Knitting, cooking and a meme!

Well I feel it, the back pain is pretty much gone, thank God, and things have finally calmed down here, so I'm feeling like my old self, my crazy, nutty, always on the go but loving the quiet, self.

I've been trying to catch up on my knitting, I still have to finish Jasmine's scarf but last night I made a little dish cloth in just an hour, yes you read that right, an HOUR. I'm a fast knitter, I first learnt how to knit in high school when I was about 15 years old and I've been knitting non stop since then.

I came across this great pattern for Knitted Kitchen Dish Cloths and just had to try, luckily I had some red yarn leftover and it was just enough AND it matches all the red in my kitchen. YAY!
For Jasmine's scarf I picked up this beautiful pink and purple soft yarn and I'm going to use the Feather and Fan Knitted Scarf pattern over here.

I'm hoping to finish it soon because I want to make some more dish cloths and other cute little things for Christmas gifts. What about you, do you use knitted/crocheted dishcloths or have you never tried them?

That's why I'm heading to Walmart soon to go pick up some more yarn and needles. Jasmine wants to learn how to knit and I'm tickled pink, it makes me so happy to see my girl interested in cooking and knitting, can't wait to show you all what she makes. Maybe one of your little girls will want to learn too.

So, it's been a quiet day, the kids are off to school and all my housework is done. I've managed to update my food blog with a new recipe, a great way to get the kids to eat fish. Go check out my Cod Fish Casserole or Bacalhau com Natas as it's known in Portuguese.

For dinner tonight I'm making a portuguese Green Bean Soup, will share the recipe later.

Now on to a meme that Heidi tagged me for....it comes with an award too, thank you so much :)

the rules for this award:
Pass this on to 5 blogging friends.
Open the closest book to you, not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment, to page 56. Write the 5th sentence, as well as two to five sentences following that.

From The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner:

"Fellowes fell upon hard times and came crawling on his knees to San Francisco, beggins his illegitimate son to have pity on him. Abel, so the story goes, gave Fellowes what Fellowes had given him when he told Abel he would never amount to anything -- five dollars and a tin of cheap tobacco -- and sent him on his way."

Now for the tag:

Amy at The Joy of My Heart
Bonnie at Simple Beauty
Lara Gisela at Prossigo Para o Alvo
Posh and Trendy
Nikowa at Knowledge House Academy

And I'm out of it, got things to do and stuff to knit and dogs to play with. You know...the usual.

Playing Tag with Memory Loss!

I was tagged by Autumn and this one looks like fun to do...thank you Autumn :)

The instructions are these:

* Go to your Sixth Picture Folder then pick your Sixth Picture.

* Pray that you remember the details.

* Tag 5 others.

At first I thought I would have a hard time because I keep all my photos in ONE folder, BUT inside that main folder I have them organized into sub folders like 2000, 2001 and then in THOSE it's organized by month. Yeah I know, I must have been nesting when I did that LOL

So here we go, the Sixth Picture Folder is


December 2003, Nicholas was 8 months old and Jasmine was 4 and a half. I always crack up at his expression in this photo, he wasn't quite sure what was going on.

Now to tag 5 others:

Mari at My Little Corner of the World
Renee at 2 Peas in a Pod
Sarah at Another Bend in the Road
Jessica at Farm Fresh
Michelle at Michelle's Family Life

Random Things about me!

I don't really do meme's, I don't know why, maybe because there's so many that I feel overwhelmed and then I feel bad tagging people that don't want to be tagged LOL

But I've been tagged for this one a few times this past week and just yesterday by Sherry, so I figured I may as well get it done :)

Here are the rules:
Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about yourself.
Tag six people at the end of your post.
Let each person know he or she has been tagged.
Let the tagger know when your entry is up

**Random Facts about me:**

1. I can't swim.....you may be laughing, but I really can't, just never wanted to learn and there's days I wish I had, but it doesn't stop me from getting in the pool and floating around. Weird huh?

2. My dream is to live on a ranch somewhere in Idaho

3. I once sang in front of about 5000 people (will never do it again LOL)

4. I absolutely love anything to do with the paranormal and will watch any show on the tv about ghosts and hauntings and whatnot.

5. If I could go back in time, I would definitely want to live in the medieval times, even though that means dirty and stinky. Not looking forward to that, but I don't know what it is about that era that I love LOL

6. I was born in Mozambique, then lived in Zimbabwe, Portugal and South Africa.


I'm supposed to tag someone but I can never pick, so if you haven't done the meme and want to do it, go for it, if you've done it then don't worry about it LOL

Creative Love!

The goal of the game - List 10 things you love that begin with the letter you are assigned.

The sweet Annie assigned me the letter C, so let's see what I come up with. If you want to play along just leave me a comment and I'll assign you a letter.


1. Curt (my husband)
2. Coffee
3. Cinnamon
4. Crockpot
5. Cooking
6. Chocolate
7. Cookbooks
8. Coke (diet)
9. Candlelight
10. Camping

Getting to Know Us!

Well I honestly don't know what happened, but my blog ate up my last post. It's not the first time it's done this to me but it's quite annoying. Anyway......moving on.....

I'm an open book and I don't think there's much that I don't talk about on my blog. But I'm sure there's still a lot you don't know about me, about my husband and who we are, so I thought this meme would be fun to do.

We talk so much about our lives and kids and homes but very seldom do we take the time to talk about our better halves and let's face it, they put up with us a lot more than we let on LOL




1. Who is your man?
Curtis, a SSGT in the United States Air Force, a lover of video games and action movies, a kid at heart, a man that loves his family, that will get on the ground with the kids and wrestle and play pony and act completely goofy. The man I love.

2. How long have you been together?
11 years

3. How long dated?
For one year, we met online and got married a year to the day

4. How old is your man?
He is 35 years old

5. Who eats more? Must we really go there? I would say him, but there's days I completely overdo it LOL

6. Who said "I love you" first?
He did

7. Who is taller?
Definitely him, he's 5'11 and I'm only 5'4

8. Who sings better?
Oh that would be me LOL He unfortunately is tone deaf...*sorry honey but you are*

9. Who is smarter?
Ha Ha Ha Ha, Ho Ho Ho, He He He, oh you're serious??? Oh well then me I guess LOL

10. Whose temper is worse?
I think we're both pretty even here, it just takes me a lot longer to loose it, he tends to snap quicker LOL

11. Who does the laundry?
I do

12. Who takes out the garbage?
He does or I do if it needs to go out and he's not home or is deployed....though maybe next time I could just call his First Shirt and demand that he is brought home cause the garbage is overflowing LOL

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
He does

14. Who pays the bills?
I do

15. Who is better with the computer?
For software and programming it's me, for anything hardware and building and rebuilding etc, that's him.

16. Who mows the lawn?
He does

17. Who cooks dinner?
I do

18. Who drives when you are together?
He does, I don't even like driving when I'm alone LOL

19. Who pays when you go out?
Whoever stopped by the bank before the meal LOL

20. Who is most stubborn?
Definitely him, he will just NOT give in even when he knows he's wrong (though he just said he is NEVER wrong LOL)

21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong?
Me LOL (Oh boy I am going to be in so much trouble when he reads this LOL) But really, it's me, he will just act like nothing happened or wonder what I'm upset about like he wasn't even there during the fight LOL

22. Whose parents do you see the most? Neither, mine are in South Africa and his mom is in Texas and this military thing means we're never near anyone.

23. Who kissed who first?
It was a mutual thing

24. Who asked who out?
He asked me out

25. Who proposed?
He did

26. Who is the most sensitive?
Oh definitely me, sometimes I wonder why he has to act like he has no feelings (again, I'm probably sleeping in the dog house tonight LOL)

27. Who has more friends?
Neither one of us, we're each other's best friends. Again, being in the military you never really have a set group of friends, they're always moving

28. Who has more siblings?
I do, I have 3 brothers and one sister, Curtis has one brother

29. Who wears the pants in the family?
Literally, it would be him, but figuratively (hahahahahahahah)

30. How did you meet?
On the internet, in a chat room



That was a LOT of fun to do LOL Curt read the answers and he's not very impressed with me (hahahahaha)

If you decide to join in, which I hope you do cause now I'm DYING to know the answers to yours LOL Please let me know so I can come and take a peek. I'm off to kiss my husband and hug him and tell him that I really didn't mean what I said here, but then again I would be lying wouldn't I? LOL

Tagged!

The sweet Stephanie at "The Hearts of Hartmann" has tagged me for this meme. I have to list 5 random things about myself. Hmmmm.....you know what's sad? I found it easier to list 7 weird things about me than I do now LOL

But here goes:

- I can't function in the morning, unless I have a cup of coffee first

- I met Curt on the internet....and NO, I wouldn't recommend it to my own daughter, but it worked for us, we've been together 11 years and will be married for 10 this August.

- I hate wearing socks....hate hate hate......even in the winter it bothers me LOL

- I can't sleep on my left side, unless I have a pillow between my legs and under my stomach. I KNOW it's weird, but it's a habit I picked up when I was pregnant and can't seem to break it. Have pity on me........don't laugh. LOL

- I'm just absolutely obsessed fascinated with the Victorian and Edwardian Eras.

Now I'm supposed to tag someone else but I really don't know who has done this already. So I'll leave it open, if you want to tag yourself, go ahead but let me know so that I can come and see it :)

A meme and some other stuff!!!

The sweet Michelle over at "Big Blueberry Eyes" tagged me for this one and it's been so long since I've done a meme, I am actually excited.


What's in a name?

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

For the facts:
C = Cooking fanatic
L = Love to read, anything actually, but especially cookbooks....as if you couldn't tell LOL
A = Air Force Wife and extremely proud of it
U = Understanding and Loyal
D = Definitely a daddy's girl, must be cause I'm the only girl amongst 3 boys.
I = I'm still on the spiritual journey to a closer relationship with God
A = Always looking for ways to better myself

For the tag:
C = Crochet the Blues Away
L = Life is a Journey
A = A Good Cup of Coffee
U = Unexpected Journey
D = Denise at The Knitting Den
I = I'm an Organizing Junkie
A = Air Force Family

********************************************
Image credit: Georgia Janisse
It's 7:30 am and I'm exhausted, yeah you read that right, I just got out of bed and I might as well not even laid down last night......Nicholas is now sick with the cold and he's cranky, running a fever and congested, so we were up all night.

Being the lazy mom that I am, I kicked hubby out of bed so he could get some good sleep (see I'm not that mean lol), brought Nicholas into bed with me and called it good.

I'm thinking the one pot of coffee I have ready will be my savior today or else I will be falling asleep on the computer, while doing laundry or in a corner of the house somewhere.

You know what I hate???? BUGS, creeply crawlies of any kind just give me the willies and unfortunately being in Arizona we're surrounded by them. I have the biggest cockroaches on earth, you could seriously ride these buggers, that's how big they are. Then the other night I went to the parent/teacher night and Curt watched the kids.....I get back and the kiddos tell me that we have a new family member......a orange and white lizard. WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?

They're all going about their business like nothing is wrong and I'm standing there literally grossed out and getting the shivers just thinking that I'm sharing my house with black tiny little bugs, ants, elephant sized cockroaches and now a lizard. This is NOT a wild life conservation, we may get a little out of hand at times and the kids do act like animals on certain days but COME ON........I'm just waiting for one of these bugs to look up at me and say "hello". LOL

Right now I'm making some of Barb's Breakfast Burritos, she once said that I probably make them more than her and I think she may be right. I use these not just for breakfast but for lunch or a light dinner, I just LOVE them.

Curt is working weird hours this week, he has to be up at 3:30am which is just awful for him, he doesn't get that much sleep but thankfully next week it's back to the normal hours. He's also told me that here soon he will be spending most of his saturday night's at the Phoenix Cardinal Stadium, his squadron sells beer there during the games. Funny thing is he's NOT a sports guy at all, he doesn't enjoy football or baseball or anything and I think he only watches the Soccer World Cup because I DO. LOL
So anyway that is what is going on for him right now.

Jasmine is doing great in school, she's loving the teacher and her classmates. She's disappointed because this school has NO field trips. It's sad, I mean don't we all love field trips??? But anyway being in third grade they'll be doing Science and Social Studies etc, so she's excited for the hands on science class. Me not so much just cause I know she'll be filthy by the time she gets home......but hey, it's worth it if they have fun while learning right???

Nicholas as you all know is sick and being cranky and whiny, but he cracks us up with the things he says and does, he's just at that funny age.

Anyway, I finished my English Garden Series by Lori Wick and I'm sad in a way, I was really enjoying the books. I've started the Tucker Mills Trilogy though and I have to say I'm not into it that much, but I'll keep at it and I am sure I'll start enjoying it.

I also got some movies from Netflix today, got 28 Days Later and The Illusionist, both I've been dying to see.

Oh speaking of seeing, you know what I'm completely addicted to??? Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, I mean, it's certainly not for the faint of heart, but I find it so fascinating and I love him, there's something about the way he explains things and takes us on his travels that I really enjoy. Of course the minute he starts chugging down thousand year old eggs, worms and frog hearts that are STILL beating........that's when I close my eyes or turn away.

Well I best get back to my burrito making. You all have a wonderful friday, I'll be back tomorrow with the Five Senses Saturday.

God Bless,

Where do you eat out?

I was tagged for this great meme by the wonderful Laura at The Sunflower Family....did I mention that Laura is portuguese and lives in Portugal??? Just talking about it makes me happy and brings me wishes of being there right now eating at one of the great Portuguese restaurants...YUM!

These are the rules:
1. Link to the name of the person who tagged you.
2. Include the state and country you’re in.
3. List your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location (locally).
4. Tag 5 other people (preferably from other countries/states) and let them know they’ve been tagged.

We're stationed at Mountain Home AFB right now which is in Idaho so the closest place to get a good meal is Boise, although Mountain Home itself has a few restaurants but very very few.

1 - Chili's - We love going there to eat, it's pretty inexpensive and they have the BEST ribs, I always get their chicken though LOL Kids love it too and their portions are pretty big.

2 - Outback Steakhouse - Aussie Fries and Blooming Onion, need I say more??? LOVE it, though it's pretty expensive for us.

3 - AJ's Restaurant in Mountain Home - We actually love going there for their breakfast buffet, it's only $5 for the adults and $3 for the kids and they have everything from bacon and sausage to eggs, french toast, pancakes, fruit, biscuits, gravy, different kinds of potatoes...muffins, cake...tons of stuff.

4 - Red Robin - If you love burgers then this is the best place to go....I tried their mushroom burger and not only was it the BEST burger ever but goodness it was huge, their fries were amazing and their beer is pretty good too LOL

5 - Red Lobster - This is one we love but don't go very often, it's really expensive for us LOL But their Cheddar Bay Biscuits are to die for, their lobster amazing too and it's just really good, I don't think I've ever tried anything from them that I didn't like.

I'm going to tag:

Sarah - Because she's become such a good friend and I just love her to death, plus she's in England so I'm dying to know where she eats LOL
Eden - Another one of my favorite bloggers and also a military wife.
Sue G. - She's new to blogging and such a sweetheart.
Andrea - Fellow military wife and one of the sweetest bloggers around.
Annie - She's such an inspiration to me and I just love visiting her blog.

Ladies consider yourselves tagged...

Tagged Twice!!!

So my wonderful blogging friends Becky and Susanne, tagged me for some fun memes. I hadn't been tagged in forever, guess no one finds me interesting enough LOL Just kidding!!!

Well here we go, Becky's first since she tagged me last week (sorry Beck's but better late than never right?).

And now I tag.....wait don't start running, let me tag you first, you'll enjoy it, I mean you'll enjoy the tag. Ok, so I'm tagging for both memes:

Brony
Morning Glory
Carrie
Christina
Addie

1) Five Minutes to Yourself. How would you spend them, ideally?
Using the bathroom without a kid audience or without the kids all of a sudden needing to go so bad and making me wait. Frustrating I tell ya LOL

2) Five dollars to spend right now. How would you spend it?
On a book of course, where else would you spend extra money??? Definitely books!!!

3) Five Items In Your House You Could Part With Right Now?
A. The prenatal vitamins that I was supposed to be taking in case I wanted another baby, AIN'T happening!!!
B. The chocolate flavored Coffee Creamer, it's horrible, sorry!!! (christina don't hate me lol)
C. The tons of toys seemingly multiplying through the house.
D. The phone, I really really hate the phone.
E. The bills sitting on the counter....isn't there a bill fairy somewhere???

4) Five Items In My House You Could Absolutely Never Part With?
A. My computer.
B. My bookcases.
C. Our Tv.
D. My kitchen stuff (sorry I can't just name 1, I LOVE cooking)
E. My nasal spray and stuff, thanks to my defective sinus passages.

5) Five Words You Love?
A. Love
B. dagnabit
C. mommy
D. food
E. coffee

And now the wonderful Susanne's tag:

1. Favorite memory of your mother:
My parents divorced when I was two years old, and because my mom couldn't afford to keep me and my three brothers, we stayed with my dad.
Through the years my mom and I haven't really had the best of relationships, we fight like cat and dog and just couldn't be in the same room for too long without some major argument breaking out.
The older I got the more I started understanding what it's like to be a mom, and hence my relationship with her has progressively gotten better. My favorite memory of my mom is when I was turning 5 or 6 years old (can't remember which), and she came to pick me up from my dad's house, she took me out for the day and then bought me this huge pink teddy bear. I kept him all these years and he's still back home in South Africa. Whenever I missed my mom, I would hug the teddy bear and it was like she was there with me. I never forgot that day :)

2. Favorite memory of my dad:
I'm daddy's girl, especially since I'm the only girl in the middle of three boys. Dad was a hard worker, he had 3 kids to raise and that meant working a LOT, which didn't give him much time to spend at home with us.
As we got older, we were involved in the Family Radio Station, putting on concerts and shows etc.....it was a family of talented people, I tell ya.
I think one of my fondest memories is of singing with my dad and then later on in life, after I was married and my hubby had to return to the States first, I was pregnant and scared and having a hard time leaving my family behind. My dad drove me to my first OB appointments and that meant the world to me, the fact that he took time off his busy schedule to drive me to a place that most men dread LOL

3. Favorite memory of your sibling(s):
Oh boy, there are SO many great memories of my brothers. Like I said, I was the only girl but that never made a difference, I didn't get special treatment, I was just one of them and had to fight for what I wanted. At the time I hated it, but now I am so happy that they treated me that way, they turned me into a fighter and I have them to thank for my survivor spirit.
We did a lot of crazy things together, played cowboys and indians, cops and robbers, we played with their cars and they even played with my dolls with me, although it was under the pretense of playing hospitals.
My fondest memories is of me and my brothers back in Portugal, we would build go carts and then since me and my youngest brother were too small to ride our own, my brother Miguel would take me and my brother Paul would take Bruno. It was just so much fun and I treasure those moments :)

4. What one skill would you like to wake up tomorrow and be able to do (though you'd never learned it):
I have to agree with Susanne, I would love to wake up and have a Grand Piano in my living room, walk up to it and just play. Play beautiful music!!! I would even settle for playing a guitar, I think that would be wonderful.

5. Which one of your dreams has come true:
Man why just one??? I can't just stick to one thing, there's so many LOL
Funny though because growing up I would always joke with my family. I have a birthmark on my right arm, right above my elbow, and it looks like an A. So I always joked that it meant that I would one day marry an American and move to America and have little American kids running around. Ummmmmm.....VOILA!!! We just laugh about it now, it's actually freaky that it came true, but I'm so glad it did, I have the best husband and kids ever :)