Totally Awesome!!

Sometimes you just gotta love Facebook! Like last week when I logged on to see everybody's business and found out my friend and her husband had the flu. Too bad, huh? But not huge news. Well, it was a HUGE deal to me because they just happened to have tickets to No Doubt/Paramore that they were selling because they had the flu! Yay!!! Not yay that they had the flu, but YAY that we got to go to the concert! I love Paramore...great songs for running...and they sounded awesome!! Here's the self shot with the cell phone...nice!And then No Doubt came on and totally rocked!!!! They were amazing! The stage was super cool, Gwen looked rocking hot, and they sounded sooooo good. It was the most fun Jim and I have had in a long time.

It was the perfect way to celebrate our anniversary! No doubt about it...the last 17 years has been totally awesome:)

Hey!

It's been so long I had to guess on my password a few times! Haven't been in the mood for a while, it's much easier to blog when life is all haha, hehe, and good times. Anyway, I'm gonna try to ease back in. So this isn't gonna be very exciting, but it's an easy one for me...4th of July toes and pix. My sis-in-law sometimes prints my toe pix out and takes them into her pedi lady, so this one is for her...I guess for next year!And I had to laugh when I saw my fireworks pix this year. Gone are the days of watermelon-stained smiles and sparklers. Now I've got butt flames and daredevils. And Jamie took this one...it's my fav this year! 17 years and the we still got fireworks:)

Classic Dean Magic

I got a call from my friend asking if I had seen Dean's picture in the local newspaper yet. I tried to ignore the panic in my stomach generally associated with calls from adults about Dean. She said he was on the front page of the sports section at the Opening Day Ceremony for baseball. He was with a group of kids talking into a microphone or something. Oh yeah...flashback to Opening Day. The Cal Ripken president asks for volunteers who know ALL the words to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" to come forward and sing it for everyone. A few kids come forward...including Dean who doesn't know a single word to the song, but just wants to go up in front of everyone. Whatever. And with a little Dean magic he lands himself on the front page of the sports section...for doing literally nothing!

True Birthday

Burke's guinea pig, Sami, finally had her babies...on Burke's Birthday!!! How cool is that? Not only was it his birthday, but we also missed a bunch of church; so it was like the best day ever. Poor Sami looked like she was going to burst for about the last 2 weeks. So we placed our bets on how many babies she would have (normally 1-6!). She ended up having 5 babies, but one didn't make it. So now we have Hami (the dad), and Sami, plus Brownie, Tiger, 7-up, and Nacho. They're the cutest little guinea pig family ever. We couldn't have had a better birthday for Burke. He loves animals and takes such good care of his new little minis:)

Chocolate Fairy

Tuesday is a super-busy day for me and all the running around makes me a little crazy. So when I got the mysterious "check your front door" text I was elated to find mucho chocolate! Thank you, thank you! But beware...feed me chocolate and you've got yourself a bff jill:)

Loveking Birthday Boy

A good bday for the Loveking...Rockband marathon, 3lbs. of peanut M&Ms, lots of Pepsi, no Saturday work. And lots of love from the fam..
Dean loves playing catch with Jim
Burke loves Jim because he takes him places
Jamie loves watching AI with him
Nelson loves Jim because he kids around and is funny
A few reasons I love Jim...he makes life fun, he encourages me to do the things I love to do, he is completely trustworthy, and he always helps people. So I guess we'll keep him. Happy Birthday Jimbo!

Two must-share recipes

I share so I am not the only one getting fatter by the day. The first is chocolate popcorn. My niece, let's call her Satana, made this for my fam a few years ago and it is totally addicting and easy. Pop two bags of lite-butter microwave popcorn. Empty both bags WITH NO KERNELS into a huge bowl. Melt one bag of white chocolate chips and pour over popcorn. Stir til coated. Pour out onto counter or cookie sheet. Drizzle with melted semi-sweet chocolate chips. Let dry (30 minutes-ish). Then try not to eat the whole thing in 5 minutes. Your stomach will hurt. I'm just guessing.
The next one is more time consuming but worth the effort. It is one of my favorite salads from my sister-in-law, Janet. And it's a salad. Everyone knows salads are good for you. I make the dressing and almonds in the morning and throw the salad together just before serving.

Dressing:
1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup sugar
2T lemon juice
1t salt
1/2t dry mustard
2 cloves garlic, pressed thru garlic press

Almonds:
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
Mix butter and brown sugar in small pan til bubbly. Add almonds. Cook one minute. Spread on cookie sheet and broil for 1-3 minutes til browned (watch carefully). Cool. Break apart. DO NOT start snacking on this...it will gone before you realize what you've done!
Salad:
Spinach
Red leaf lettuce
Romaine lettuce
1 red onion, sliced
2 green onions, chopped
1 pint strawberries, sliced
Place all lettuce, spinach, and onions in large bowl. Add strawberries and almonds last. Pour dressing on just before serving. Great as a side, or sometimes I add sliced, cooked chicken and serve it as a main dish at chick events.
Enjoy!