A cool nomination and award for me

I would like to give my thanks and appreciations for the recent nominations and awards this blog has received, yippee!!

Thank you to Love2shopmom for passing me the Kreativ Blogger Award! This award is so cool,that this is the second time I received it!! Since, I already posted about this award on my blog; this time around I’m just showing how much I appreciate receiving it from my fellow blogging pal! Love2shopmom blogs all about shopping and her love for it, you can check her out for some great deals on shopping over on My Bargain Mom! Thanks Again!!

Now how cool is this? My blog got nominated for a Bloggers Choice Award, in the category of Hottest Mommy Blogger! Oh wow, bunch of thanks for this! After going over to take a look at my blog’s position with this nomination, I couldn’t help but laugh after seeing blogs with over 100 vote’s, lol! I don’t think I’ll ever be able to catch up to that, but I’ll have fun trying, lol! Thanks for this nomination Jonathan at 2rivers and if anyone would be so kind enough to give my blog more vote‘s, a big thanks in advance goes to you, how fun! Thanks, thanks, and thanks!!

Whats for Dinner Sunday

Today, for us it was roast beef, mixed greens, roasted tomatoes, baked macaroni and cheese, corn bread, and taffy apple salad, with a glass of wine on the side. Hubby cooked the roast beef and the cornbread, the boys helped make the taffy apple salad, and the greens and corn bread was prepared by me. This is our typical preparation for Sunday’s dinner, getting the whole family involved. Saturday dinners are easier going, but we prepare them together often as well, while Monday through Friday’s is mostly me.

The beef got marinated overnight in a wet marinade of worcestershire sauce and garlic cloves, and set out this morning in a dry rub of organic thyme, fresh organic parsley, salt, and black pepper for a couple of hours. From there it went into the oven on low broil to each side, to brown. Next, it got wrapped in aluminum foil with purple onions and slow cooked outside on the grill. The tomatoes got cooked out on the grill as well. I used the beef juice from the broiler pan to make a gravy for the beef.

The greens were mustard and turnip‘s, mixed. Early morning I placed a nice sized smoked ham hock in the water. I know it’s not the healthiest choice of meat, one can use smoked turkey meat as a substitution, but we eat pork in moderation, although it’s such a habit. In the sink the greens got soaked, washed, and chopped. From there they went into the pot of water with the already cooking ham hock. I tossed in some vinegar, a chopped organic turnip, salt, pepper, and a touch of sugar and let them boil until they were tender, about 3 hours.

Now that the longest preparations were out the way, it’s time to prepare the taffy apple salad. The boys made the caramel with pineapple juice, sugar, flour, tiny bit of vinegar, and an egg yolk, over the stove in a small saucepan. I chopped and cored some organic granny smith apples, while letting the boys stir in some crushed pineapples, peanuts, apples, and whipped topping. It got covered and placed in the fridge until ready for dinner.

Hubby and I worked side by side as I prepared the macaroni and he prepared the cornbread, we both short cutted it. I used Kraft deluxe mac in the box with a little extra elbow mac, brought it to a boil with salt and butter, drained it and added in a pint of buttermilk, eggs, and the cheese pack. Afterwards I made a bottom layer in my casserole dish with the mac, then added some shredded mozzarella cheese, topped it with mac and topped that with some shredded mild cheddar cheese, from there it went off to the oven to bake. Meanwhile, hubby tossed a box of corn muffin mix in the bowl, added in some milk, eggs, more corn meal and sugar then off to the hot and buttered pan and in the oven along with the mac and cheese.

We sat down and enjoyed our Sunday dinner and hubby and I had a glass of wine, with a cherry dropped in it to drink, while the boys had some semi frozen apple cherry juice. It’s amazing how much my boys can eat, but they surely don’t give it to much time to stick. We were done eating by about 5:30ish, so we went out in the backyard and enjoyed the weather. Finally, we came inside and watched a movie I rented from blockbusters, The Secret Life of Bees. It went off just in time to catch the 4th round of the NBA Finals. It was fun to see the Lakers and Phil Jackson walk away with yet another Championship victory, that’s my favorite NBA team by the way!

Okay, that was my Sunday, Saturday was a seafood feast of lobster tails, scallops, and split shrimp scampi with ceaser salad, organic carrots and celery, with ranch dipping sauce, baked red potatoes, and fish sticks as my youngest have allergies to fresh seafood. I’m a seafood attic and can never get enough; well that’s the end of today’s rant!

Cyberworld News

A mom blogger from Missouri, got the quite the surprise. She shared a professionally taken family photo of herself, husband, and children on her blog and other social networks, but it somehow ended up being used for a storefront ad way up in Czech Republic. Coincidentally, it was spotted by a college friend that brought it to her attention. What a small world we live in?

In Arizona, a man believes his twittering that he was out of town led to his home being burglarized, while he was away. That’s another downside of being so social on the World Wide Web, something I’m guilty of myself, we have to be more careful these days.

In other Cyberworld news I had recently read several blogs about a mom from Illinois, with a hoaxed blog and the story just made my heart drop. April’s mom a.ka. “B” the blogger who hoaxed the internet with her blog, has since apparently come clean, she actually made the front page of the Tribune. Briefly recapping the story she portrayed herself as an unmarried Christian mother pregnant with a terminally ill child that she later gave birth to, only for the child to die hours later. All the while this was untrue, along with the photo’s she placed on the blog.

After she came to realize that her true identity was about to be exposed she tried to remove the blog, twitter and face book account that she used, apparently all a little to late, because the online community had already discovered just who she was. She has since come clean and admitted to the hoax. She says she apologizes for doing what she did.

Although “B” does go on to share that she really did lose a son shortly after giving birth back in 2005. Her reasoning for starting her blog was intended to help her deal with his loss, as well as to express her anti-abortion views. She mentions it was intended for only a few friends to read, but when she began receiving over 50 comments, she found it addictive that people were interested in reading her writing. Also mentioned was the support, prayers, and yes some cash that was sent on her behalf. It then goes on to say that the stress from it all led her into the hospital. This is all so sad all the way around and after I read over some of the many comments received on the Tribune, there is still even more to this story, than what was mentioned. More on this, here.

Wordless Wednesday

I snapped these photo's while at our trip to Brookfields Zoo! This was from the exhibit they have going on called Dinosaurs Alive. It looked so Jurrasic Park walking through there, they were animated with swinging tails, moving heads, and the sounds of roaring. I can't even recall how many times my little one kept asking me "Mama, is those dinosaurs real?" LOL! I have more photo's from the zoo in my shareapic gallery!

You know its summer when

All the relaxing semi quiet places you normally frequent are over crowded and loud, although summer officially starts on what June 21st, it is officially the summer season as school is out, and so are the families in droves (including my own, lol).

I took the boys to the zoo on Friday and we picked up my mom to tag along with us, dad & my hubby were both at work. I purchased a zoo family membership, so our next visits for a year will be free. We packed the cooler with lunches and headed out. The weather wasn’t too bad it was about 80 degrees out. When we arrived at the zoo the parking lot was jam packed. As some schools in our area are still in, apparently between them and daycare centers it was like a zillion school buses filled with field trippers, therefore, that nice 80 felt more like a scorching 90 in the crowds. The crowds slowly started disseminating later in the afternoon, so we had a wonderful entire day outing at the zoo.

Next up, on Monday I took my 2 boys to get their physicals for next school year out the way early, so afterward we headed to a McDonalds with the R gym for lunch. Yikes! I would take them here sometimes and let them have fun playing around in the R gym, while I do some homework, studying, or just simply reading. Here we go yet again, another crowded parking lot. I circled the lot twice for a parking spot, and almost decided to just go home. I decided to wait around for a few moments to get a park and before I knew it someone tried to steal the park I was waiting for. I’m like geez what is wrong with people these days, did they think I was just sitting there sight seeing or something?


We get inside and the dining area was packed, but luckily we managed to grab a table for us to eat. Afterwards, the boys went and enjoyed themselves at the R gym. I think that is really nice free fun for a McDonalds. Inside the R gym they have a few basketball hoops and air hockey, (this is where you’ll find my oldest) then there’s the 3 story interactive play area with slides, and all sorts of things to climb and tumble on, they have a few games around to play as well, like skateboarding. I had to stand up in there for awhile before I got a seat.


Schools out, the crowds are in and you know its summer when (care to finish this statement if it’s officially summer in your part of the world)?