FaceTime saves my grandmother sanity

I have been really sick for the past few days. I hate being sick! Besides feeling really awful, I don't get anything done, I'm grouchier and I have a shorter temper and it makes me miss people a lot more and that means I'm weepier. It's all around the rotten thing! 

I'm really grateful for FaceTime. I haven't seen my little grandson in person in so long and I miss him so terribly much. I am grateful that I have Facetime so that I can see him and he can giggle and smile at me. It is nice when I talk to him and he remembers me. As you can see from the right-hand corner of this photo, I look like an idiot! But I like to play with him while I'm talking to him and if that requires me to look like an idiot then I'm okay with that because it makes him smile. His smiles are like gold!

Don't get me wrong, I miss Cora too (Cora, I miss you a lot!) but I'm not worried about forgetting who I am and I know how short a babies memory can be. I am so glad that I get to see him in April and I'm so glad I get to meet Jace, my new grandson. 

Happy 15th Birthday Brynn!

I had a few people on Facebook who were interested in how I made Brynn's 15th birthday cake.

I started with a basic frosted chocolate cake. I added chocolate dipped mint Oreo cookies to the side of the cake. These cookies are flat on one side. I then arranged regular mint Oreo cookies cookies around the top of the cake, placing them on end and one in the center of the cake. I then created a circle inside of those Oreo cookies using the flat sided dipped Oreos. Inside the circle I poured Andes mint chips that I bought at the baking section at Wal-Mart. At Wal-Mart near the cake sprinkles, birthday candles and squeeze gels and frostings there are small bags of colored Sixlets. I placed a dab of chocolate frosting on each Oreo around the top of the cake and then placed a mint-colored sixlet on top. I then placed a dab of chocolate frosting at the center of each dipped Oreo around the edge of the cake and placed a mint-colored Sixlets on it. Actually, Tate did the Sixlet placement for me!

After the cake was finished I made a spot in the refrigerator for it and refrigerated it for several hours to harden the frosting and keep everything in place.

Now you can make your own mint Oreo birthday cake!

I miss Italy!

This morning I laid in bed snuggling with my husband and talking about all kinds of things. I love these kinds of mornings!

My girls are playing grocery store together this morning. Tate wanted to make photo copies of real money for their store but I talked her into using Monopoly money. I could just see her taking her photo-copied one dollar bills to school and me getting arrested for really bad counterfeiting!

I really love having late church. Our church time isn't until 1:30 pm and it allows for sleeping-in and lazy mornings. It allows extra time if you have to teach a lesson at church and when we get home about 4:45 pm Scott usually has a yummy roasted chicken dinner ready. A lot of my church family says, "but when we have early church you have the rest of the day to do stuff". I always wonder what they are doing, that can be done on the Sabbath, that you can't do between waking and 1:30 pm. Maybe they really sleep in...a lot! That would be my teenagers excuse!

In keeping with my out-of-order life journaling here is my photo-story-of-the-day.
I am trying to lose weight (yeah, for like the last 15 years!) and Scott has promised me that if I get down to the size I want to be he will take me back to Italy. Well, that's motivation!
This is the Trevi fountain in Rome. A traditional Roman legend promises that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they will return to Rome.
I threw a coin!
I guess that means better go get on my elliptical machine and make that coin toss work for me!

Looks like I'm not the only one trying to go back to Rome! 

It also looks like the city of Rome is raking in a bunch of money at this fountain!!!

Photos taken by me on May 12, 2012

Which couch should I sit on?

Intro. to my Out of Order Blog

When I plan to start my journal (again) I always worry about writing everyday and how I have not been writing everyday. This usually stresses me out and leads to two outcomes. Either I don't write at all or I try to play catch up and write a long apology (to my future self I guess) followed by an entry that covers a lot of time and leaves me discouraged and exhausted.

Well, that is where my new blog comes in. No pressure! My life is "out of order" most of the time so why can't my journaling be too?! I plan to add pictures, tell stories, keep remembrances, and share my life completely out of order!

My happy girls on New Years Eve. It's about to turn 2014 and we are all home. It was VERY cold outside with snow all over the ground. We lit fireworks at midnight and the kids ran around the block with sparklers. Scott carried Tess (age 5) around the block. Tate (age 9) is holding her new Ipod touch that she just got for Christmas from Santa.