Rylan's Mommy

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Ingredients

1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup KRAFT Original Barbecue Sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
4 hamburger buns, split
4 KRAFT Singles

Cooking Directions

Brown meat; drain.
Add barbecue sauce and ketchup; cook until heated through, stirring occasionally.
Spoon meat mixture onto bottom half of each bun; top with Singles and top half of bun.

Yield: 4 servings

Nutrition Info Per Serving: Calories: 473 kcal Carbohydrates: 34 Dietary Fiber: 1 g Fat: 22 g Protein: 30 g Sugars: 9 g

Our Special Day

Special Memories from my wedding day

How incredibly amazing Roger was to me. He gave me anything that I could have wanted during our entire trip.

I don’t think that I have ever felt as special as I did getting my hair done, my nails done, in my dress, makeup done and knowing that it was my special day. It was an amazing sense of happiness that I just don’t really know how to describe.

I love that we were able to get married twice in 2 days. We originally got married on Saturday the 14^th at 7:00pm. Then due to a camera mishap, they weren’t able to video tape that ceremony so they offered to let us get married again the next day inside the chapel where they could video tape it. So that’s what we did. I felt like this helped me to justify the cost of my wedding dress- I got to wear it twice.
The night before our wedding, we met with Roger’s parents at the Nugget in Reno to see the Oak Ridge Boys in concert. This was a great concert. I have always liked the Oak Ridge Boys. Even when I was a little girl, I would ask my mom to play the album over and over for me. So we were there watching the concert and I remember Joe Bonsall (in photo above, Joe is the one wearing the black and white pin-stripe suit) mentioning that the following evening would be a very special event for two of the audience members. He said our names and they put the spotlight on us. A little birdie (aka my mother-in-law had mentioned this to them.) They all wished us all the best for our lives together and then they played us the “Elvira” song which has always been my favorite song of theirs. It was so incredibly thoughtful of my mother-in-law to do this and just added a bit more excitement to the night.
After our first ceremony, we all went to the Peppermill Resort and had a fabulous dinner at the Island Buffet. We had shrimp, steak, crab, salads, pasta etc. We were also able to have our choice for dessert. It was kind of nice for everyone to be able to pick anything they wanted for our “wedding dessert.”
It was very neat to be able to travel around Nevada, California and Utah during our honeymoon. We spent the week relaxing and doing whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. I was very excited to have the opportunity to meet Roger’s Grandpa Ewing. He was a very special influence on Roger and was just such a sweet and loving man. Grandpa Ewing was the president of the Boise Bible College here in Boise, Idaho for many years. We also toured Camp Pendleton when we were in California. Camp Pendleton is the United States Marine Corps base where Roger spent his time when he was an active Marine. This was also the first time that I was able to meet Roger’s Great Aunt Vickie. We were also able to stop along the way. One place in particular was Salt Lake City. We went to the spaghetti factory for dinner before driving home. It was very beautiful to see all these different places.
“Watch out for that tire!!” – This is a funny story that Roger and I tease each other about once in awhile. We were driving home from our trip and we had made it to about Twin Falls, Idaho when it was dark and we were starting to get tired. Well, we didn’t want to stop and try to find a hotel to stay in Twin Falls. So we decided that we would just take turns driving and make it home that night. Somewhere shortly after Twin Falls, Roger noticed that there was a huge chunk of a tire in the middle of the road and swerved to miss it. I was already sleeping in the passenger seat but must have been aware of what had just happened. About 30 minutes later, I woke up suddenly and said “Watch out for the tire!” It may just be one of those things that seemed funny because we were so exhausted and so determined to get home. I remember that my bed never felt as good as it did that night when we finally got home.
We took our pug puppy Kojak with us on the trip. He was such a good puppy. We had to make extra stops for his sake but it was so worth it to have him with us. He was so young- maybe 3 months old so we couldn’t have left him home alone. We had his little pet carrier in the back seat and he would just hang out in there or come and sit on our laps and look out the window.

I was extremely grateful that my lifelong friend Clarissa was willing to help me so much to prepare for the wedding. We made my flowers for the wedding and she did my hair and makeup for the extra ceremony and was able to be at the wedding. She also helped me quite a bit with the reception.
I’m extremely grateful that the Lord was watching over all of us on our trip. My mother, Tio John and Dale experienced some car trouble and ended up breaking down as soon as they got into Reno. They were lost, unsure of where the hotel was that we all stayed at and had no way of contacting us as none of our cell phones were working in Reno. The car broke down directly in front of the mall where Roger had gone to try to get his car cut. We were so thankful that Roger came across the car broken down. If he wouldn’t have run into them, they would have missed the wedding ceremony.

I’ll never forget how happy and how emotional I was during the ceremony. We were able to write our own ceremony and with the help of my in-laws, we had personal, spiritual and the most meaningful vows I could ever imagine.

Since our wedding (the 1^st ceremony) was outside, there were numerous strangers who stopped just to see the ceremony and comment. We had a few people who yelled out “Congrats!” to us from the street. Our 2^nd ceremony, was private and inside the small chapel. We have this ceremony on video and Kojak was able to attend this ceremony.

We have over 600 photos of our wedding ceremonies.

We are so grateful for all of the love and support that our families showed us during this special time.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Dancing with the Stars: 2008 April 29

Well, tonight definitely proved to be a very interesting night on Dancing with the Stars. I'm just completely shocked at the poor scores that Kristi & Mark received. I thought they did an excellent job as they always have and I can not believe that Len would give Kristi the only "8"

that she's ever received. She's never scored under a 27/30 until tonight. All I can say is that I have submitted all of my votes for tonight and I sure hope my votes help to save those who I think should stay. I gave a majority of my votes to Kristi & Mark obviously...

I do feel bad for Christian & Cheryl. It really sucks when an injury prevents a dancer from giving their best dance possible. He had a major muscle spasm in his arm and just couldn't finish. It will either get him a bunch of sympathy votes or he'll be in the bottom two and have a chance to go home. Personally I feel that it should be Christian & Cheryl and Shannon & Derek should be in the bottom two... and don't really have a preference on who goes.

Also, I want to express how much I also enjoyed Jason Taylor's version of the Paso Doble was fun, well performed and deserves credit for creativity. They played the Monday Night Football song and Jason & Edtya wore outfits in the Miami Dolphins colors. Very unique and deserved 3 10's in my opinion. (Sorry there are no photos available yet but I'll be posting them later this week!)

We'll just have to see what tomorrow nights Results show will bring. If anyone out there wants to vote, make sure you go to http://www.abc.com/ and get your votes in before 12:00 noon Eastern Time Tuesday April 29, 2008.

A little bit about me...

You type in answers to questions in Google images and you have to pick a picture from the 1st page of results. I am tagging Amanda, Jessika, Jesse and Clarissa.

Age you'll be at your next birthday:

A place (or two) you'd like to visit:

Mackinac Island, Michigan

Jamaica

One of your favorite places:

Anywhere in Michigan

Your favorite object:

Your favorite food:

Your favorite color:

Your favorite animal:

My Sadie Dog & Kojak Dog

Name of a past pet:

I had a poodle named Cola when I was 3 yrs old.

Where you live:

Your college major:

A bad habit you have:

Your favorite holiday:

What does Jennifer Mean?

What Jennifer Means

You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you.
You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries.
You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. You are great at giving other people advice.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.
You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.
At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.
You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.
You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.
You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.
You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

You are loving, compassionate, and ruled by your feelings.
You are able to be a foundation for other people... but you still know how to have fun.
Sometimes your emotions weigh you down, but you generally feel free from them.

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something.
You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense.
You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Beefy Brian's Resume

Here is a funny email that I saw and thought I'd pass it on. It's just scary that this is a perfect example of modern society. I deal with these kind of people every day at my work (course, they are the inmates) and I've just learned that I can't be surprised at anything that happens at work!

*********************************************************************************************************
To hoom it mae cunsern,
I waunt to apply for the job what I saw in the paper. I can Type realee quik wit one finggar and do sum a counting. I think I am good on the phone and I no I am a pepole person, Pepole really seam to respond to me well. Certain men and all the ladies. I no my spelling is not to good but find that I Offen can get a job thru my persinalety.
My salerery is open so we can discus wat you want to pay me and wat you think that I am werth, I can s tart emeditely. Thank you in advanse fore yore anser. hopifuly Yore best aplicant so farr.
Sinseerly,

BRYAN nikname Beefy
PS : Because my resimay is a bit short - below is a pickture of me.

… Employer’s response:…
Dear Beefy-I mean Bryan ,
It’s OK honey, we’ve got spell check. See you Monday !

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Flashback to childhood

Anyone remember the Cats Cradle game that involved string and hand movements?

We were discussing our childhoods at work the other night and somehow it led to us remembering this game. I have no idea how or what reminded us of it but it was such a good conversation. A lot of laughter going on. I found some articles about it online. Basically this is how it is played:

The game begins with the first player wrapping a loop of string around the fingers or wrists and taking one side of the string and circling the hands again. Then this player performs the last two moves of Opening A: taking the string which runs on the inside of the left arm onto the first finger of their right hand, then, reaching through the triangle created, the loop on the inside of the right hand is taken onto the first finger of the left hand.The aim of the game is to make the cat's cradle. This is created by two sets of crossed string between both hands. A second player grasps each cross horizontally using the thumb and first fingers, pulls these outwards, down under the line which runs below the crosses from the first players wrists, and back up. The first player lets go of the figure and the second player stretches it open by bringing apart the thumbs and fingers. This figure is the "diamonds". A series of other alterations produce more figures, some of which lead back to the diamonds while some are dead ends and cannot be transformed.This game is very simple and is always started with the above opening. After that one mostly pinches the x's and wrap them around the outside strings.

(Hope that makes sense.) Good Old times...

Excellent Cookie Recipes

Raspberry Creme Filled cookies

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups plus 2 teaspoons sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved
6 ounces (1 cup) fresh raspberries
7 1/2 ounces best-quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
Mix butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add egg, extract, and vanilla seeds; mix until smooth. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture.
Scoop batter using a 1-inch ice cream scoop; space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Bake cookies 4 minutes. Remove from oven; gently tap baking sheets on counter to flatten cookies. Return to oven, switching positions of sheets; bake until cookies are just set, 4 to 6 minutes more. Let cool on parchment on wire racks.
Puree raspberries and remaining 2 teaspoons sugar in a food processor. Pour mixture through a fine sieve into a small bowl, pressing to extract juice; discard seeds. Set mixture aside.
Melt white chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Remove from heat; whisk in cream in a slow stream. Whisk in reserved raspberry mixture. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
Spread 1 heaping teaspoon raspberry cream on the undersides of half the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies. Cookies can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container up to 2 days.

World's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter flavored shortening
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons Mexican vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter flavored shortening, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla .Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, fold in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until light brown. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Need some advise for landscaping

We are looking into planting some flowers this spring to fill this empty area in the flower bed. I'm not sure what I would like to plant. It needs to be something that can hold up for full sunlight all day. Does anyone have any suggestions? I want something with some color. I loved the flower in the photo above but I haven't been able to find out what kind of flower that is. I've also heard that the common marigold can add color and can also produce a smell that will deter any critters from having a sunday brunch in my flower beds. I can't have anything that produces too much scent as I am allergic to almost anything that blooms. I love to leave my windows open in the front of the house and it would fill my house with whatever scent it is... Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.