Once in a Blue Moon

This post is in response to W.E's post about the spice racks. There are two reasons why I don't have a spice rack- the first is what Sam figured out- I never use most of the spices on the rack. The second reason is that I really like having an uncluttered kitchen. Which means no spice racks, knife racks, paper towels, or small appliances sitting on my counters. So here is what I would call my "once in a blue moon" cupboard. All of the spices that I never use are there. The cinnamon and the almond extract are the only two things that I ever touch. Even when I tried to throw some of them away, then mom did some of that "once in a blue moon" cooking that needed spices and replaced them. Ron has even mentioned to me that he might try growing some herbs and spices. I'm thinking- there would have to be alot of blue moons before I would use fresh stuff when I don't even know how to use the store bought stuff. Sorry Ron, but if you want your meals "spiced up" you'll have to start cooking. :) Until then, I guess I'll have this cupboard and we'll be ready for the next blue moon. :)

2 Days in Sin City

That's me in the gold pants with the purse full of money!

(Yeah right :)

I spent two days in LasVegas last week. I went there for the National Bridal Market. I stayed in the Flamingo Hotel and the market was in the Venetian Hotel. I don't really care for LasVegas, but it is a bit cheaper for me to attend that market instead of the Chicago market. I am really a duck (no... a frumpy duck) out of water when I go to LasVegas though. I really don't appreciate the atmosphere there. Too much immodest clothing, gambling, drinking, etc. In some ways I would rather have Ron go with me than going by myself, but then I would be uncomfortable being there with him with all of the tight clothing, or lack of clothing, and all of "the girls" that are advertised there. Not that he would be looking or anything :) but you just can't avoid it. It's all right there in your face. Just in the few blocks that I walked on the strip to get from one hotel to the other, you can see almost anything, people digging through trash cans for food, people selling all sorts of items, many enticements to gamble, and a huge array of people. I would not feel comfortable at all taking children or teenagers there. Granted there are some spectacular sights and shows but they are all mixed in amidst the other unwelcome influences. Anyway...enough of that soap box...the market was interesting. I made a couple of new and probably important contacts there for my store.

These next two pictures were inside the Venetian Hotel. Even though they both look like they could be outside. The entire upper floor looks like a city, complete with buildings and blue sky, but yet inside the hotel. I loved the bright colored hanging umbrellas!

Oh... What to Blog About?

There are no cute Easter pictures here... no Easter baskets...no colored eggs...we even missed the ward Easter egg hunt. I guess that's what happens with no kids around :) I did box up a few Easter gifts and sent them off to Oklahoma, Utah, California, and Wylie. I made cute little Easter bags for my nursery kids. I didn't want to just load them up with more candy, so they each got a plastic egg filled with stickers and a plastic egg with a vanilla "Cakester" inside. (those are actually a pretty good treat- soft and sweet- not chocolate- although you can buy chocolate ones too). Then they each got a cute little stand up Easter card, in the shape of a duck. ( I guess I could have taken pictures of those) While I was trying to teach the lesson in my class yesterday it was raining like crazy outside- so all of my nursery kids were standing by the window watching it rain rather than listening to me. (of course a 2 year old only listens to me for about 2 minutes anyway) I didn't get to the grocery store until about 10 pm on Saturday night, so most of the items I wanted for Sunday dinner were gone- like ham- so we had chicken. There was 1 coconut cake left though :) I guess Annie was out shopping Saturday night about that same time. But of course she was trying to get groceries and Easter bunny stuff. The Easter bunny did leave one gift here at our house. Ron didn't notice it until very very early this morning. He is still trying to figure out how and when that happened :)

ReGifting

As expected, Sam and Audrey got a few multiple wedding gifts that either need to be exchanged or "regifted". Here is a new twist on regifting-

When we went to St. George on Valentines weekend, I gave each of the girls a small scrapbook, for a Valentines gift. Each book was complete with cute paper and ribbon and banners. "Just add pictures" to make a cute scrapbook. (and of course I made one for myself :)

Last weekend, Audrey saw mine, and sent hers home with me for me to "add pictures". I finished hers and sent it back to her for an Easter gift.

Alison and/or Ashley, if you want to send your book back- I will do yours and send it back for a Mothers Day gift or Graduation gift :)

Home Sweet Home- Dallas, TX

For those of you who think we missed conference this past weekend, you are partly right. Normally on conference weekend I would miss the Saturday sessions because I would be at work all day. This past Saturday we watched those sessions with Sam and Audrey. Which was like having front row seats watching it on Sams "big screen"! We did have to tape the Sunday sessions though, because we were driving back to Houston then. We will watch those later this week.

Weekend in Dallas

It's a beautiful sunny day in Texas- great day to hop in the car and drive to Dallas. Aud and Sam say that they have deluxe accommodations for 3 for the weekend. I'll try to get all of the honeymoon details to pass along :) Yeah right?! Mom, Audrey, and I will have a girls night out tomorrow evening- Sam gets to hang around with Ron :) We will be driving back to Houston on Sunday afternoon.

A Yellow Giraffe...

and a blue horse- headed to Stillwater in an Easter package next week. Annie, do with them what ever you wish :)