Sweet Tooth

Usually I am really good about holding out on my cravings for sweets. I can make up my mind to not eat any of the cookies on the counter, the brownies under the tinfoil, or the Hershey kisses in the candy bowl, but I also have my days when I just can't focus on anything I'm doing because all I can think about is the candy in the bowl or the cookies giving me a stare down from the counter. This is why I never keep junk food in the house. Today was one of those days where  my hands were like magnets drawn to the candy dish; every time I passed by the bowl sitting on the bookshelf I grabbed a handful of chocolates. This goes on all day until Stephen comes home and asks if I want him to go get me some ice cream....(your not helping sweetie).......


One of my biggest weaknesses is ICE CREAM!! I love, love, love ice cream, frozen yogurt, custard or sherbet and I can never get enough of it. It is my favorite treat and it is so nice to know that Stephen is willing to go out in his PJs late at night and drive to the nearest Arctic Circle to get me a shake. I bought a carton of ice cream at the beginning of the month for when mom and my sisters come to visit me this weekend, but that disappeared a long time ago and I've had to buy another....and I've already dipped into that carton too! This weekend can't come quick enough; I've been trying to hold off on the sweets I have around the house to share with the girls when they get here in two days, but they'd better hurry!

Be Prepared

 I have always loved the scouts motto to "Be Prepared"; mom was a scout leader for many years and I went to lots of my brothers' scout award ceremonies and scout camps. What sound advise, so this last Christmas I asked for emergency and survival kits. Mom and dad were more than happy to give us a box full of emergency things to put in our backpack like a stove, a small kit that has at least 20 different things in it including a blanket, candles, matches, a mirror, etc..., and a handful of MREs. I was so excited!

This morning I added a few things to my back pack. Some people have no idea what or how to pack a survival pack so these are some things that I think should be in your kit: A small portable stove, matches, flashlight and extra batteries, first aid kit, a small mirror, blanket, fruit leather, nuts, jerky, life savors, plastic baggies, rope, oatmeal packets, MREs, cans of food of whatever you like (I just put in some fruit, chili, and soup), bottles of water, containers like tupper ware to eat out of, and extra pairs of socks and clothes per person in your house, cash, fish line, knife, etc.... There are so many other things you could put in there, but in my opinion, the more prepared you are the better off you'll be. I do get made fun of sometimes, but I just shake it off because you never know what could (could being the key word here) happen.

All too often I hear stories on the news when families or couples get stranded in their cars in the snow, they get lost in the mountains or desert and someone ends up dying. One of my favorite shows on the Animal Planet channel is "I Shouldn't be Alive" that tell true stories of these exact instances. Its amazing how well people survive these horrific accidents!

One last thing, Stephen and I keep our backpack in the trunk of our car, but you should always have a 72 hour kit in your house as well as your car. We don't have room to store our large backpack in our apartment, but we are prepared!

A Stroll Down Memory Lane

Sometimes at night when I lay in bed waiting to fall asleep my mind drifts off to when we lived on the farm. I had an awesome childhood and sometimes I wish I could go back and relive it all. I miss it, but at the same time I am happy where I am at with my husband so we can create great memories with our own children someday.

I can remember when mom and dad had to take two trips to get all seven of us kids to church on Sundays. We didn't have a minivan yet so dad packed in as many of us as he could in the Mercedes and drove the 9 miles to church and went back to pick up the rest. One Sunday he got pulled over by a cop two blocks from the church because we were all crammed in the back not wearing seat belts. There were several times when one of us would get left at the church, usually it was Scott, so dad would have to drive back to find him.

With Becky and I growing up with five brothers we were somewhat tomboys, especially myself, we always watched Batman, Spiderman, X-men, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc... on Saturday mornings while waiting for breakfast, we played cops and robbers, hide and seek, and had sleep outs on the trampoline.

One summer Adam made a tire swing behind the barn and warned all of us that we were not allowed to play on it without his permission. Becky and I went out there and one afternoon and played on it for hours swinging around and around in circles until Becky got tired and decided to go do something else. I still wanted to play on it so I kept spinning, but soon got tired of it too. I was sitting on top of the tire holding onto the rope when I tried to jump off, but I couldn't move my head....at all. I was stuck and there was no one around to help me. Dad was on the tractor riding around in the pasture, but despite my best efforts at yelling at him to help me he couldn't hear, so I just sat on the swing waiting. Brad and Becky were playing on the basketball court near the house but they couldn't hear me over the noise of the tractor either until it moved far enough away. At this time my hair was the longest it had ever been--down to the middle of my back. Becky came through the fence, took one look at me and just started laughing. Brad soon followed and caught Dad's attention on the tractor. Soon everyone was surrounding me laughing at me because my entire head of hair had somehow wrapped itself around the rope as far as it could go without me noticing. No one knew what to do to get my hair untangled, so Dad reached in his pocket to get his pocket knife to cut my hair. I screamed and cried because I couldn't live without my long strands of golden hair. Before he tried to cut it Dad started to twist the swing in the opposite direction to see if it would unwind my hair. After  a few minutes my hair was freed and we all went inside for dinner.

One of my favorite places to play was in the garden. Scott and I would spend hours making mud pies and having races down the rows of corn. I remember having to get up early every Saturday morning to weed in the garden and pick raspberries and black caps. Some days we would be out there for hours throwing dirt clods at each other, but we weren't allowed to come inside until our weeding was done.

There are so many memories that I cherish and hold dear. those were the days.....those were the days......