this recipe in the same magazine that I got my Halloween count down idea in, I just knew it was for me. I just printed out a copy of the recipe and stuck in a black frame. I also printed the recipe out in a smaller size and taped it to black paper and hung it with ribbon for an ornament.

Ben and I thought that the recipe and a candy bar would be a fun treat to hand out to his class on Halloween.

I filled an enamelware bowl full of cookies cutters with the love potion no. 9 recipe attached to sell at the plumtree.

Daddy's little Georgia girl

Here is Madi this morning before school. She LOVES this new little jacket I got her. She loves UGA and pink so this is THE jacket of all time. Can you believe this little thing will sit and watch a whole football game. She is definitely a Daddy's girl! Anytime she sees the colors blue and orange she is like eww...Florida. Her dad has done a good job into turning her anti-Florida too.

I try not to make it a habit of giving my kids pop tarts for breakfast but what mom could pass these up during college football season. They have been a hit over the past week. Oh the excitement of opening a new pack to see what teams are in there. Whatever the teams are the kids make up what they think the score would be if those teams played...this one is a given...today Ben said 24-21 Georgia...we will see in a few weeks.

A reminder and recipes

Today I heard the greatest reminder on how precious our time and family are. To enjoy every aspect of today. To make the fondest memories. As mothers, we have heard many times from the mother's who have come before us, that time just slips away and your precious little ones are grown and gone. I am so guilty of having rough times, with two small kids, barely 2 years apart and just wishing I could get to the point where they could be in school and look now I am here but wish I could stop time. Today I heard a reminder to embrace all those loads of laundry because one day they won't be there and I will miss them and all that goes with that....and I know I will. So tonight I so enjoyed spending a wonderful evening with my family.




I have been married almost 12 years and had never made stuffed peppers before...so I thought I would shake things up a little. Since I didn't have a recipe for these I pulled one off of allrecipes.com. The picture is a little blurry but they turned out really yummy.




1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup uncooked long grain white rice
1 cup water
6 green bell peppers
2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Place the rice and water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and cook 20 minutes. In a skillet over medium heat, cook the beef until evenly browned.
Remove and discard the tops, seeds, and membranes of the bell peppers. Arrange peppers in a baking dish with the hollowed sides facing upward. (Slice the bottoms of the peppers if necessary so that they will stand upright.)
In a bowl, mix the browned beef, cooked rice, 1 can tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Spoon an equal amount of the mixture into each hollowed pepper. Mix the remaining tomato sauce and Italian seasoning in a bowl, and pour over the stuffed peppers.
Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, basting with sauce every 15 minutes, until the peppers are tender.

My alterations:
I steamed my peppers in the microwave first for about 4 minutes. And then I also add all the tomato sauce to the recipe instead of the basting part...it was easier for me and then only baked them for 30 minutes.


For dessert I made a new recipe my friend amber sent me for Pumpkin Cobbler.





Pumpkin Cobbler

3 eggs, beaten
15 oz. can pumpkin
12 oz. can evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 Tbsp. vanilla

18 1/4 oz. box yellow cake mix
1 1/4 cup melted butter
1 cup chopped nuts

Mix the first set of ingredients together and pour into an ungreased 9" x 13" pan. Sprinkle cake mix over the top; drizzle with melted butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes; top with nuts. Bake for an additional 15 minutes.

We dipped some ginger snaps in the cobbler and loved it all.

Stitching

Stitching is a very easy and cheap hobby. You can use a pattern, print out your last name, favorite poem or anything. You can trace your kids hands to stitch and save even. If you have a pattern or something you have printed out you lay it under a piece of muslin and trace it. Then cut a piece of warm and natural to go behind the muslin. You pick out what ever colors of DMC floss you want and then you are ready to stitch using a backstitch.




These are easily framed or turned into pillows.








After seeing a beautiful stitchery on my friend Leslie's blog, it made me want to go get some new material and fix up some of my own stitcheries. Yesterday I went to my local quilting store and picked up a few new fat quarters...look at how pretty that material is. I tried adding some V shaped stitches around it. I love it. Now I have LOTS more to do.

For part of our dinner the other night I made these little mummies to ring in the month of October. I found the idea in one of those little cookbooks all on Halloween foods. I forgot to add the little mustard eyes the recipe suggested. My kids LOVED them!

Did you know...

...you can be a Mom AND a teacher? This has been a very busy but fun week so far. Monday I was at my kids school helping out and Tue. and Wed. I was a substitute teacher. On Tuesday even though I was subbing I got to sit with Ben and eat lunch. During lunch, a little boy who I didn't even know, came up to me and said "I didn't know you were a teacher, I thought you were a mom".
My most favorite things in life have everything to do with Homemaking....family, kids, house stuff, crafts. Since moving to Georgia just a little over two years ago, I have been so lucky. I have been making crafts to sale at one of my local antique stores and last year when Madi started school I started substitute teaching at their school. I have always loved kids. Even before being a mom, when I was in the Air Force, my first three years were spent in the Pediatric ICU at Wilford Hall. My second job the Air Force gave me was flying Aerovac out of Yokota AB, Japan. Every time a mission with a baby or child came up they would call me in. Most people are scared of the delicacy of tiny infants and children but this was my specialty. At church I always worked with the Primary kids or in Young Women. Besides being a mom I think I finally have found that being a (Kindergarten)teacher is my dream job.

Our Count Down is ready to begin

As soon as I saw this idea in the recent copy of CK Media Presents Holiday Home cards, gifts and projects I thought it was killer. It's a $7 magnetic board from where else...Target. You just decorate it with all your card/scrapbooking supplies and attach magnets to anything you want to use for the dates. This will be good to use year after year. Here it is in this picture ready to start out new month tomorrow.

Here is a picture of what it will look like at the end of the month with all the pieces on it. This was so fun for both me and my kids. Madi just loves that it's her fingers for the 3rd(I punched out part of a photo from her 3rd birthday). For the 14th and 19th it's both my kids in their soccer uniforms from 3 years ago, those were the numbers on their jerseys. Ben came up with the idea of using coins for the dates of the 1st, 5th, 10th and 25th. Also on a few of them both kids wrote out a number. this was really a fun project for us. Madi has already claimed the odd numbers for the month and Ben is happy to do the even...phew that was easy!

Where's the gas?

Before Hurricane Ike made landfall they told us to fill up on gas. Everyone in Atlanta did except for me...starting our gas shortage and leaving me with 9 miles left in my tank. I did find gas after a few tries. I thought that was the end of it. I had never had that happen to me before...when you drive up to a gas station you expect there to be gas there. We are in our third week of this. They were thinking about cancelling the Georgia/Alabama game this past weekend but then didn't and there are lots of stories out there about all the people being stranded without gas. In a 3 mile radius of my house there has got to be at least 20 gas stations. On Saturday I only found one that had gas. This is CRAZY. It's all anyone is talking about. They say another week or two....good grief. The news tells us not to go top off, but man when you are down to a half of a tank and you see gas you feel as if you need to grab it while you can. The ATL is out of gas!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts4AkeQOIQY

Still a fun weekend...

Alabama 41 Georgia 30....ouch!

On Friday evening I had fun making these Harvest themed cards while watching the debate. On Saturday, I thought it would be fun to make a matching stitchery pillow while we all gathered in front of our TV, to watch our very anticipated blackout Georgia game. Man did we suffer through that one! At least I have this cute pillow to show for it.

I found this fun idea for Tiny Pies over on

scribbit today and had to try it! Aren't they cute.

I just prepared my apples like I would for and apple pie, put them in little dishes, topped with a crust and there you have it.

I did not have a pre-made crust on hand so I made one.

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

water as needed

My mom always did this with the

leftover pie crust...roll it, cut it,

sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar

then bake it.....mmm.

Apple Upside- Down Cake

Here is another family recipe. Of course I got it from my mom and she got it from my grandma. My mom made everything my grandma made and I make everything my mom made. It's so comforting eating something you have always enjoyed. Well tomorrow is the birthday of Johnny Appleseed, so I thought this was the perfect recipe to share. We all love this. When Ben turned 5 this was the kind of cake he chose for his birthday. For my kids teachers, I am going to copy this recipe down to give them tomorrow in honor of Johnny Appleseed.




Apple Upside Down Cake

First prepare the pan. Melt 1/3 cup butter in heavy 10" skillet. Sprinkle 1/2 cup brown sugar evenly over butter. Arrange apples in an attractive pattern on the butter sugar coating.


Cake Batter

2 eggs beat until thick and lemon colored (5min.)
gradually beat in 2/3 cup sugar
6 TBSP water
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

After mixing batter pour over the top of the fruit.
Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
When done baking, immediately turn upside down onto serving plate.
Do not remove pan for a few minutes to let brown sugar mixture to run over the cake.

Leftovers

I made these fun cones all out of leftovers! The paper is from last years Halloween cards, the bottle caps are from my 2004 Halloween cards and the ribbon is from last year too. I got this idea a year or two ago off the impressrubberstamps website. They would be fun to fill with some homemade Halloween candies for gifts is what I am thinking.

They could also be used as ornaments for a Halloween tree.

But, we had NO leftovers from our yummy dinner last night. I made the BBQ chicken pizza I found over on Amber's blog.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

2 cups shredded cooked chicken

1/2 cup BBQ sauce

12" baked pizza crust

1 small red onion, cut into 1/4" slices

1 small green pepper, sliced into rounds

8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

Combine chicken and BBQ sauce in a large bowl; spread over pizza crust. Arrange onion slices and pepper rings over chicken; sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until cheese melts.

ESPN's College Game Day is going to be at The University of Georgia in Athens on Saturday. Ben really wants to go. Steve told him if we were to go we should make a poster to take. Ben's wheels started turning. AJ Green is Georgia's new pride...remember we got his autograph at picture day. He is the one I had his High School picture for him to sign. Ben is something else!

Why I started blogging

For Talk To Me Tuesday this week, I thought I'd ask you the question, "Who or What was your inspiration to start blogging?" This is what was over at tipjunkie today.

Well I have only been blogging myself for a little over 2 months. There have been a few blogs on home decorating I would look at every now and then. But when my friend Amber started her blog last year, I was over there everyday. It was so fun to see all her crafts, cook up some of the recipes she shared and even got to share in her joys of Motherhood with her. It had been 9 years since we had been neighbors but through blogging it brought that fun relationship back to life.

I wake up everyday with the itch to either make a craft or card, decorate something new in my house, cook up a tasty dish and enjoy my family life to the fullest. I get lots of inspiration from other blogs and I enjoy sharing the fun creative things I do.

Blogging is a little more fun than a regular journal to me. It's fun to add the pictures so easily. And it's easily shared with those you love.

Saturday

I LOVE these pumpkin heads. While in Germany I did a lot of Internet shopping. One year I found these and wanted them so bad but they were pretty expensive so I thought I would wait until after Halloween to see if they went on sale...they didn't. Well the following Feb. Steve left for a long deployment to Afghanistan. I was sad...what makes a girl feel better? SHOPPING! So with Steve's first paycheck that had that hazardous duty pay in it I bought these guys from bayberrycove.com. It was remember February but when they came in the mail they hung out in my dinning room for a month I loved them so much. The neighbors kid knocked the taller one off so now I need to try to fix his cheek. See my Oct. 31 sign I made the other day. My mother-in-law suggested putting it in my foyer....thanks Teresa!

This week I got the cutest new chicken patterns to stitch. I quickly did this one for September and set her on my kitchen counter.

Steve made a big pot of blackeyed peas today so I made our favorite cornbread to go with them. It's soooo easy and makes a ton. Great for when you have company or like I did tonight...share with a neighbor.

Sweet Cornbread

1 yellow cake mix

1 box of jiffy cornbread mix

Make both boxes of mix according to their directions and combine.

Bake in 9X13 greased pan at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes...just watch and test with toothpick.

Friday Night Lights

Now that Steve is back and it's football season, he was thrilled to start back to work at his 2nd job....taping High School football games for scout.com. With our nice September weather, the kids and I couldn't pass up the chance last night to go work with our dad. Some things never change. Even before Steve and I were married. Even before we were an item. We were both stationed at Lackland AFB, Texas for 3 years. We were just friends. Even then we would pick a local High School to root for and go to their football games. While living in Germany we always rooted for our local DOD High School...H.H. Arnold at Wiesbaden, Germany. We had just as much fun going to those games...they were good for taking our real small kids to, they could run around and play....they were every Saturday morning. Crazy huh! Because they are Department Of Defense schools the United States Government would not pay $1,000's of dollars to install lights...so the only time to have games was on Saturday morning.

Running

It is so nice to have Steve home. Ben and Madi have been on Fall Break all week so it's been so nice having us all together. Today our weather is absolutely beautiful! Around noon I went over to the Salem lake to get a run in today. No headphones today.... so it was just me and the outdoors listening to the deafening sound of trees blowing around. I only ran 1.75 miles and it took me 20 minutes...I am not a fast runner. But it was very windy and there were hills. Then I just enjoyed myself with a walk afterwards. During all this I was thinking about my friend Susy. Tomorrow she is running with 10,000 others in the Air Force Marathon. Talk about some serious girl power! Here is her link marksusy.blogspot.com, you can go wish her good luck!

Fall cooking fest

Jenni over at nesttokeep is having a pot luck I guess you could say. I am looking forward to finding some new recipes for fall. So hop on over to her place and see what you can find.

Ohio State Buckeyes

We pay homage to an O.S.U. tradition.

Steve called today and he was about to get on a plane in Kuwait and should be home sometime tomorrow. So, I thought we would make him a sweet treat from his Buckeye bride. I also packaged some up and passed out to my neighbors...they loved them even though they are ALL Georgia Bulldogs.




Ohio State Buckeyes


1 lb. butter softened
2 lbs. creamy peanut butter
3 lbs. powdered sugar
3 c. dipping chocolate, melted

Cream together butter and peanut butter. Add powdered sugar and blend well. Shape mixture by hand into buckeye-sized balls. Place on cookie sheet and refrigerate for one hour. Melt dipping chocolate in top of double boiler. Using a toothpick, dip balls into chocolate 3/4 of the way up. Place on waxed paper and allow to cool. Makes about 200 buckeyes. Can be frozen and kept 2 to 3 weeks.

Now I am a buckeye lover and still halved the recipe. Enjoy



I need to find a place to put this date. I just printed it out and framed it.

Lentil Soup

This is a recipe I got from my mom and she got it from my dad's mom. What I like about it is it's easy, healthy, cheap and it's a recipe that's easy to have all the ingredients on hand. Even my kids like it...Madi can't get enough of it.




1 bag of lentils
1 pkg Jimmy Dean sausage; cooked
3 bay leaves
1 onion chopped
salt and pepper to taste



Mix all ingredients in a large pot with 10 cups of water. Heat to almost a boil and then simmer for 1 1/2 hours. We like to eat bread and butter with our soup.

Tonight I made a page for our scrapbook. I LOVE Halloween and 2005 was one of my favorites. My kids had so much fun and I loved every minute of it. We all enjoyed making this spooky gingerbread house you can see in these pictures. I will have to look for one this year.

They trashed it!

We stayed home ALL day. My kids had so much fun playing with the neighbors. OOH look what they did to Steve's room. The pics are almost the same except my silly girl. See she can be crazy here at home but at school she barely makes a peep. Example...The school called me Thursday, Madi had an accident and needed a new set of clothes. She is in first grade and hasn't had an accident since she was like 3. Well her teacher was giving her an oral exam and noticed sweet Madi twitching and dancing a little during this one on one quiz. Her teacher asked what was wrong. Madi then said she REALLY had to go to the bathroom so the teacher said run...the pee leaked out while she was running to the bathroom. Poor girl was so embarrassed but she needs to learn to speak up....these pics are proof she's got a little of me in her.

Patriot Day

We are so proud to be a military family. It can be rough at times but we wouldn't trade it for the world! Since 2003 Steve has been on two long deployments to Iraq and one long deployment to Afghanistan. With lots of 1 month trips to Kuwait in between. We miss him so much when he is gone but are so proud of what he is doing.

Here in this picture Steve just got home from his first deployment to Iraq. The kids were so small you can tell Ben wasn't sure what to think. Rhein Main AB, Germany 2003.

We picked up our dad at Ramstien AB, Germany after he completed his deployment in Afghanistan, Summer 2005

Ben and Madi made the cutest posters to welcome home their Dad from Iraq this past spring. Atlanta, Georgia 2008.

My little soldier boy

Well it all started in Kindergarten. Ben's teacher, Mrs. Davenport would call him her little soldier boy because he was so well behaved. He has always been that way...never a kid to take a toy away from another and never one to hit others...now others don't include his sister but he is a good kid. His 2nd grade teacher Mrs. Kruse from last year is now a 3rd grade teacher right across the hall from his new class. Mrs. Kruse came up to me in the hall with a smile on her face and a story. She always sees Ben in the hall and says hi to him but she said he looks staight forward and doesn't say a word...my little soldier boy.

Witch's table...

Here is another picture of some of my Halloween decorations.

When I was little, I was a witch every year for Halloween. Here I am stirring my brew when I was 4. My mom always made my costume and hat. Do you see that hand carved pumpkin?

Yesterday after Madi's soccer game they played out in the front yard. They asked me to get out my batons and show them some tricks. Here they are thinking they are so cool.