Adios Amigos

While you're reading this, I'm on a 14 hour road trip with my hubby to go work on our house for 2.5 weeks. Some of the things we hope to accomplish are:

1. Finish the last little bit of demo in the kitchen.
2. Finish demoing future media room (directly above kitchen so it doesn't damage the new stuff we put in the kitchen).
3. Put up studs and drywall in the kitchen.
4. Prepare to remove some TALL trees from the backyard.
5. Nurture the perennial seedlings hubby planted a month ago.
6. Start preparing the exterior for the new fascia and gutters.
7. Possibly install said fascia and gutters.
8. Strip some more spindles from the main staircase.
9. And of course, visit with friends and family!

Due to no Internet access at the house yet, I highly doubt there will be any blog posts coming from this neck of the woods, but I'll look forward to catching up with you all when I return.

Also, for those of you who may be waiting for updates to Divine Creations, I do have new items that have been ready to post, but I'm really not happy with my web provider (i.e. it takes about 1 hour to post 1 item!) so I'm in the process of switching everything over to Etsy for now. This will also make the purchasing process easier for everyone. Stay tuned and I'll let you know when it's all up and running. In the meantime, however, you can still order through the current site.

How to Have an Affair

**NOTE: Make sure you scroll to the bottom of the page and turn the music off so you can here the sermon.

Our pastor gave a sermon a few weeks ago on "How to Have an Affair". We were out of town so I just had the opportunity to listen to it online and thought it was an EXCELLENT message.

Unfortunately there is about 7-8 minutes at the beginning of an update on our missions programs, but sit through it because the sermon is DEFINITELY worth it!

6/7: How to Have an Affair from Princeton Alliance Church on Vimeo.

An Evening on the Farm

The last few evenings on the farm have been spent like this:

It's so peaceful and beautiful out there. Someday hubby and I would love to own a farm in Montana or down south and raise our family there.

4th of July (a bit late)

Hope you all had a great 4th of July. Our started off a bit early...5:45am to be exact. Hubby and I were set to depart at 6:30am to deliver two truck loads of hay an hour north. (FYI - I now have permission to post my hubby's face on here!) Here we are loaded up and ready to go:

We were delivering hay for a soap box derby in another town. Last year we also delivered hay for this same event, but it was raining the whole day so they were some heavy and soggy bales when it came time to load them back on the truck at the end of the day. Thankfully this year was a gorgeous, sunshiny day!

Here is my hubby and our friend who drove the other truck after unloading all the hay. The Public Works guys were giving me a hard time because I was driving so fast and making hubby work so hard! I didn't realize 2 mph was fast!

The kids have such a grand old time...it's so fun to watch!

This kid was the 4th one to break through the barrier that was after the finish line. Some kids just couldn't figure out how to work the breaks! Thankfully they were all okay, but it did provide the best laughs for all the adults watching :)

Me and hubby waiting for the races to finish so we can load up our hay and head home to get in a small nap before we had friends over for an evening BBQ and fireworks.

Hope you all had a great 4th of July, too!

Blondie Bars

The other day I was craving brownies but didn't have all the ingredients for these delicious homemade ones or a box of brownie mix.

But, I did have a box of yellow cake mix and I remembered a recipe I used to make for Blondie bars. I dug out the recipe and was happy to see that I had all the ingredients:

Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) melted butter
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
6 oz. chocolate chips (or however many your little heart desires)

Mix together all the ingredients, except chocolate chips until batter resembles a cookie dough. Spread into a greased 9 x 13 pan and sprinkle chocolate chips on top.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!

I prefer mine with a glass of milk. Hubby prefers his with a scoop of ice cream on top.

The best husband EVER

Monday I was sitting at my desk and fighting this nagging cough I have when all of a sudden a beautiful box arrived for me from Proflowers.

I opened it to find a great little heart shaped box of chocolates, a gorgeous bouquet of alstroemeria in a beautiful green vase and the sweetest note ever:

"Hi Sweets, I love you so much. I miss you terribly when I'm not with you and love being with you even when your sick. -Love, xxxx"

Yeah, I'm one lucky girl. Not only does he put up with a sick wife for 5+ days, he then sends me flowers saying he loves being with me even when I'm sick and whiny. What a great guy!

P.S. He also gets bonus points for remembering that his wife does not like receiving plain old roses and that alstroemeria are some of my favorite flowers and they were included in the bouquets at our wedding.

Pasty White?

I admit it. I suffer from pasty white skin.

Unlike some lucky ladies, I'm not blessed with skin that tans a nice golden brown. While I do burn rather easily, I normally don't peel. Instead it just fades to a nice red color instead of brown. Guess I can thank my Cherokee ancestors for that!

So, what's a girl to do when shorts season roles around? Blind everyone with my pasty white skin? Increase my risk of skin cancer and freckles by laying outside? As if I even have time for that!

Well, enter my new favorite lotion.

The other day I was reading through one of my free magazines and saw an ad for Jergen's new skin-firming (less cellulite? Sign me up!) and gradual tanning lotion. Not wanting to look like I had streaky orange skin, I was a little skeptical. But, after just 4 days of use, I'm already noticing more golden legs and less cellulite. Personally, I think it was $7 well spent.

As my husband commented after just one day, "You look better when your skin isn't see through." Why thank you so much dear! What a great compliment!

Have you had any luck with self tanners or lotions that promise firmer skin?