HILARIOUS VIDEO - HAUNTED HOUSE AT UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

Ok this is time appropriate with Halloween coming and I have to admit....yes I love the Walking Dead show! I never thought I would like a show about Zombies. It's really not something I usually would but I watched with my husband and I got swept up. The Zombies are secondary to this group of close knit people who are just trying to survive in a crazy world that's been turned upside down. Again, I just love it! And although I don't watch Ellen, (no TV during the day is my rule!) I really think she's funny. So with her humor and the theme of the Walking Dead, this video is hilarious. I laughed till I cried. Seriously, and then I watched it again and again and laughed and laughed! HILARIOUS!!! And you don't have to be a fan of the Walking Dead or Ellen to watch this. The guy trying to not to be scared in a haunted house at Disney is just HILARIOUS!!!!!

Take a look!  I put 2 links because this is so funny that in case one doesn't work I want you to be able to get to it! Make sure ya hit your back button afterwards and come on back!

http://www.today.com/entertainment/ellen-degeneres-freaks-out-staffers-sending-them-walking-dead-haunted-8C11451970

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=208728115975710&set=vb.100005155690229&type=2&theater

You are beautiful!!!

To all the ladies out there....just in case you didn't know or if you have forgotten how amazing you are.......please click on the link below and watch this video as a reminder.  :)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151596857991831&set=vb.110153655727666&type=2&theater

Misleading online pictures...

So......how accurate are pictures online? Not very! lol...
I am still tweeking my new kitchen redo. Adding some grey and yellow accessories. So I ordered a rug online from Overstock.com  (I love that site!). But as with anything online it appears different on your screen than in person. The picture online of the rug could only be enlarged so much, so it didn't show the detail of it. Overstock has a great return policy and they make it very simple so I can return it if I chose to. What I have come to learn is read the reviews!!! If you take the time to read several of the reviews you will find that most people will comment on the color or design enough so that you can gather from what the true look of the product is.
So here's what I saw online and ordered.... (pic to the left)

and then here's a close up of what it actually looks like....

Look at all that detail. Which in most cases in great. But I kinda liked the "muted" grey look of it online. I thought it was more of a grey checker board but its VERY defined and has a somewhat charcoal grey color to it. And each square has lots of detail in it. 

Here's another view..

Alas, even my picture is a great example of how "off" colors can look. My cabinets look white here when in fact they are a much darker blueish blue grey. You can see them here.  Definitely not white. So just a lesson learned. But I like the rug regardless and I think it's staying. Because actually the rug I liked (the one in the first  picture) doesn't really exist as it looks in the picture so.... :)

Garlic Chicken and Pasta Casserole

So check out my Garlic Chicken and Pasta Casserole under the Recipes page above! This was made for a large group of 40 or more but I downsized it for ya here! lol...

September 11, 2001

I was gonna write a blog today about my feelings and memories of that horrible day so long ago...
but no words come to me....

A day in the life of a bee..... :)

IT'S A BEE!!!

Those three little words from your child that can spark terror and chaos in a car driving 50 mph down the road.

IT'S GONNA STING ME!!

Just ignore it. We'll stop in a minute.

I CAN'T! ITS GONNA STING ME!

Well then just smack it!

I CAN'T- IT'LL STING ME!

Well it won't if ya smack it. It'll be dead.

STOP THE CAR!!!

Stop yelling! Just kill it or ignore it.

NO!!!! STOP THE CAR!

I can't stop the car, we're in the middle of traffic!

IT'S GONNA STING ME!!!

It won't if ya stop swinging at it....roll your window down.

I CAN'T....IT'S GONNA STING ME!

Oh for pete's sake, roll your window down.....
Did it go out? 
Where'd it go? Where'd it go? 

Wh..there it is! Stop! Don't fling it at me!!! I'm driving! JUST KILL IT!

NO! IT'LL STING ME!

Stop it! Stop flinging it at me- I'm driving! Stop it!

Oh my gosh, I'm pulling over. Don't swat at it! Stop swatting at it! Stop it! Ok, Get out of the car!

NOW WHAT!?

I don't know. It's just flying around in there. Shoo it out.

YOU SHOO IT OUT!

Where'd it go?

OH LOOK, IT FLEW OUT! I THINK IT FLEW OUT...YEAH I'M SURE IT DID

Get in the car! Quick!
DID IT FLY OUT FOR SURE? WHAT WAS THAT!!???!
.

Life without them....

I grew up in a small town in Northeast Ohio. Right on lake Erie called North Madison, Ohio. After graduation I moved away.  A whole 2 or 3 miles from the edge of Madison to our football rival's town right next door in the small town of Geneva. Lol...that's as far as I went. All my life was spent within a 5 mile radius of Madison and Geneva. I grew up there, married there, divorced, remarried. My kids were all born there. They grew up there. My first grandchild was born there. My mom, my sister and my brother and his wife live there and all their kids and grandkids live there. We all stayed. Until 2007, when I moved over 700 miles away and started a new life.

Who is that woman in the mirror? Reflecting....

The other evening I was putzing around the house straightening up before bed. I like getting up to a clean house, so I go around the house in the evening and clean up the days mess, load the dishwasher if there is anything to load, etc. I was at my entrance table putting things away (it seems to be the place where things get dumped) when I glanced up.

I have a mirror there. Its about 6 foot high by 4 foot wide (hung vertically instead of the usual horizontal view). Its huge and extremely heavy. It belonged to my mom. I can remember it from my childhood back at least 30 some odd years ago. It was much bigger then and I had it resized years ago. Something I regret now. ;) My mom gave it to me long ago and I had it framed and its beautiful.

The light was dim, with only my Scentsy warmer burning on the table under the mirror, so there was a glow in the mirror with soft lighting flowing from it and bouncing off the sides, reflecting back and forth off itself. My front door behind me was open and although it was night time, some light was also coming through the door behind me. It made the mirror look even more beautiful. It was like the illusion of looking into water with only moonlight shining down on you. The tree leaves blowing in the breeze outside reflected through the door and made the light move. -Kind of surreal.

The odd thing is the reflection I saw.....

A DECORATING "FIND"

OH MY GOSH! Did you ever see something in a magazine like Pottery Barn, or Pier 1 that you just loved and then looked at the price and........whoa!! Ridiculous! Well I found a website that teaches you how to DIY all those great things we see and want at the pricey stores. All for about penny of the cost. And it's actually a lot easier than you think. And some of the people sell there "knock offs" a lot cheaper. This site tells you how to do it or directs you to another blog that does. I love it! Check it out...
http://knockoffdecor.com/

Re- purposing. Just about anything can be made new again.

I re-purposed a bunch of items to show and of course I forgot to take some of the before pics. :(  Kinda ruins everything. But here are a few pics of some very easy cool things! See the lamp on top of the little buffet? Well that belonged to my mom and has been sitting in my garage, and the garage before that for about 20 years. It was brassy gold, and the lamp shades had broken. I brought it in one day and decided to fix it up. I searched online till I found white "milk glass" lamps shades that were very similar to the originals. They were actually fairly cheap too. I think they were like $35.00 each. When they came in I picked up some pewter spray paint and Voila! like new! Actually better, since they weren't brassy any more. :)
Here is the website where I found the globes in all different styles....  http://www.lampsplus.com/

And the speaking of the little buffet table. I found it in a second hand store for $60.00 buck I think and loved it. It was a bright neon blue and didn't work for me. So I painted it green and although I really liked the color I changed my mind on it. so............BEFORE. I love the green but I needed it to be neutral...so............

I WENT WHITE!!!

So how about those expensive small appliances that you see in magazines. They always have them to go with their decor and they cost a small fortune!!!! Again, PAINT your own!

I got these chairs from a neighbor who refinished chairs years ago. About 10 I think. I took the seats off (which is very easy to do) and recovered them with a textured material. Kind of like burlap feel, but softer on the bum. Sprayed them with scotchguard too. I have a huge family...so LOTS of scotchguard. And I painted the chairs with a spray paint. Just took them outside without the seats and sprayed them down. Very easy and it really gave them a new life. They go with my redone kitchen now! More of Cottage feel. Although I just took a test online at Better Homes and Gardens and it said my style was "Polished  Casual" hmmm... I like that. Find out yours.... http://www.bhg.com/decorating/decorating-style/quiz/

My "new" lamps!

So, I bought these lamps at Lowes. I loved them. Problem was...I didn't really "love" the decor in my formal (yeah, like anything in this house is formal..but that's what they call it I guess) living room. I have a family room that we really "live" in but this room is right at the entrance of the house and it is my favorite room to go to read in or just hang out for a little quiet time by myself. It had a lot of green so I thought these lamps would work but then when I switched out the green in the room, the lamps didn't work. So.....a little painters tape, some white gloss spray paint, and new shades and a totally different look! What do you think? The green pic on the left shows they had white shades which is a little hard to tell but .....the new shades (also from Lowe's) were on sale for $12.99! I love the new look.

and now the room fits! 

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK!!! A Kitchen Re-do!

The big job that I have been putting off is my kitchen update.  I don't plan on doing a kitchen "remodel" with new layout and all that. -My kitchen layout is fine for this house and it can't really be changed without some major structural re-configuring. And we aren't sure if this is our "forever" home or not. If not, our next one definitely will be. But until we figure that out, I just wanted to upgrade my kitchen. And get new appliances. Because I hated the way my cabinets looked!  But I love how they look now! This is how great they turned out!!! And ya don't have to spend thousands of dollars to give your space a simple facelift. New appliances were a bit pricey but painting the cabinets was truly the biggest change for the least amount of money. 
                          Take a look now!!! I just love it!

AND ANOTHER CLOSE UP OF THE COLOR...

from this.... 

to this....

AND HERE ARE SOME OF THE BEFORE AND DURING PICTURES.......

Learning to speak for myself...

I read something this morning that reminded me of the power of pray and the power of words…

that when I'm talking to God about HIS Child-myself or one of my loved ones- that I couldn't disrespect the Lord by complaining and speaking ill about HIS child. I can not speak curses and faults about the one whom God loves. God doesn’t make mistakes with who we are. We are his children, failings and all. We should not be speaking negatively of our Lords creations.

So this made me wonder to myself and aloud to share with you...where did we get the idea that it’s okay to put ourselves down? We were made in HIS image. Have you thanked Him for who you are? You may say, “Oh no I am a failure, I am a sinner, a loser. I don’t measure up. You don’t know the things I have done.” Well, God does. And He still loves and wants you with Him. So how dare we speak of God’s creation (us, our spouse, our children, family and friends) in that way? We have learned to speak in negative ways about ourselves as well as others. It is learned behavior. It is not only accepted but encouraged to put ourselves down. Because we never measure up to the image the world has said we should be. We were not made in the image of the world but in the IMAGE OF GOD! We need to get a hold of that and begin to see ourselves that way.

We need to learn about the power of words. The life and death of the tongue.  We need to relearn how to speak to ourselves. It is a process that does not come natural unless we had Godly parents who may have taught us. But we CAN learn it. We can ask God to guard our tongues. We can learn to take our scriptures and stand before the mirror and speak out what we mean to God. What He says about us. It may feel weird, or fake and unnatural at first, I know. But that’s because it’s Truth and we have accustomed ourselves to lies. Lies that the enemy tells us when we believe all the negative things about ourselves. It is what we say about ourselves, our children, our husbands and wives. I’m not talking about ungodly pride. I am talking about seeing God in ourselves and honoring that.

We need to begin each day with affirmation to ourselves and our loved ones of who we are in God. Have you thanked God for and prayed for your spouse today? For your husband or wife? Your children? Family and friends? Have you asked God to bless them in all they do? Have you prayed for God's love to shine on their face as it says in Numbers 6? Think about it. Think about the difference it would, could, will make in your marriage, with your children, your family and friends. In your life as a whole. Have you used your tongue today to speak life over yourself or your loved ones? Have you put those life affirming words into the atmosphere?

Numbers 6:22 says

...The LORD bless you
   and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine on you
   and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you
   and give you peace.”

This is a blessing given to Moses. Can you imagine if we took the few moments each morning to thank God, truly for our spouse, for the blessing of God for him or her? What if we

Goodbye Dad and Bethy too...

I've been thinking about my dad who passed away 4 months ago- October 23rd 2011. I only knew him for a short time. He left when I was little and my mom raised us as a single parent. Their were lots of struggles but she raised us mostly on her own and did everything she could to take care of our needs. I give her credit for her perseverance and great strength. It's tough. My dad left when I was little girl and I missed all those things most girls take for granted growing up with a father. I never got to be daddy's little girl. I never got to dream about marrying someone like him. And he never walked me down the isle.
But we reconnected about 12 years ago. He asked for and I gave forgiveness. He turned out to be a good man who made a very bad decision many years ago in his youth. And I learned long ago that unforgiveness serves no purpose and only makes one a bitter person. It takes hold of your heart and turns it black. And the person you refuse to forgive isn't hurt by it, you are. 
Besides, I wanted to know him. So we got to know each other through 1 wonderful visit after 30 odd years and many long distance calls. He drove with his lovely wife Gloria clear across the country to see me. We spent a week together. That was the one and only time I was to have with him. We lived more than 2000 miles apart. Unfortunately very little time was had before he passed away. It doesn't seem fair...
My "daddy" was a man I never really got to know.  And I have a half sister and half brothers I never got to know. Occasional emails or post on Facebook but that's it. 
I saw this video and thought of him. And then I thought of Betheny, an amazingly beautiful young woman and part of our "heart" family that we lost last year. She was such a beautiful 25 year old  woman and mommy. She was my daughter Jessica's best friend of almost 20 years...since they were little tikes. They grew up together. She had so much more living and loving to do. But now she's doing it in Heaven. You can read about her in this other post...

http://buildingsandcastlesinthewind.blogspot.com/2011/10/bethy-and-louiewhat-wonderful-world.html

But take a listen to this wonderful song, for the both of them...

Sadness and loss...again.

So I have been trying to keep this blog a little lighter than I use to. But this has been a tough week to do that. Impossible to do so this week. Back home in my home town tragedy has struck-again. Y'all know if you've read my previous blogs that my daughter Jessica's best friend, sweet Betheny Mehall and her boyfriend Cord Cox were both shot and killed a year ago this February. As if the remembrance of that isn't painful enough....well, shockingly its gotten worse. The Cox family, Cord's parents, lost their other son -Cord's younger brother Nick this past week in an auto accident! I can not even imagine such heartache as losing your son and his girlfriend and 1 year later, just days after the anniversary of that to loose your other son!  Both of them young men in their 20's. To young to die. Nothing seems fair and nothing makes sense.

And now the shooting and subsequent death of the young students in Chardon. Just 20 minutes down the road from my home town. Another tragedy and loss of life. Families dealing with such a profound loss. My heart goes out for them all. Including the family of the shooter. As in the situation with the first shooting of Beth and Cord, likewise in the Chardon tragedy. The family of the young man who made the decision to take some one else's life has to live with their sons actions too. Gosh, so much pain and loss for everyone. I pray peace and comfort for them all.

 I am a Christian and as such, I can only feel and experience this from my own perspective. I hope they knew God. Not because it will make it easier and in no way do I mean that these tragedies wouldn't have happened if they did. Only so that they could feel His comfort in the midst of this. That they may feel his love. So they may know His heart breaks for them too. My heart so aches for them. There is nothing that can change this situation. I can do nothing for these families to relieve their pain. But I can pray. And I will...continually for them all.