Category: Friday Fun

I thought I would take advantage of this warm weather and pass a few cool drink recipes on to you. You can find many more cool, delicious recipes at Family Fun.

Drink slowly, we don’t want brain freeze. 🙂

Watermelon Sherbet Smoothie

You may want to consider buying “seedless” watermelon, which has small, white seedpods (instead of black seeds) that are edible and virtually unnoticeable once you blend the melon. For a special touch, serve in tall frosted glasses and top with a sprinkling of mini chocolate chips.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
3 cups fresh watermelon cubes
1 cup crushed ice
1 cup watermelon, raspberry or lime sherbert
4 tsp. lime juice
1/2 cup miniature semisweet or white chocolate chips

About 10 minutes before you’re ready to mix the smoothies, place four tall glasses in the freezer to frost. Then wash the whole melon as you would other fruits and vegetables, and cut it into quarters. (The number of quarters you’ll need to yield 3 cups of cubes will depend on the size of the melon.) Slice each quarter you plan to use lengthwise into three wedges, then slice the flesh away from the rind. Use a fork to scrape away the seeds and chop the melon into cubes.

Combine the crushed ice, watermelon cubes, lime juice and watermelon, raspberry, or lime sherbert, and blend until smooth.

Pour the mixture into the frosted glasses and top each one with a half dozen or so miniature chocolate chips. Serves four.

(How do you pick out a good melon? Look for one that’s symmetrical, with a yellow underside–a sign of ripeness–and no nicks or bruises. Store the watermelon at room temperature for up to two weeks.)

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Razzle-Dazzle

For a tarter version of this fruity blend, use pink grapefruit juice instead of orange juice.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
1 frozen banana
3/4 cup raspberries
1 cup orange juice

Combine the fruit and juice in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Serves one.

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Blue Lagoon

With milk as a base, this berry blend is as much a meal as a beverage–just right for serving as a breakfast shake.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
1 cup fresh blueberries
4 scoops vanilla frozen yogurt
1/2 to 1 cup milk

Combine the blueberries, frozen yogurt and milk in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth, adding more milk if necessary. Serves one.

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King Kong

A swirl of chocolate syrup is the perfect topping for this thick and nutty treat.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
1 frozen banana
2 to 3 tbsp. natural peanut butter, chunky or smooth
1 cup orange juice

Combine the frozen banana, peanut butter and orange juice in a blender or food processor. Blend until creamy. Serves one.

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Orange Creamsicle

Like the classic ice-cream treat that inspires it, this refreshing shake combines the zest of orange and the rich, smooth flavor of vanilla.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
1 cup orange juice
4 scoops vanilla frozen yogurt

Combine the orange juice and frozen yogurt in a blender or food processor. Blend until creamy. Serves one.

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Lemon Cups

If life gives you lemons, make Lemon Cups!

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
2 teaspoons lemon zest
4 to 5 lemons
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from the lemons)
3 1/2 cups water
1 1/4 cups sugar
Mint leaves and lemon zest for garnish

1. Scrape the 2 teaspoons of zest from one of the lemons, then cut all of the lemons in half and juice them. Measure 1 cup, reserving the rest for another use.

2. Use a melon baller to remove any remaining pulp. Slightly trim the bottom of each lemon cup so it sits flat, then set them on a plate, cover, and place them in the refrigerator.

3. In a medium saucepan, combine the water and sugar over medium heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Bring the water to a boil, then add the lemon juice and zest and boil for 2 minutes.

4. Transfer the liquid to a mixing bowl and allow it to cool to room temperature. Place the bowl in the freezer until the mixture begins to freeze, several hours or overnight. Use a fork to break up the ice, then stir it until fluffy.

5. Spoon 1/2 cup of the slush into each lemon half, then cover them and freeze until you’re ready to serve. Garnish with a mint leaf and lemon zest before serving, if you like. Serves 8 to 10.

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Johnny Appleseed

The apple-lovers in your household won’t be able to resist this slushy cooler. For younger kids, you may want to substitute apple juice, which is a bit sweeter than cider.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
8 apple-cider ice cubes
1/4 cup apple cider or water

Drop the apple cider ice cubes into a blender or food processor. Pour in the apple cider or water. Blend until slushy, adding more liquid if necessary. Serves one.

(By the way, Family Fun did not pay me to pass these recipes on to you. I thought you would like them, they looked delicious to me and … that’s all 🙂 ).

Seven Quick Takes Friday is hosted at Conversion Diary.

Let’s get started …

I just read about a new widget the WordPress.com team put together called “Social Vibe.” In essence, here is how it works:

From the WordPress.com blog: You spend a lot of time creating great content and attracting an audience for your blog. What if you could use that influence to make a positive social impact? Now you can.

We’ve teamed up with SocialVibe, and now by adding the SocialVibe widget to your blog, you are able to earn donations for the charity of your choice by getting sponsored by a brand that appeals to you.

Each time someone visits your blog and engages with your brand (by rating a video, for example), you’re making a difference. That impact is immediately visible on your badge, i..e., ‘My blog has provided 63 cups of clean water for people in need.’

I’m not exactly sure how this works yet, I’m still researching it, but I like the overall concept. Personally, I really dig blogging for charities – blogging is such a self-indulgent activity that it’s nice to be able to give a little of myself, of my life experiences, back to the community in some small way.

However, when I looked over the list of charities that are currently participating in Social Vibe, I was disturbed to see that PETA currently has WAY more donations than say, charities geared toward children.

(Sorry this is so pixelated).

The fact that people put way more thought, energy and effort into saving animals – that were created and put on this earth for man, I might add – instead of investing in our future, which is our children for the confused, really says a lot about our sad and twisted society as a whole.

Placing more value on animals instead of on children angers and disgusts me on so many levels.

Speaking of blogging for charity …

The 2009 Blog-a-thon begins July 25th!

The blog-a-thon, in a nutshell, is blogging 24 straight hours for a charity. Bloggers provide both entertainment and information in articles posted every 30 minutes for 24 hours to try and entice readers to donate money and/or time to their showcased charity.

I’ve participated in the blog-a-thon for the past two years – in ’07 I was part of the Write Anything (back then it was called Write Stuff) ‘thon and last year, I did the ‘thon all on my own because the blog-a-thon site wasn’t participating last year.

I plan on continuing the tradition year after year, with or without the official blog-a-thon website because I think it’s important to bring attention to, and remind people, that giving back to the community is important. We all get so wrapped up in our lives and stingy with our time, that I think it’s crucial to stop the craziness and donate our time and talents to those that truly need it.

I’m also pretty passionate about donating time and attention to local charities – both in our communities and in our country, in general. Sure, it’s great to go overseas and help those in third world countries and it’s honorable to financially give to these worthy charities, but I think it’s EQUALLY important to turn our attention to those in need on our own soil, too.

Participating in the blog-a-thon is also a great way to distract you from the fact that you didn’t go to BlogHer. 🙂

If you’re participating in the ‘thon, please leave a comment so we can keep each other awake! I can use all the support I can get. I haven’t decided on which charity to support yet – I’m seriously thinking of doing something a little different (I know, big shocker there) and actually talk about ALL of the charities in my community just to raise awareness.

Speaking of BlogHer …

Let the blog wars commence.

*sigh* Seriously. Why do we feel compelled to put each other down, or step on each other in order to try and make ourselves more important in this self-imposed blog-o-sphere hierarchy? I honestly don’t understand the b*tchy posts that have cropped up in the last week or so.

It’s a blogging conference, folks. It’s not the academy awards. No one is going to remember, or care, when this thing is over. You might be a celebrity for a day. You’ll still have to go back to your regular life after it’s over and guess what? The sphere is a vast and dare I say empty place to live. It’s big enough for all of us. We all have different and unique voices. We all have different reasons for doing what we’re doing. We have different ways of doing what we’re doing.

Get over it.

The trick is to find those bloggers we care to be around. If you don’t like someone, or like what someone is doing, place your index finger over your mouse button and *gasp* click away.

It really IS that easy.

I personally have no interest in turning my blog into anything other than it is – a place to dump my boring, mundane thoughts. I’m not interested in SEO rankings. I’m not into placing ads in my sidebar. I could care less about accepting products to review. This is what I feel and who I am.

Because of this, I will never attend a blogging conference like BlogHer because it doesn’t offer anything that I want. If there is ever any sort of organization where the sole purpose is to get together and meet each other, without all of this added pressure of trying to make more money or be better in Google rankings than my blogging peers, then I’ll be the first one to sign up.

But as it stands now? No thanks.

If you go, great. I hope your expectations are met. If you don’t, then leave the ones who choose to go alone. We’re all supposed to be adults here, let’s act like adults.

And for those going to BlogHer? Have fun! We’ll see you when you get back.

If you’re a creative writer, then you’ll appreciate this next part:

I’d like to take a moment to share this awesome button that Dale made over at Write Anything.

Cool, right??

Please feel free to steal this button and put it on your blog/website. Please link the button to this URL: http://writeanything.wordpress.com.

Oh, and if you’re looking to stretch your creative writing muscles, then check out today’s [Fiction] Friday prompt.

Here’s a cool badge you can put on your [Fiction] Friday article, if you want:

There’s quite a community going on over there. Check it out when you have a few minutes!

One of my Twitter friends, @oliveshoot, pointed this nifty tool out the other day:

It’s called “Print Friendly” and in essence, it turns your blog posts into a PDF file. What’s cool about this is that you can delete any portions of the post you want to before printing so you don’t end up with a page full of ads or anything else cluttering up the content.

You can see an example of how it works by clicking on the green “print friendly” button at the end of this post and then typing in http://writefromkaren.com in the URL space.

Pretty cool tool. I don’t know when you would ever WANT to print off a blog post, but I’ve had some people say that they wanted to print off a few of my articles before so … you never know. The point is, it’s AN OPTION – it’s there if you ever need it.

Speaking of Twitter links …

Another Twitter friend, @brianspaeth, tweeted about a new Flickr Twitter app that allows you to post a picture you’ve posted to Flickr onto Twitter. It’s called “Twitter Your Flickr.”

You access it by clicking on the “Blog This” feature in Flickr. If you’re not a Flickr user, then that probably doesn’t make sense to you, but I’ve set it up and tested it and it works great.

Here’s an example of how it works:

I like to pretend I know what I’m doing. http://flic.kr/p/6AQ6DY

And by the way, if you want to follow me on Twitter, you can find me here: http://twitter.com/writefromkaren. I’m ALWAYS on and ALWAYS updating so follow me and let’s chat!

And lastly …

Every Wednesday, Nicki, from Birthplace of the Process of Illogical Logic, posts Humpday Hilarities. She passes on jokes she’s received from friends and family and they never fail to make me laugh.

Here are few that really tickled my funny bone this week:

First Degree

A married couple were asleep when the phone rang at 2 in the morning. The wife (undoubtedly blonde) picked up the phone, listened a moment and said, ‘How should I know, that’s 200 miles from here!’ and hung up.

The husband said, ‘Who was that?’ The wife said, ‘I don’t know, some woman wanting to know if the coast is clear.’

Get it? Read it again, it’ll come to you. 😀

And this one:

DaVinci Code

Written across the wall of the cave were the following symbols:

It was considered a unique find and the writings were said to be at least three thousand years old!

The piece of stone was removed, brought to the museum, and archaeologists from around the world came to study the ancient symbols. They held a huge meeting after months of conferences to discuss the meaning of the markings.

The president of the society pointed to first drawing and said: “This is a woman. We can see these people held women in high esteem. You can also tell they were intelligent, as the next symbol is a donkey, so they were smart enough to have animals help them till the soil. The next drawing is a shovel, which means they had tools to help them.”

“Even further proof of their high intelligence is the fish which means that if a famine hit the earth and food didn’t grow, they seek food from the sea. The last symbol appears to be the Star of David which means they were evidently Hebrews.”

The audience applauded enthusiastically.

Then a little old Jewish man stood up in the back of the room and said, “Idiots, Hebrew is read from right to left. It says: Holy Mackerel, Dig the Ass on that Chick.”

ROFL!! Love this one! It’s a prime example of how we take everything soooo seriously.

Anyway, I hope your Friday is going well. More vacation pictures will be posted tomorrow!

Aloha! Kailani is the brain-child behind this fun Friday meme. If you feel inclined to answer my question, please post your answer in the comment section. Sound fun? Of course it does! Want to answer more questions? Hop over to An Island Life and play along!

(Please feel free to answer the question below, even if you’re not playing Aloha Friday!)

My question:

What lessons do you hope to instill in your kids?

Courtesy and respect are the two most uppermost in my mind at the moment.

I’ve always taught my boys to be respectful and to put themselves in other people’s shoes, but here lately, Dude has been rather … self-serving.

I don’t know if it’s because he’s a teenager and teenagers just naturally think the world revolves around them, or if he honestly doesn’t know, or care (!), about being rude to others, but he insists on putting himself first.

Case in point:

We were at my nephew’s graduation party. And my sister-in-law and her family? Know a TON of people. They are very active in the homeschool community as well as with their church community and to say these people don’t know a stranger would be, well, accurate.

They know everyone. (It’s weird being out with them. Everyone stops to say hello to at least one of them).

Anyway, it was raining. Not storming, just a steady, heavy downpour. We hadn’t planned on staying very long because we knew their house would be crowded (boy, was it), and we wouldn’t know anyone there other than family (which we didn’t) and we didn’t want to get in anyone’s way and/or feel like the weirdos standing by themselves in the corner (which we were and did).

So, we congratulated my nephew, dropped off his card and were on our way out the door when we encountered a young woman carting a baby around in a car seat/baby carrier.

I opened the door for her and stood aside so she could enter smoothly and not have to stand out in the rain any longer than she needed to.

And my two boys (because Jazz is just as guilty), followed me out and in fact, had to squeeze past me and the woman with the baby, in order to exit the house.

I was so embarrassed that my two boys either didn’t KNOW not to step back and allow this poor woman by or didn’t CARE enough to step aside and allow the poor woman past.

I gave the woman an apologetic smile and we all sprinted to our car through the rain. As soon as we were in the car, I let the boys have it.

I gave them a pretty long lecture about respecting other people, women and ESPECIALLY a woman with her hands full of baby.

I thought they were so selfish and I was embarrassed that they behaved like five year olds instead of respectful, and mature, young men.

Jazz has gotten better about allowing people to pass him whenever the occasion arises, but Dude is still as selfish and clueless as ever. He has literally jostled me aside to get into the door first and each time this happens, believe you me, he hears about it.

The little stinker.

I haven’t decided if Dude just doesn’t think about it (which presents it’s own set of problems) or if he’s just so competitive that he subconsciously can’t stand the thought of anyone getting somewhere first before him.

I’m sort of leaning toward the competitive excuse because it seems to bother him when people pass him on the road, too.

There’s competitive, and then there’s rude. Either way, we have some work to do.

Seven Quick Takes Friday is hosted at Conversion Diary.

Let’s get started …

Kevin just emailed me – he is filling out our dental insurance form for this next year.

We currently don’t have dental insurance. *gasp*

When he canceled our insurance this time last year, I was a bit upset with him. One, he didn’t consult with me first and Two, we didn’t have dental insurance!

What if something catastrophic happened, like one of us would need a root canal, or a crown, or a filling …

Oh wait. We did. All three of those things happened to Kevin this past year (karma baby, karma) and hey! We’re still here! And even though we ended up paying for all of that, out of pocket, we still didn’t spend as much money as we would have on our premiums.

Hhmm …

I was beginning to see why Kevin canceled our insurance.

Nevertheless, it’s really not a good idea to not have insurance, so, we’ve decided to cover just him and me. If the kids need anything done, like a cleaning or (God forbid) a filling, then we’ll pay for it. And our insurance never did pay for Dude’s braces (which have been paid off for nearly a year now) and when I take Jazz in to get his teeth worked on later this summer (if the kid will stop being so stubborn and pull those last two loose teeth), our insurance won’t cover that orthodontist visit either.

So why have insurance on the kids? It seems like a waste of money.

Now us, on the other hand, we have bad teeth and we’re constantly having to have our teeth worked on, but the kids – well, let’s hope their teeth stay in good shape.

T-minus three weeks before we catch our boat out of Miami. Holy freaking COW, I can not wait. It’s all I’ve been thinking about lately (which might explain my lack of productivity …………. okay, so it doesn’t, I’m just freaking lazy).

I’m feeling pretty good about fitting into my form-fitting t-shirts (I can’t say “tight” that image freaks me out for some reason) and shorts. Of course, I always say that before a vacation and I’m always disappointed when we get back and we’re looking through vacation pictures and I’m all like, “MOO.”

I still have some things to buy before we can go. I need a pair of white shorts (that I can actually breathe in), but I’m having trouble finding a pair that doesn’t advertise my underwear to the world.

I need to buy one (two?) party dresses for formal nights. (The only semi-formal dresses I have now are the crushed velvet kind and come on, they might be back in fashion someday, but that day ain’t now). I should have bought these dresses before now, but I was waiting to lose a little weight and knock my fat rolls down from ten to about three-ish and now that I’m (somewhat) there, I can begin looking.

Nothing squashes a body image QUITE like trying on party dresses.

The boys need new dress slacks. Well, Dude never had them to begin with and Jazz’s pants are now too short for him. (He was complaining of his legs hurting last night. When that happened to Dude, he shot up about two inches and a whole pants size overnight. I’m thinking this is going to be a big growth-spurt summer for Jazz).

Dude also need a dress shirt. And both boys need ties.

I’m not sure what I’m looking forward to more – stepping onto the boat and drinking margaritas flavored tea, or seeing my teenage boys all dressed up.

It’s a serious toss-up.

And speaking of vacations – one of the biggest reasons we are able to afford vacations like this is because we use one credit card and one credit card only – American Airlines’ AAdvantage Mastercard. (No, I didn’t get paid to say that – simmer down). We use this card because we earn award points with our purchases and we are able to cash those points in every other year and fly all four of us to fun places … for like $40 bucks. (Seriously, it cost all four of $40 bucks to fly to D.C. last summer).

But now, I’m reading articles like this stating that due to new regulations, that are set to implement in about nine months, credit card companies may not have a CHOICE but to recoup losses from these new regulations and take reward programs from people who, you know, actually PAY THEIR FREAKING BILLS.

Oh. My. Gosh. This makes me angry. JUST how many times will the responsible, hard-working, successful, law-abiding, “sterling” citizens have to pay for the people who CHOOSE to live a life below their potential?

When?

I swear, if we lose these reward points, the points we earned by PAYING OUR FREAKING BILL, DOING WITHOUT AND WORKING HARD, I’m going to be seriously pissed off.

Irresponsible people seriously piss me off, especially when WE have to pay for their irresponsibility and their poor life choices.

Tell me, how the hell is that fair?! Why would ANYONE be motivated to live within their means if the government just swoops in and penalizes them for being responsible each and every time?

End rant.

I totally need to do this:

But I totally won’t.

Do you know what I’m looking forward to this summer?

NOT having to stand in Dude’s bedroom doorway every week day morning to wait for him to sit up in bed and start waking up for the day. Now I can let the boy sleep in as long as he wants …

As long as it’s not past 9:00 a.m.

There HAS to be a boundary in there somewhere!

If I let him sleep whenever he wanted to, his schedule would look like this:

Awake until 4:00 in the morning.
Sleep until 2:00 in the afternoon.

I can’t even tell you the level of hell I would have to go through to get him back on a normal schedule once school started back up in August if I allowed him to set that sort of schedule.

Real life sucks, Dude. Get over it.

And speaking of schedules …

This is likely the last summer the boys will have total freedom.

Next summer, Dude will get a job (yes, we’re making him get a job next summer because he needs to grow up and it’s TIME to start doing something with his life. More on that issue later)

and Jazz will be required to take a summer class. I actually had to sign a form stating that I would enroll Jazz in summer school next year.

Why?

Because my youngest son wants to take a jazz class next year and because it’s an elective class and taking a time period from one of his required courses, he’ll have to make that course up during summer so he doesn’t fall behind his peers.

So, between working around Jazz’s summer school schedule and Dude’s job schedule, who knows what sort of family vacation we’ll be able to plan next summer.

I’m all about the summer vacations, folks. Why? Because my boys? Are growing up and life will REALLY change when Dude graduates in two years. I’m taking advantage of them being home now, before I lose them to reality and their own independence.

I noticed that Jazz’s hair was pretty greasy the other day. So, I asked him about it.

“Jazz. Why is your hair so greasy? In fact, why does it ALWAYS look so greasy? Are you not scrubbing your scalp when you wash your hair?”

“Yeah,” he said and then lowered his eyes to his dinner plate, a slight blush staining his cheeks.

“So, why the greasy look?”

“The girls won’t stop touching it,” he said.

*blink*

“Oh. Okay.”

Because really, what ELSE can you say?

This kid has girls falling at his feet NOW? Before high school?

I see some serious romantic trouble on our horizon with this kid.

Help.

I just wrote out some bitchy snarky mean thoughts about some blogger issues just now …

But then promptly deleted them.

Why?

Because I refuse to contribute to the craziness, that’s why. And besides, who cares what I think.

But I will say this – just because a popular blogger gives his/her opinion about an issue doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the RIGHT solution or the CORRECT interpretation of the issue.

The end.

Seven Quick Takes Friday is hosted at Conversion Diary.

Let’s get started …

This whole day has been completely thrown off kilter for me. It started by waking up to a day that was pitch as night. A storm was blowing in and it looked like it was going to hit right about the time I was due to drop the boys off at school.

It hit alright, but right AFTER I got home from dropping the boys off at school. The outside turned a yellow-gray and for those of you that live in tornado country, you know what that’s a sign of.

At 8:15 a.m., the tornado sirens started blaring and the winds picked up. I had turned off my computer before I left to drop the boys off (we get WICKED lightning storms), and I turned on the TV to see what was happening. Just as the weather guys (who are awesome, I might add), were talking about which path the storm would likely take (read directly at Springfield), the stupid satellite signal was lost and the TV went blue. (A major downfall with satellite service).

So, I turned the radio on and listened as the storm got closer. And I watched the funky colors outside change from gray to nearly black.

And then the winds started howling. The trees started bowing and I started getting nervous. I’m not normally one to get too worked up over a storm (I pray and I trust God), but it’s especially harrowing to be going through something like this when my family is spread all over the city. Dude is at his school, Jazz is at his school and Kevin is at work.

And I’m home alone. *gulp*

We had a few tornado sightings, but the winds are what did the most damage. Apparently, we had some rare weather thing happening – straight F1 tornado winds and the kicker? They couldn’t pinpoint just ONE area. In fact, our weather guy said that in all his years of doing weather, he had never seen ALL of the viewing counties under thunderstorm/tornado warnings ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

Damage reports started trickling in – a portion of one high school’s roof blew off (no one was hurt, thank God), a few elementary schools’ power went out, several business’ signs just sort of exploded, a tractor trailer overturned on the highway and about 2,500 people lost power.

My power stayed on (which is unusual, we usually lose power at the first puff of wind), but Kevin’s work lost power and he ended up coming home and doing some work for a few hours.

(Notice he has two phones at his ear. My husband is sort of a big-wig at work. *grin*)

I’m curious to hear how the boys’ mornings went and how long they had to assume the “duck and cover” position at school. Remember doing that in the hallway when you were a kid?

The sun is out now though so all is well. I swear, Missouri weather is like a cranky, unpredictable character in a story that you can’t control and love to watch.

What in the world IS this thing?

I found it perched on one of the rocks on our fireplace and no one is claiming him.

He looks evil. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings by taking him down so I ignore him.

But it’s hard. I swear those beady red eyes are watching me. *shudder*

I Twittered this but seriously … I can’t believe this site is for real: http://bit.ly/YwKE But it is, and it’s sad.

And if you don’t want to click over and see for yourself (frankly, I don’t blame you), here’s the deal – this is a site where you can go and discreetly either flirt with someone online thereby building a flirtatious relationship OR go so far as to actually meet someone, in real life, to have an affair with.

Are you freaking kidding me?! As if married couples need an excuse to put another wedge in their marriage – we already have a 51% divorce rate – are we aiming for 60 / 70?

And if this isn’t enough to get your blood boiling, they actually advertise on TV!!

What the HELL is wrong with our society??

(I have to admit though, I can see some steamy stories coming out of this).

For those that don’t know, we, as in all four of us, are going on a cruise next month. We’re scheduled to stop at Grand Cayman, Roatan, Belize and Cozumel.

*sound of needle scratching a record*

Hold the phone. Cozumel … as in Cozumel Mexico??

Yes. And considering the recent flu scare, I hopped over to the Carnival Cruise Lines’ website to see if that would affect our itinerary … and guess what?

It doesn’t. But all of the cruises scheduled to set sail between now and the week before we begin our trip? Have been re-routed to Key West.

I’m REALLY hoping they don’t re-route our cruise because I really want to take the boys back to where me and Kevin went for our honeymoon and I’m really curious to see how the island has changed in the 19 years since we’ve been there.

Yes. We will have been married 19 years May 26th. Has it been easy? Of course not. Have there been times I wanted to murder my husband? Oh, absolutely. Have I ever regretted marrying him?

At times, yes.

BUT, we managed to get past ourselves (because ultimately, you have to move past your ego when you’re married) and MADE it work. And we’ve never been happier:

I’m not supposed to tell you this, and I’m relying on the fact that I’m telling you this waaay down this post and Kevin always loses interest in my posts before he reaches this point but …

Kevin and I are both tanning. In a booth. But not together.

Though that could be fun. 😉

He is absolutely embarrassed about going. Which is silly, because a lot of men go to a tanning booth, but the biggest reason he’s going and I’m pushing him to go?

I don’t want him to fry on our cruise.

Kevin and I went on a Caribbean cruise for our tenth anniversary. And not only did he burn, he BURNED on the first day. And he was miserable the rest of the cruise because it was a bad burn.

It’s freaking hot at the Equator.

And I don’t want to see that happen to him again this go-around. In fact, we’ve got some free guest passes and I’m thinking about asking the boys to go tan.

Is that weird? Do teenage boys tan?? I guess the real question is, WOULD they go?

I’m thinking, no. So, I’ll have to make sure we make it to the pools several times before we leave for our cruise so they don’t burn to a crisp when we leave next month.

Especially Jazz – he’s so fair-skinned. Dude is like me, he has a lot of Indian blood in him so he tans fairly easily but Jazz? It takes him a while.

And yes. I think about these things. When we went camping in the Rockies a few years back, I “walked” the boys on the treadmill before we left so they wouldn’t complain die collapse when it came time to hike the mountains.

It sounds a bit mean and totally controlling but you know what? We had a GREAT time and hiked quite a few trails.

And last but not least? I dyed my hair two shades darker yesterday. It’s actually closer to my natural color (though not quite as dark).

I feel like a witch and miss my lightened hair. But Kevin lamented on the fact that he missed my dark hair and quite honestly, my hair was looking a little like an orange that had exploded in the microwave, so …

I did it.

And it’s … different.

And I’m not sure I like it.

It’s hard to tell in this picture, but you’ll see it in the next Vlogemotions’ video.

(Man, I have a big nose. It’s a good thing I’m not self-conscious about it or anything. *grin*)

I always love to browse the Family Fun site to look at their new and cute crafts. I never DO them, but I like to LOOK at them. 🙂

Here are a few of my favorite craft (and cupcake!) ideas for Mother’s Day.

Hand-Colored Oven Mitts

Tap kid’s creativity to turn plain oven mitts and pot holders into handy kitchen art fit for gift-giving.

CRAFT MATERIALS:
Oven mitt or pot holder
Pencil and paper
Colored fabric markers

Time needed: Under 1 Hour
1. Trace the oven mitt or pot holder onto a sheet of paper and experiment with different designs.

2. Next, resketch the perfected design on the mitt and color it in with the fabric markers.

Tips: We recommend using Marvy or FabricMate brand pens.

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Lamb Pin

Give Mom a case of the warm and fuzzies with this fluffy little lamb pin — or make one for the “shear” pleasure of it!

CRAFT MATERIALS:
Brown craft foam
Bulky textured yarn
Scissors
1 1/2-inch pinback
Tacky glue
Googly eye

Time needed: About 1 to 2 Hours
1. Draw a simple sheep on the foam and cut it out; ours was about 3 1/4 inches long. You can also download a printable template here.

2. Wrap a length of yarn (ours was 6 feet) around the sheep as shown, evenly covering the neck, belly, and between the legs.

3. When you have about 1 1/2 feet of yarn left, open up the pinback and lay it flat side down on the back of the sheep.

4. Wrap the yarn around the belly to hold the pin in place. Close the pin and firmly tuck in any remaining yarn. Glue on the eye.

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Beauty Mask

This eye pillow, filled with lavender and flaxseed, is a Mother’s Day gift that actually takes something away: stress!

CRAFT MATERIALS:
Flannel-backed satin fabric
Glue
16-inch length elastic
Funnel
5 tablespoons flaxseed
3 tablespoons dried lavender

Time needed: Under 1 Hour
1. Cut two pillow pieces from flannel-backed satin (download our template here). On the satin side of one piece, use tacky glue to attach rickrack edging and two 2-inch lengths of black fringe fabric trim eyelashes. Trim the fringe if necessary.

Everyday Fun Homemade Beauty Mask: Step 2 2. Run a line of glue around the flannel-side edge of the other fabric piece, leaving an inch-wide gap (shown in photo A, marked by waxed paper). Glue the ends of a 16-inch length of elastic to the flannel (A). Lay the other fabric piece on top, satin side up, and gently press the pieces together. After the glue dries, use a funnel to pour 5 tablespoons of flaxseed and 3 tablespoons of dried lavender into the opening (B) and glue it closed.

3. Before using the pillow, heat it in a microwave for about 20 seconds to warm the flaxseed and release the lavender scent.

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Driveway Signs

What you see is not all you get with these adorable driveway markers. By day, the plaques add color and a decorative touch to your yard. At night, the signs shine as beams of approaching headlights bounce off the reflective-tape moon and stars.

CRAFT MATERIALS:
Pencil
Wood (we used scrap lumber, but you can also use wooden plaques from a craft store)
Paintbrush
Acrylic paints
Scissors
Reflective tape (we used Duck brand)
Drill
Wooden stakes
Screws
Twigs
Hammer and nails

Time needed: Afternoon or Evening
1. Download our templates for the signs shown here, or create your own design. Lightly trace the pattern on the wood, then paint.

2. When the paint is dry, cut moon and star shapes from the reflective tape and apply them to the plaque.

3. Use the drill to make pilot holes in the stake (a parent’s job), then screw the stake to the back of the plaque.

4. To prevent the twigs from splitting, create pilot holes with the drill and a small bit (a parent’s job). Nail the twigs in place. If desired, a parent can instead drill holes in the plaque and insert the twigs, as we did with the owl design.

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Sew Sweet Cupcakes

No seamstress skills are required to make these Mother’s Day cupcakes. The stitches are made of licorice lace.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
Frosted cupcakes
Licorice lace (we used Twizzler Pull-n-Peel)

1. Use 1/4-inch pieces of lace to form letters or hearts. For the needle, tie a longer length of lace around an end of a toothpick, then stick the toothpick and one end of the lace into the cupcake.