Tuesday's Tribute: To My Readers of 100 Posts

Yet Another Jay and Deb Production.

Deb and Jay have started a new thing, Tuesday's Tribute, and I cannot resist things they start. They have some kind of power over me. I'm not sure why, but I think it's because Deb and I are kindred moody spirits. So, they have begun Tuesday's Tribute, to give back to others. Coincidentally, this is my 100th blog post. I can't believe I've shared 100 posts, rambled 100 times, put my thoughts to the page 100 TIMES, and I still have people reading my blog. My tribute today is to the peeps who read my posts and still keep coming back. Here are some reasons I am paying you tribute:

1. You are so polite about my Twilight Obsession. You let me sneak in pictures and mentions without yelling at me, or accusing me of being immature. You rock.

2. You are okay with my whining. It's fine, I know I whine. My dad told me so.

3. You encourage me in my photography. I never thought of myself as a photographer but after some lovely comments I realized how much I enjoy it. I now have a new camera, and I am going to try new things with it. Thanks:)

4. You accept me for who I am. Now, I'm sure not all of you do, and that's fine. But I've been overwhelmed that I can write about my love of alternative music, vampire movies and television, my peri-menopausal status, my hatred of talking on the phone, and many more of my quirks and you STILL come back.

My tribute today is to my bloggy friends and readers. You make me feel cool.

Thank you for continuing to read 100 of my posts.

(Oh, and click the banner above to join Tuesday's Tribute or just to read more tributes.)

~Brenda

New Year's Eve Outside the Box

No one can say our family doesn't think outside the box. Okay, we may be odd, but we try to laugh when things don't go our way. On New Year's Eve I slept on the couch because Emily was vomiting, my husband was coughing up a lung (at least it sounded that way), and I was taking care of both of them. Our oldest son escaped by going to a friend's house, and my other teen was hanging out at home with the phone surgically attached to his ear (or maybe it grew there). So, we recorded Dick Clark's New Year's Eve show, kept the non-alcoholic bubbly in the frig, and saved it all for our Faux New Year's Eve the next night. Everyone wanted to do this, though some of us weren't feeling up to par, and bed hair was rampant:




My middle son managed to remove the phone from his ear for a short period of time to join us in a glass of sparkly apple cheer as we watched our recorded festivities. He of course had to gag at the Jonas Brothers, who were on the scene in New York, as we watched. We've tried to tell him that it's okay for his sister to like them, even if he doesn't. The message isn't sinking in. Go figure.



My oldest returned to our germ infested home to participate in his second New Year's Eve. He has control of the remote and speeds through the commercials and music none of us like. Ah, I knew I had kids for some reason:)



It was a cool, memorable evening, despite how tired we all were. I've never been big on year end parties, but being with my family is special. Who cares if we were a day late?


~Happy 2009 everyone! Brenda

Some Saturday Silliness

I was cleaning out my email this morning. You don't EVEN want to look in my email folders that have stuff back to 2004. It's frightening. I couldn't resist sharing this joke and the Maxine cartoon. If your house is trashed after Christmas like mine is, you NEED some laughs!

UCLA STUDY (VERY INTERESTING)
A study conducted by UCLA's Department of Psychiatry has revealed that the kind of face a woman finds attractive on a man can differ depending on where she is in her menstrual cycle.

Results: If she is ovulating, she is attracted to men with rugged and masculine features.

However, if she is menstruating, or menopausal, she tends to be more attracted to a man with duct tape over his mouth, and a spear lodged in his chest while he is on fire.

No further studies are expected.

Merry Christmas to my Blogging Buddies

I hope your Christmas is full of wonder, joy, and love.

Be happy and stress free:) ~Brenda

Ultimate Party Meatballs: Potluck Heaven

I love baking breads and cookies, but every year I bring them to my in-laws and end up taking over half of it home because they all make the same type of things. It's a little frustrating year after year, and coordinating with them hasn't worked. This year I went a completely different route. I decided to try a new recipe called the Ultimate Party Meatballs. Oh, and I picked up a bottle of Bailey's Irish Creme too. No, not for the meatballs! That was to make some yummy hot chocolate. Back to the meatballs. These could not have been easier. The recipe:

1 16-ounce can Ocean Spray® Jellied Cranberry Sauce
1 12-ounce bottle Heinz® Chili Sauce
1 2-pound bag frozen, pre-cooked, cocktail-size meatballs

Combine sauces in a large saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring until smooth. Add meatballs. Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until meatballs are heated through, stirring occasionally.

What I did was put the ingredients in a crockpot and cooked them for a couple hours on high, stirring a few times along the way. Everyone LOVED them. Here are the finished meatballs:




I used Italian style meatballs, but you can make your own or use homestyle too. Seriously, these were beyond easy, and I didn't add anything extra. Plus, NO ONE else brought meatballs, or anything similiar!

I found the recipe on the Ultimate Party Meatballs website (http://www.ultimatepartymeatballs.com. They also have additional recipes, entertaining tips, and a sweepstakes with a grand prize of $3,000 to throw the ultimate party. I'm going to make them again for the get-together with my family.

~Brenda

Singing, Crafting and Magic Reindeer Poop

I haven't posted since last Sunday but I haven't just been sitting around playing computer games. Well, okay, a little bit at night, but that's beside the point. We have had SO much snow that I haven't had my van out in over a week. We've had to share the Explorer, which has 4 wheel drive. I'm going to be posting a lot of things the next couple days that I've been saving to share. Yes, the blogs are written in my head...I just have to type them out. The first thing I wanted to share is all of the coolness with Emily's third grade class. They had a holiday program and sang their little hearts out. Emily is in the short sleeved burgundy dress:



No matter how many of my kids' programs I attend I always get weepy, especially when they start those adorable hand motions to the songs. I'm just a wimp like that. Two days later was the class holiday party, which I organized for the first time. I had to think like a third grader! They had a great time. We made Magic Reindeer Poop, which consisted of three bowls filled with chocolate chips, colored miniature marshmallows and cinnamon candies. I found little scoops at the dollar store and the kids put two scoops of marshmallows and one each of the other candy into a cellophane treat bag. We punched holes into a paper star which they threaded ribbon to tie their bag shut. I told them they could simply write their name on the star or something like Rudolph's Reindeer Poop.






We had centers at each table for the kids. Besides the Reindeer Poop there were cookies to frost, along with North Pole Sodas (Vernors,vanilla ice cream and a candy cane), homemade Christmas cards, Pictionary, and a paper ornament to craft. Emily's teacher told me that the Christmas card station was the favorite. All I did was bring in all my leftover cards from the last few years, plus some I'd received and cut off the message section, red and green construction paper, small paper doilies, gingerbread men blank notes, glue and scissors. Here are some of the kids making their cards.


In between classroom fun I shopped, shopped some more, and got ready for our Christmas get-together with my husband's family. More on that next...

~Brenda

I'm Fabulous

Last week I thought I had cooties until I was presented with my first award, and now I receive this very cool award from Noah's Mommy over at Project Mommyhood. I've always wanted to be Fabulous!

The rules on this award are:
Copy and paste the rules and instructions in your post. When posting on receiving the award, make sure you include who gave you the award and link it back to them. Post five winners and link it back to them as well. Post five of your addictions. Add the award image. Let your winners know you gave them an award by leaving them a comment on their blog.

Pretty dang easy if I say so myself. I do have blogs I'm addicted to believe it or not (snort).

Deb at Dirty Socks & Pizza: What can I say. Our husbands both love snowthrowers, and we are raising teens. We need each other.

Mindless Junque She's a confessed crier, as I am, and we must ban together to defend our weeping at movies, books, our kids' programs, and well, just about anything else. She's also a Twilight Pal, though she didn't like the movie, but I'm ignoring that.


The R Family Diaries
Tiffany coined the term Crackliture. She was my first Twilight friend, encouraging me to not only read the books, but to read them fast and read them often to satisfy the obsession. Yeah, she's cool like that.

She Lives
Carol gave me my first award but that is not why I'm giving her one. It's because she has a teenage daughter. One day Emily will be a teenager and I will need her. I NEED to learn from her because for some reason teen girls scares me. Why? Because I was scary when I was a teen. Oh, and Carol is also fabulous because she admits to having her kids set the DVR for her. I love technically challenged people because they make me feel less alone in my lameness.

Halftime Lessons: Jay is funny, really, really funny. Full of sarcasm and a tad cynical. He's also a guy. But he really is fabulous, so I'm hoping he'll take this lovely award in stride and not think it's just a chick thing:) (I know he doesn't "do" awards but I don't care. Don't kill my buzz Jay, just go with it and pretend you will...).

So, these are five of my blog addictions. I hope you enjoy their blogs as much as I do!
~Brenda