Wordless and Wordful Wednesday ~ Proud Mom

Okay...can't stay worldless this week either...as most of you know my son, Sam, is playing flag football this year and if you follow me on Facebook you know that they are doing AWESOME!  Tonight they had a night game as it was a make-up for a missed game earlier in the season due to rain.  They are now 5-0!  They have had 3 of their 5 games be shut-outs.  Tonight was the best game ever!  Why you ask?  Sam caught a pass (he's had a hard time of that this year) and ran it for a 2 point conversion!  He caught a few more balls as well and ran them for yardage.  You can only imagine how happy he is right now.  His coaches have been more than wonderful to him as they have worked with him one on one to get him catching the ball and tonight they all saw their hard work pay off.  Sam has always loved playing rusher and now he enjoying the other side.  I can't begin to say how proud I am of every team member on this team so I give you the team in their after game talk with their coaches as today's picture.  Oh...they won 36-6!  WAY TO GO JAGUARS!

If you would like to see more Wordless photos head on over to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom, Live and Love...Out Loud, and J. Leigh Designz. Now if you're like me and sometimes you can't stay wordless head on over to see some Wordful Wednesday photos at Parenting by Dummies.  Don't forget to sign the Linky below.

Money Mondays ~ Week 1

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Every Monday over at Trendy Treehouse they would host Marketing Mondays. As of last Monday they are only going to host it once a month. I have contacted them and asked if it would be okay for me to host a Monday like it. They graciouslly said yes! Thanks Tara!  If you haven't been over to see Trendy Treehouse I highly recommend it.

So here we go! Link Up your Etsy Stores, Websites, Photography Sites, ect. I'm looking forward to hosting this blog hop every week and visiting all of yours as well.

Grab the button above and place it on your site. Please remember to keep it family friendly. Explicit Sites will be removed.  Remember to grab the Blog Hop Code below to share with others!  Let's all have some fun and promote our businesses.

Unconscious Mutterings

Unconscious Mutterings ~ If you'd like to play along just click on the link.

1. Intruder :: invader
2. Repelled :: put off
3. Trench coat :: warmth
4. Lipstick :: red
5. Humongous :: big
6. Oven mitts :: protection
7. Case :: closed
8. Daughter :: mother
9. Attorney :: lawyer
10. Shaken :: not stirred

Looking forward...Starting tomorrow I will be hosting a Blog Hop called Money Mondays. Come back here Monday to link up your Etsy Shops, Blogs, Websites, Photography sites, and more!  Share with everyone that this is a FREE way to advertise their sites.

Wordless and Wordful Wednesday ~ Making Your House Smell WONERFUL!

Here is my Wordless/Wordful Wednesday entry.  As you can see it's not very "wordless".  In fact it's longer than I expected...but at least it's recipes.  Please leave your link at the bottom.  I look forward to visiting everyone!  Remember you can click on the pictures to see them at their regular size.

I find myself here again wondering why I haven't updated my blog before now.  I know I've written a ton of posts in my head but have never gotten over to the computer to actually get them posted.

I have decided to try my hand at making my own Apple Butter and coming up with my own recipe.  I think I've done a pretty good job as my son likes it.  He just loves apple butter so he's been my tester.  Thought I would share with you my two recipes that I have come up with so far.  I've got more ideas for different ones that once I've tested them I'll share here with you.

Molasses Apple Butter

(This recipe will give you an apple butter that has a hint of a molasses flavor and I really do mean it's a hint.)

Ingredients:

6 apples (I used 3 Golden & 3 Red) - peeled, cored and chopped
2 cups white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (or less if you don't like cinnamon)
1/8 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/8 teaspoon salt

Place apples, sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and salt into a slow cooker.  Cover and cook on high for 1 hour.  Reduce heat.  Simmer and stir occasionally for 6 to 8 hours.  At this time use an immersion blender.  Once you are done you may want to cook longer if your apple butter is still to runny.  At this point the longer you cook it the thicker it will become.  If you do find that it's not getting thicker just take the lid off so that the steam will escape.

Once you have reached the consistency that you want, turn off you slow cooker and let cool a bit.  In the mean time you can get your boiling water bath ready for any that you would like to can.  If you're not canning this will store great in freezer-safe containers.  Make sure you leave 3/4 inch space at the top.

Apple Butter

(this recipe will give you more of an original apple butter flavor)

Ingredients:

12 apples (I used 9 Goldens and 3 Reds) - peeled, cored and chopped
6 cups white sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt

Follow the same cooking directions as in the recipe above.

What's  next?  I'm going to start with these recipes and add in different  flavors to them.  Keep your fingers crossed that they all turn out well.   Now I'm just wishing I had an apple corer and a peeler.  It sure would  make this go faster.

The pictures are of the Molasses Apple Butter and as  you can see it is a bit darker.  This is due to the brown sugar.

If you would like to see more Wordless photos head on over to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom, Live and Love...Out Loud, and J. Leigh Designz. Now if you're like me and sometimes you can't stay wordless head on over to see some Wordful Wednesday photos at Parenting by Dummies.  Don't forget to sign the Linky below.

Fall Into Reading 2010

It's finally here!  Now what I'm wondering is if I can actually get the reading done that I would like to get done. I would love to read a big stack of books but I just don't see that happening this time around.  But I will do my best to trudge through them.  I have my list to share with you and in a few more days I'll have a list of books that Sam wants to read.  Remember there is still time to sign up!  Just click on the button above to read more about it.  You really don't have to have a blog to participate.  Just start reading between now and December 20th.

Books to Read:

A Deadly Yarn by Maggie Sefton ~ I'm over half way through.
The Nativity Collection by Robert J Morgan~ I have just started this one. ~ Book Review coming up!
I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali
Uncommon Faith by Trudy Krisher
Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

There are many more books that I want to read but I'm keeping my list short for now.  I'm sure once we add Sam's list here I'll be reading a bunch of those with him so that will in turn make my list grow as well.  I may change this list up a bit but for now I'm happy with it.  What are you reading this fall?  What else should I add to my list?

I Had A Coupon

Yes, I do clip coupons and I do use a lot of them.  I try to clip the ones that I know I'll use but this one just happened to jump off the coupon page and into my pile the other week.  I've taken him with me several times to the store but I never seemed to make myself use him.  You see I hate purchasing something if I don't need it.  But this one was to hard to resist.  So last week I finally broke down and used my lonely little coupon that had been making the trips to the grocery store.  What did I purchase you ask?  I purchased, with the help of my coupon (a $1.00 off), a bag of the new Pretzel M & Ms.  I also knew that I just didn't want us to eat them out of the bag.  So I put together a cookie recipe using them.

I made 3 dozen cookies earlier this week and Sam has declared them the best cookies I've ever made!  That is high praise around here.  Now it's Saturday afternoon and there are just 4 cookies left.  So...would you like to have the recipe?  I thought so. 

M & M Pretzel Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 9 oz package of Pretzel M & Ms
Sea Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy; beat in egg and vanilla.  In medium bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt; blend into butter/sugar mixture a little bit at a time.  Stir in Pretzel M & Ms.  Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls (I used a cookie scoop) 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Sprinkle a small pinch of sea salt on the top of each cookie (trust me...it really makes the cookies taste fantastic).  Bake 10 to 13 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and centers are soft.  Cool 2 minutes on the cookie sheet and then cook completely on wire racks.  Makes approx. 3 dozen.

Dairy and Cheese Farm Visit

I have been busier than busy!  Normally I can see myself coming and going but this past week I haven't even been able to do that.  I'm really looking forward to this evening though.  Sam will be spending the night up at the church with his Cub Scout Pack and Andy and I are going to have a quiet evening at home.  Probably won't do much but watch a movie but you know what?  That's fine with me!  I might even get some knitting or cross stitching done.  Or I might not do a thing.

This past Wednesday Sam and I, along with some other families that are enrolled in Connections Academy, traveled to a dairy and cheese farm.  It was so much fun!  I now have fresh cheese, eggs and milk!  The cheese is wonderful and I can't wait to taste the milk.  I still have just a bit left of the last gallon of milk in the fridge so I'm trying to finish that as quickly as I can so that I can dive into the yummy goodness of this fresh milk.  The farm was 2 hours away but it was well worth the trip.  They even had calves that were less than a week old.  As we held out our hands they would suckle on our fingers.  They are so sweet and gentle to be around.  Here are a couple of pictures of them.

They showed us how they made their cheese from separating the curds from the whey, to pressing the cheese, to placing the cheese wheels into their cave for aging and then to tasting!  YUM!  They are a wonderful family and it was nice to see a family farm and everyone working in it instead of a big industrial one. 

I Heart Faces ~ Smirk

This weeks theme over at I Heart Faces is...Smirk! According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary smirk means, to smile in an affected or smug manner. As soon as I read this definition I knew which photo I would enter. It is a photo that I took of Sam before he went into surgery this summer. I had taken several photos and this last one he said it all with his face. You can hear him loud and clear saying, "Mom, I'm done with the photos!" How about you? Can you hear him too? To see more smirky photos just click on the button above.

You Capture ~ Your Choice

I am hanging my head in shame as I completely forgot to put up my "You Capture" shot for this week.  This week assignment was our own choice and I still forgot.  Gee!  It's been such a busy week this week that I honestly forgot to even use my camera.  It sits here on my desk just waiting for me to pick it up.  And by the looks of my desk right now it's even amazing that I know where it is on here.  I really do need to clean this desk up!  Guess you all know what I'll be doing tomorrow.  So knowing that I haven't even picked up my camera I'm going to use two pictures that I took last week.  I didn't "clean" the photos up any and that's okay.  I might one day but for now here they are.  They are of Sam working his Rubik's Cube.  Right after I took these pictures he got it to where one side is completely finished and the touching 4 sides have two rows completed.  He's so close to figuring it out and I enjoy watching him work on it.

Wordless and Wordfull Wednesday ~ Flag Football

This past Saturday was Sam's first Flag Football Game of the season.  His team this year is the Jaguars and with only 2 practices (one was cancelled due to the 9 1/2 inches of rain we got) THEY WON!  Not to mention that last Saturday the temperature here was in the low 90s with a fells like temperature of 103!  It was unbearable and they all were troopers and kept on playing.  Here are just a few pictures as I didn't take many.  It was just to hot and my hands were too sweaty to hold the camera.  You can see the misery in Sam's face when I took the last picture of him standing next to the van waiting to get in.

If you would like to see more Wordless photos head on over to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom, Live and Love...Out Loud, and J. Leigh Designz. Now if you're like me and sometimes you can't stay wordless head on over to see some Wordful Wednesday photos at Seven Clown Circus.  Don't forget to sign the Linky below.

I Heart Faces ~ "Vroom, Vroom"

This week the challenge over at I Heart Faces is (per their website), "Adding a vehicle to a portrait session is a fun way to mix things up a bit! This week’s entry should have some kind of vehicle in it (any form of transportation or even a toy!) AND a face. Please make sure a face is clearly showing as well."

I had Sam play with some of his cars along the edge of one of our chairs and took quite a few photos as he really didn't want to play along with mom taking even more photos of him.  But once he started playing with his cars he actually started to get into it.  This is the one that I like the best because he actually was concentrating on the cars and not me.  Head on over to I Heart Faces by clicking the button above to see more!

PhotoHunter ~ Anniversary

The theme over at PhotoHunter this week is Anniversary.  Since this weeks theme fell on the anniversary of September 11th, I thought it would be appropriate to share a bit of history that I have held onto.

The week following September 11th I made these red, white and blue bracelets for Sam and I to wear.  I have no idea where mine ended up but I have kept Sam's.  Here he is holding it.  Sam was just 18 months old when September 11th happened and now he's 10 1/2.  My has he grown!

Looking at the Sky on Friday

For Looking at the Sky on Friday this week I thought I would just take a portion of a picture of a cloud to share with you.  I love the depth of this cloud and once I took just a snippet of it out of the full picture I realized how much more you could see.

Now here is the picture that I took the portion from.

You Capture ~ Signs

Awhile back I participated in "You Capture" which is hosted by a wonderful lady named Beth over at I Should Be Folding Laundry. I loved waiting for her themes and going out with my camera to capture the pictures to share with you here. She doesn't want you to use pictures that you have already taken. Instead she wants us to get our cameras and head on out and find something to capture! I love that and it was what started me going with my photography. I still take lots of pictures but I just don't seem to take these challenges anymore. I'm now going to jump back in there and do just that. Capture!

This weeks theme is "Signs". There are so many different ways we could go with this theme and I'm looking forward to seeing what others out there are going to do with it as well.  It's been pouring rain here all day so I didn't get to go out as I would have liked so I went with the sign that I hold in my hands every day, twice a day for work.  You see I'm a Crossing Guard and hold a stop sign every day.  If you'd like to see what others have come up with please click on the button above.

A Summer Secret ~ Book Review

A Summer Secret by Kathleen Fuller is the first book of the Mysteries of Middlefield series.

Mary Beth Mullet is an Amish teenage girl living with her parents and brothers, struggling with having a little privacy during her last summer of freedom, before she will have to get a job. With her food stash, her journal, and her privacy, Mary Beth finds great comfort in her hideout; a barn close to their property. There are only two problems. First of all, her father has forbidden her from going to the barn. Second, she's not as alone as she thought. Was it her twin brother or someone else using her secret place?

I don't want to give to much more away as this is a mystery but I have to say that at one point I misplaced the book and almost went crazy looking for it because I wanted to know how it ended. This is a quick and good read.

In A Summer Secret, Fuller does an excellent job of helping the reader to understand and appreciate the Amish lifestyle. She even has a glossary of Amish terms, which I found extremely helpful, as this vocabulary is used throughout the book. Though this book is intended for juvenile readers, I believe many adults would also enjoy reading this Christian mystery. I know I did!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Wordless & Wordful Wednesday - Lego Semi-Truck

This is a Lego semi-truck that my son made up!  He just started building one day and this is what resulted.  He's amazing with those little plastic bricks.

If you would like to see more Wordless photos head on over to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom, Live and Love...Out Loud, and J. Leigh Designz. Now if you're like me and sometimes you can't stay wordless head on over to see some Wordful Wednesday photos at Seven Clown Circus.  Don't forget to sign the Linky below.

Now for you to have a little bit of fun....make sure you watch until the very end.  You won't be disappointed.

Fall Into Reading 2010

It's almost that time again! Now I need to get a list of book together that I would like to read during the Fall Into Reading time span. It will take place between September 22nd through December 20th. If you'd like to participate you can learn all about it by clicking on the button above. It's always so much fun and she usually has giveaways during this time.

I'm thinking of having Sam participate in this challenge. I'd like to see him read at least a few books during this time but I'm not going to make it a requirement. He hasn't read "for fun" in awhile and I need to change that. I know that seeing us read will be good for him so maybe I need to set scheduled reading times again. It will be great for us all.

I'd love to hear if you're going to participate or if you're going to have your family participate as well. Heck...get your kids classmates to sign up too! I don't think you need a blog to do this either. I'm telling you...you need to head on over to check it all out. It's a lot of fun.

Now a couple of questions for you. What are your favorite books? What books would you recommend that I read? I'd love to know.

Catching Up

At the beginning of this year I thought I could post every day for 365 days.  I did great until last month.  Then school started and I'm busier than ever this year.  I have plenty of posts written in my head but I have yet to get them down here.  I think what I really need to do is pre-write them and schedule them to post.  That way maybe I can keep up with what I would really like to do with this blog.

Update on Sam and school...After the second week of school Sam now has all As and one B!  I couldn't be prouder of him!  After the first week I told him that he had all As and one C but I was wrong.  They considered a 73% a D!  So in just one week he moved his D up to a B!  He said that this week he would work the B up to an A!  I've never seen him so excited or concerned about his grades.  I'm just lovin' this!

I've had a great weekend not doing much except for watching some movies and knitting on some socks.  I'm also very thankful to Lizzie Kate for supplying me with a lost key to a cross stitch that I'm working on.  I've been wanting to finish a pattern for some time now but I couldn't find the key to the pattern and now due to the designer I can finish it!  WOO HOO!

For those of you that have asked what I won from the Rayovac Photo Contest I won a Digital Photo Frame Keychain and a Rayovac Platinum Charger!

I'll upload some photos of the sock and cross stitch that I'm working on hopefully later this week.

I Won!

This photo won third place in the photo contest hosted by Rayovac this past month.  I just want to take a moment to thank everyone that voted for me.  It was a long contest but a fun one. 

Wordless & Wordfull Wednesday ~ To Stop Or Not To Stop

When we were out at Fossil Rim awhile back we came across this sign.  We all couldn't resist stopping and taking a picture of it.

If you would like to see more Wordless photos head on over to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom, Live and Love...Out Loud, and J. Leigh Designz. Now if you're like me and sometimes you can't stay wordless head on over to see some Wordful Wednesday photos at Seven Clown Circus.

First Week of School...How Is It Going So Far?

I have to say that I'm truly amazed at how school is going this first week.  I'm not saying that Sam is just LOVING school now because there are still times when he whines about doing it.  But we get the work done when it needs to get done.  In fact so far this week we have managed to be done between 1:00 and 2:00 in the afternoon.  We generally don't get started until around 8:30 and I let him take a good 10 minute break between his subjects.  He takes daily quizzes/assessments after every lesson and so far he's pulling A's!

I do have to say that this is a very new expierence for the both of us.  We're both learning what works and what doesn't work.  I must admit that on Tuesday I finally realized that the really BIG books for each of Sam's subjects were actually my books.  They were the lesson plans and answer keys.  Once I found them automatically I felt much better about how I was going to prepare for each day.

I'm really looking foward to his Art classes!  They are going into the history of art and have a really neat project every week.  You can make sure you'll see some of those projects on here!  I'm also looking forward to the field trips that we'll take.  We'll take some with Connections Academy, some with the local Connections families and some just on our own.  In fact one of the families is having an informal Back to School Get-Together tomorrow evening.  We'll get to meet kids in the same program in grades 3 through 8!  Great mix of ages I think.

I know I've talked a lot this past week about what we are doing for Sam and school but it's just so exciting for us.  Sam's writing (content and penmenship), communicating and self-esteem seem to be growing leaps and bounds! 

I'd love to hear how everyone else is doing during their first week of school (if you've already started that is).  Doesn't matter what school you're in!

Wordless & Wordful Wednesday ~ First Day of School

Here is Sam on his first day of school.  It still looks kind of bare but we're working on that.  In fact we're hanging up a cork board today.  If you would like to know more about what we are doing with Sam this year for school check out this post.  What I love about it most is that everything is done for me!

While you're here I'd love for you to spend a minute to vote for three photos that I have entered into Rayovac's photo contest. They are titled "Enjoying the Pool", "Majestic Murphy" and "Jumping Over the Water". Thank you and I really appreciate every vote! You can also vote for these photos every 24 hours.


If you would like to see more Wordless photos head on over to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom, Live and Love...Out Loud, and J. Leigh Designz. Now if you're like me and sometimes you can't stay wordless head on over to see some Wordful Wednesday photos at Seven Clown Circus.

First Day of School

First day of school went pretty well! Sam and I were done around 1:45 and that was with quite a few breaks and lunch! Now of course this evening while I was reading over things for tomorrow I realized that the huge books for each subject are actually for me and are the lesson plans for the year. I feel so much more prepared for tomorrow! Here is the desk and set-up that we have going for him. It's in a corner in our kitchen and seems to work really well. I will have a picture of him on his first day of school up tomorrow. To lazy to get it uploaded right now.

Public School???

With the school year about to begin I've been pretty worried about my son going into 5th grade and moving up to the Intermediate school. You see Sam has ADHD, ODD and Anxiety. Along with all of that he would be meeting up with some old bullies along with some current ones and his best (and pretty much only) friend moved into another school district. That alone was sending his anxiety level sky high as you can only imagine. With all of that in mind I started looking at different options that would be available to us. Sam has been begging me to homeschool him since he was in the 2nd grade. I would have felt comfortable back then but not anymore so that option was pretty much out of the picture (I would have had I not found something else). The something else that I found is Connections Academy. They are a FREE Online Public School. They provide all of the materials, supplies along with the computer and monitor! We have now have a desk for him and have everything set up and ready to go for tomorrow.  Can't wait to start this new venture.  Here is a video all about the school.  Check it out!

PhotoHunt ~ Numerical

Today's theme for PhotoHunt is Numerical.  Last Saturday we took Sam bowling for the first time in several years.  I have been clipping coupons off the back of frozen pizza boxes for free bowling games and thought it would be great to take him bowling.  He was THRILLED to go and did a fantastic job bowling.  Here are our scores.  As you can see Sam came in second but he wasn't that far off from Andy.  I on the other hand didn't do so well.  We have more coupons for free games and our Sunday School class is going bowling again tomorrow after church...families and all!  It will be a lot of fun.

While you're here I'd love for you to spend a minute to vote for three photos that I have entered into Rayovac's photo contest.  They are titled "Enjoying the Pool", "Majestic Murphy" and "Jumping Over the Water". Thank you and I really appreciate every vote!  You can also vote for these photos every 24 hours.

Wordless Wednesday & Wordful Wednesday ~ Road or Street

My parents noticed awhile back that around here where I live a lot of the streets have more than one name.  Here is an extreme example of one.  Is this a "road" or a "street"?

While you're here I'd love for you to spend a minute to vote for three photos that I have entered into Rayovac's photo contest.  They are titled "Enjoying the Pool", "Majestic Murphy" and "Jumping Over the Water". Thank you and I really appreciate every vote!  You can also vote for these photos every 24 hours.

If you would like to see more Wordless photos head on over to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom, Live and Love...Out Loud, and J. Leigh Designz.  Now if you're like me and sometimes you can't stay wordless head on over to see some Wordful Wednesday photos at Seven Clown Circus.

How Do You Use Your Sunroof?

We took the Chevy Malibu out to Fossil Rim Nature Center. The car handled fantastic on all of the steep inclines (which there were a lot of). I'll post more pictures and videos later. But for now you've got to see how we used our sunroof!

Fossil Rim from Kim Morrow on Vimeo.

PhotoHunt ~ Orange

The theme over at PhotoHunt this week is Orange.   She's had this theme at least twice that I can remember and I haven't taken any current "Orange" pictures so I really had to dig in my archives. Here is what I have come up with.  Orange honeysuckle flowers that were growing up a brick pillar at our house in Louisiana when we lived there.  If you would like to see more PhotoHunt participants pictures just head on over to TN Chick and start looking.

Don't forget to vote for the photos that I've entered into Rayovac's Summer photo contest!   They are titled Majestic Murphy and Enjoying the Pool. Thanks so much for your help! 

No iPod? No Problem!

We don’t have an actual iPod in our house. So when I first picked up the Chevy Malibu I was excited to learn that there were other options to listening to music in the car. Check it out!

Don't forget to vote for the photos that I've entered into Rayovac's Summer photo contest!   They are titled Majestic Murphy and Enjoying the Pool. Thanks so much for your help! 

Enjoy the videos below!




No iPod? No Problem! from Kim Morrow on Vimeo.




Jump Drive from Kim Morrow on Vimeo.

Rayovac Summer Photo Contest

If you are here to read my Wordless/Wordful Wednesday post just scroll down.  But while you're here.....Have you voted for my photos that I entered? I sure can use the help not to mention I've entered another photo for this weeks theme. It's titled Majestic Murphy and as a reminder here is the first photo is titled Enjoying the Pool.  Here are both of the photos:

Wordless & Wordfull Wednesday - Cookies On A Stick

Need to make these again.  They were just sooooo good!  Made these a few years back for Sam's birthday party instead of a cake.  These cookies were a great hit!

If you would like to see more Wordless photos head on over to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom, Live and Love...Out Loud, and J. Leigh Designz.  Now if you're like me and sometimes you can't stay wordless head on over to see some Wordful Wednesday photos at Seven Clown Circus.

I would love to come and visit your Wordless Wednesday photos so please leave me your link and I'll come on over.

This The Week To Join!

If you haven't joined Swag Bucks yet now is the time! They have just released a new Swag Code that will start you off with a total of 70 Swag Bucks instead of only 40 Swag Bucks! Sign up with Swag Bucks here and use Swag Code BackToSchool!

Why should you join Swag Bucks? Well, because it is FREE and if you search the internet you might as well use the Swag Bucks search engine so you can win Swag Bucks! Why do you want to win Swag Bucks? Because you can redeem your Swag Bucks for prizes or FREE gift cards! I redeem my Swag Bucks for Amazon gift cards! Not only is it the best deal but most items ship FREE with Amazon Super Saver Shipping!




This will be an exciting week for Swag Bucks:

- They'll be featuring five one-of-a-kind Back-To-School themed Swag Buck bills in varying amounts - collect them all throughout the week and you'll earn yourself a 50 Swag Buck bonus!
- Sales on all School Supplies and Cookie's Kids items in the Swag Store!
- Some special Facebook/Twitter specific promos!
- On Thursday they are having a Swag Code Extravaganza, a day in which we'll put out no less than 5 Swag Codes!

I'm H-O-T HOT!

Baby It's Cold Hot Outside!  I'm not kidding!  It's very hot here.  We're on day 7 of 100 degree plus weather and it looks like it will go on for possibly another 9-10 days!  There really isn't much you can do to cool off when it's this hot.  We run our fans as we keep our AC turned up so it doesn't run all day long.  Some of our friends pay anywhere from $400 to $650 a month (you got that I just said per month right?) for their electric bill.  Our highest so far is $204!  Electricity is very expensive in TX.  You know it's been hot long enough when we walked outside today and realized that it didn't feel that hot...nope...we're just getting used to it.  What's really scary is right now we're watching the TX Rangers vs the Oakland A's and it's 64 degrees out there!  The umps are all bundled up and even wearing gloves!  Oh I only wish!  I really do love summer.  While you're here please vote for me in a photo contest I've entered: Enjoying the Pool

The other evening we had had enough of the hot weather.  Check out what we did!  Oh...you'll need to have your speakers on for this one.



Cooling Off from Kim Morrow on Vimeo.

Gotta Love Chevy ~ Massage Envy ~ Girls Time Out

My friend Wendy and I had a fantastic day today. We went out to lunch followed by some shopping and topped off with a wonderful one hour massage at Massage Envy. It was nice afterwards to use the Remote Start and wait for the car to cool off since it's in the 100s again today. I also found a wonderful station on XM Radio...XM 72. It's the "Spa" radio station. After getting a massage this is the station to listen to on the way home.   Remember to vote for my photo!  Check out this post to do so.  Thanks!



Massage Envy Girls Time Out from Kim Morrow on Vimeo.

Wordless Wednesday & Wordful Wednesday ~ Wishing for Fall

With it getting up to 105 degrees today (actual temp not the feels like) I kept wondering how many more days until the cooler weather of fall is here.  So when I was going through my pictures for the Wordless/Wordful Wednesday post I found pictures from last fall at the pumpkin patch and thought that maybe looking at them might make us all feel a bit cooler.

While you are here I would really appreciate your help in winning a photo contest.  You can read this post to know what you need to do to vote.  THANKS SO MUCH!





If you would like to see more Wordless photos head on over to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom, Live and Love...Out Loud, and J. Leigh Designz.  Now if you're like me and sometimes you can't stay wordless head on over to see some Wordful Wednesday photos at Seven Clown Circus.

I would love to come and visit your Wordless Wednesday photos so please leave me your link and I'll come on over.

Need Your Help!

I have entered Rayovac's "Snap, Share & Win" Summer Photo Contest.  I entered a picture that you all have seen on here before:

I have a chance to win (taken from Rayovac's Site):

• Grand Prize

1 of 3 Digital Camera Packages complete with a 10 megapixel Canon Digital Camera, Canon Compact Photo Printer, Camera Case, 4GB memory card, Note Cards featuring your photo and Rayovac Platinum Rechargeables. You’ll also receive 7” widescreen Digital Photo Frames to share with three friends!

• 2nd Prize

1 of 3 Canon Compact Photo Printers and Rayovac Platinum Charger!

• 3rd Prize

9 Runner-up Prizes include a Digital Photo Frame Keychain and Rayovac Platinum Charger!

The only way to win is to ask for your votes.  You can vote once a day every day until the contest is up.   Just go to this page  (or click on the picture) and look for the above picture.  It's titled "Enjoying the Pool".  You may have to click on the "show all" button to see all of the photos that are entered.  Thank you in advance for all of your votes.  You all have helped me before and I know you'll do it again.

August Already?

Can you believe it's August already?  Where has the summer gone?  We've already had a busy summer and there is still so much more I want to do.  Sam still has one more week to take it easy and we're getting restless already.  So I'm thinking of things to do.  We're going to Fossil Rim this week with possibly going to this weeks free summer movies.  I get to go get a massage this week!  Next week I'd love to take Sam to the Dallas Railway Museum and I still want to go to one of the zoos this summer (or wait until it gets cooler...but I love the animals!) along with going to some of the following: the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Cavanaugh Flight Museum, Rangers Ballpark tour.  So we'll have our hands full until school starts.  With our temperatures getting up to around 105 this week (actual temp not counting the heat index) I'm trying to think of things to do outside of the house but where we can stay cool (or go early in the morning) and possibly learn something while having some fun.  I have more ideas but I'll save those for another post.