My family

My family
My husband Bill, stepdaughters Allison and Kailey and stepson Hunter

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Happy Birthday to my friend Lettie!!!

Today my friend Lettie turned 33. She is excited about this age and blogged about it. Follow her blog or read it at: collettaskitchensink.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday Lettie!! Have a great day!!!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Cooking and baking

I am SO excited!! I made peanut butter fudge all by myself and did a great job. It tastes almost as good as my mommy's. Actually, most of the people at the church thought it was my moms. That made me feel good!!! I didn't even use my moms recipe, only because I couldn't remember all of it. LOL.

With all of this time I have, I've been cooking and baking and trying to find some great recipes that Bill and I both like.

Everyone says my lasagna is the best so I make it often. My mom requests it every time she is home. My step kids always request my chicken alfredo and homemade mac n' cheese.

I am going to blog periodically some of the things I have made. I really need to get back into blogging.....it keeps my mind busy!!

I hope all of you are having a great week. Don't forget to pray for others and give God all the glory for each and every blessing!!!

Love ya's
Starla

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Oh how I LOVE the sunshine!!

YAY....finally the sun is out and our snow is melting. We have not seen the ground since before Christmas. We have had snow for the past 60+ days.

The sunshine brings happiness and warmth to my soul. I've had a good week already and the sun will make it even better.

Why the good week? Well,this past weekend Bill and I went to Harrisburg to the Sportsmans Show at the Farm Show Complex. WOW was it big!! I was amazed at how many vendors were there trying to sell their things. I will get back to the show in a minute. While in Harrisburg, mom and dad happened to be there with their FedEx truck. YAY...we were going to get to meet up. We got to visit with them for about 3 hours. It was great!! We spent some time in their home, went to eat, and just had good fellowship!! Sunday was church and then a ride to go visit my pappy at the personal care home. We were there for a long time. He is happy and doing well and that made me happy!! Then Monday Bill took his last personal day. So...Bill and I got to spend the day together and it was Valentine's Day. The perfect gift for me....spending the day at home with my hubby!! More on Valentine's Day in a minute too. What a perfect weekend......the sunshine I needed.

Now...back to the Sportsman Show. WOW...I was overwhelmed the moment I walked inside the complex. There were so many people. As soon as you walk in they give you a map. Well....it was about 20 pages thick and we weren't carrying it around so we pitched it. Bad idea...we could have used it a couple of times!! (Hint for those that may go in the future). The first section we came to was boating. Lots of gorgeous and high priced boats. Bill and I saw a lot of nice ones, especially pontoon boats. Someday my parents will buy one and I will get to enjoy it. (HINT....HINT). Then we came across sections and sections of fishing. They had everything imaginable. They were even doing demonstrations on how to fish, how to bait a hook, how to fly fish, what kind of rod and reel to buy, etc....It was great watching two people compete against each other in a simulation fishing competition. That was fun!! We kept walking and came across log home vendors, hot tub vendors, bath fitter vendors....etc. I was wondering what on earth they were doing at a show like this, but people were actually at their booths. Oh well....they gotta sell their things too. Bill and I really didn't go there to buy anything, we just drove there to get away for the weekend. We did happen to find a set of knives we liked. It is for deer processing. I am excited to use them, but we have to wait until hunting season starts back up again. There was just so much to see in that place. Too much for one day. We came across all kinds of hunting and fishing clothing, games, boots, pictures, and other gifts. I got a Cabela's hoodie for Bill and I to share. He says that he will never get the chance to wear it....LOL. He is probably right. I loved it. It was on sale at the show too....so I couldn't pass it up. It was originally $55 and I got it for $25. Great price!! We looked at truck decals (hunting ones of course) and didn't see any that we wanted to spend money on. They were actually cheaper online. We finally reached the hunting and archery sections!! YAY....I was excited and I know Bill was!! There were vendors from all over the USA, Canada, South America, Africa, and others. They were trying to sell hunting and fishing trips. I was excited. Bill and I want to go to Alaska for our (late) honeymoon. He wants to go on a hunting trip there. I am ok with that for our honeymoon. I will still get to explore while he is hunting and we will have the evenings together....and we will be in Alaska. I can't wait!!! So I picked up at lot of brochures from the Alaska vendors. I also picked up some brochures from the Alligator hunt vendors. Most of them are located in South Carolina and Louisiana. Well....I could type a book about the rest of the show, but I will spare you. LOL. Bill ended up buying a Hoyt shirt that came with a free Hoyt hat. I bought him a Hoyt bow for his birthday/Christmas/Valentine's Day. He is really hooked to Hoyt now. His bow is awesome. It should be though, it was expensive!! That is why he just got it. We had to save up for it. SO.....after almost 4 hours at the show, we left. OH WAIT....I did happen to get a picture of Tiffany! If you are asking yourself who Tiffany is, I guess you don't watch the outdoor channel. She is married to a guy named Lee. She is on a hunting show called The Crush. She is beautiful and she hunts with her husband. Guys just love her and I am sure lust after her. I did get a picture of her though for Bill and my daddy.

Now...Valentine's Day!! Bill and I woke up and gave each other our cards. Both cards were heart felt and brought tears to my eyes. Bill wrote in my card and told me how much he loved me. WOW, what a great guy I have. Bill made me breakfast. We had ham, eggs and potatoes. He is a great cook. We then went to his Aunt Sharons and got firewood for Melvin and Ginny and then delivered that and went straight home. We spent the rest of the day just sitting on the couch cuddling and just hanging out with each other. We had some great talks. Bill also bought me my new camera. That is my Christmas and Valentine's gift. Oh how happy he made me!! I made lasagna and garlic bread for supper and we had chocolate cake that his Aunt Sharon made. We spent the rest of the evening watching American Pickers and Pawn Stars and just enjoyed each others company. Oh how I love my husband....he really is wonderful!!!

SO.....back to the sunshine! I have LOTS to be thankful for. I really am blessed!! The sunshine has brought joy to my soul today so I thought I would share this "Random Babbling" with you!!

Enjoy the sunshine and have a great week!!! I love you all. Continue to pray for me, I appreciate it!!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Quick shout out....

Check out all the bloggers that I follow. There are some really great reads, especially my moms!! (Noni & Pops)

If you follow some great bloggers that you think I will enjoy, let me know!!

Did I ever tell you how much I love snow days?

Oh how I love snow days. I have been off work for almost a month and a half now (not my choosing....my boss just doesn't need me due to being off herself) and have been going crazy being couped up in this house. There is so much work to do around here, but a lot of things I can't do myself.

Well, the weather has been so crazy lately that even Pepsi shut down yesterday. YES, Pepsi shut down. So, Bill and I both had a snow day. It was perfect!!! We made breakfast together (usually Bill does this himself). We had eggs, potatoes and chopped up roast beef. All mixed together in the electric skillet. The only thing missing was mushrooms!!

After breakfast Bill took our new electric smoker and got it ready to smoke some deer meat. We love our new smoker. While Bill was messing with that, I decided to organize all of my photography stuff. I have so much of it. Drew, my brother, does photography too and has a basement big enough to store both of our equiptment. YAY....now I can clear up more space here at the house. Bill brought all my totes to the living room and I emptied them. I then sorted my stuff back into the totes. I labeled the totes and have them color coordinated so it is easier for me to find what I need. It will be easier for Drew too. It is going to be great using each others stuff because we don't have the same things.

Once that was done I carried the totes to the front porch so they were out of the way. At this time Bill was sitting on the couch relaxing and playing games on facebook. He is addicted!!! No doubt about it!! It was ok, he was out of my way!! We decided to go for a ride and take these totes to Drew's. Yes the weather was bad, but we were bored. We decided to take the tanning bed too. Yes, I did say tanning bed. My mom has one in the basement. She has had it for years. I don't like them and never use it so it is just sitting here collecting dust and cobwebs. Drew has been tanning occassionally so he is just going to take the tanning bed and place it in his basement. It will save him a lot of money. He is fair skinned like me so we burn easily. He will use this to get a base tan. I would rather just wait and use sunscreen for when I am in the sun.

Anyway....once we got home from that adventure, I ran the sweeper, hung up the curtains that I washed, scrubbed the kitchen and living room, and brought the computer desk in. Bill got the deer tenderloin marinated and ready for supper while I did this. Plus he played more games. LOL. We got a call from the plumber asking me what the issue has been. We got a new pump last week and now we have no water pressue. The plumber told us what to do so Bill played plumber for a while. It didn't work so the plumber will be back down this week when the weather clears up.

Bill and I made supper together. We had marinated deer tenderloin, shells n cheese, and french cut green beans. YUMMY!!! I also made 7-layer cookies for Bill. I only get 1 out of the whole pan of 24. He loves those things!!!

After supper and both of us cleaning up, Bill decided to play more games while I just relaxed. I was so tired after working hard all day. Bill got bored with his games so he decided to fix the floor upstairs. We have a broken board in the hallway on the landing at the top of the steps. He ripped up the carpet, went to the garage and cut the board, and came in and fixed it. WOW....he really can do everything. He is definitely a handy man!!

After fixing the floor, we both relaxed the rest of the night on the couch and watched a movie!! What a perfect snow day!!! I want more of those!!! The only bad thing about it.....Bill now has to work Saturday.

More posts to come!! I am looking for a job to do at home, not much luck there. Drew used to do typing from home, but he said the company he worked for no longer does that. Too bad....that would have been the perfect opportunity for me. I am looking for a babysitting job or a job sitting for elderly. If you know of anything, please let me know.