Thursday, August 31, 2006


MONARCH ELEMENT


There is a saying I've heard. "Don't tell anyone your troubles, half of 'em won't care, and the other half will be glad you have 'em!" Now I honestly don't believe this, but if this were the case someone would be very happy right now, because I discovered last night, that I've lost a BIG chunk of my vacation pictures. I had several friends trying to help me recover them but its not going to happen. Good reminder: BACK YOUR FILES UP TO CD OR DVD!





On the more cheerful side, my sweet Miles brought me a beautiful bouquet yesterday, and NO, he did not buy them to comfort me for the loss of the pictures, he brought them home after work, to say he missed me!

And another AWESOME thing...(TOOT TOOT! - thats my own horn...) I discovered yesterday that my scrapbooking tutorial is now online at Christian Women Online. I am tickled pink. You can view the tutorial HERE. Thank you Darlene, so much for this!

I recieved an email from my friend Erika and I thought it was so clever and funny that I will share it with you. Now I want you to know beforehand I believe in our soldiers fighting for us and I don't think there is anything funny at all about the tragedy of war. However, I think this is a humourous take on things, Miles being a teacher and all:

TEACHER ARRESTED IN TERROR ALERT

NEW YORK - A public school teacher was arrested today at John F. Kennedy Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a square set, a slide rule and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-gebra movement.

He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction. "Al- gebra is a problem for us," Gonzales said "They desire solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in search of absolute values. They use secret code names like 'x' and 'y' and refer to themselves as the 'unknown', but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medievil with coordinates in every country. As the Greek Philanderer Isosceles used to say 'There are three sides to every triangle'"

When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said: "If God had wanted us to have weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes.


BARB'S HANDY TIP # 66

Eat Your Mush
(and make your kids too)

See, my friend Gina knows what's what. For about a year now we've been b'fasting together and we are as consitent as... porridge! Well, it turns out there is some science behind this that backs up that we will continue a HEALTHY friendship if we continue. You Mom's and Dads - read the following article (click on the title) and see why its SO IMPORTANT to feed your kids a good breakfast, specially if you want them to have the good grades. Hey, you can give them cash incentives with the money you save on not buying the sugary, expensive cereals!


Wednesday, August 30, 2006




BLUE FLOWER NO. 2 ELEMENT



September, Fall is creeping nearer. There's a bit of 'bite' in the morning air that wasn't there before. The hotels are showing more Vacant signs instead of a big NO on their signs. Traffic has thinned out to a moderate flow and its rare to see someone actually IN the water at our lake. A friend and I were talking about my elements and she encouraged me to move into an Autumn Theme, so you can join me as I create a series of Autumn Looking Elements. I would love suggestions! My email is lalalime@hotmail.com and can you please put AUTUMN in the subject line.




I challenged my friend Sonya to a pizza bake off yesterday - and by the way, Sonya, who many of you know from Scrapbook-bytes.com, is launching, in the very near future, a blog about her twin boys. These lil guys will amaze and amuse you and her blog will be sure to inspire and help moms of twins. It's merely in it's opening stages but you can view her start HERE. I'm giving the link to you early so you can bookmark it and come back often!











MOM'S BIRTHDAY LAYOUT
created using Sonya Johnston's LUXURIOUS Kit
Paper Rose Elements - mine!




So, bout the bake off. I made a new dough recipe - yep, just calculated it up in my brain. It turned out very well, so I'll share it with you! This recipe will make a LARGE pizza or a cookie sheet, basically.













BARB'S OLIVE JUICE PIZZA DOUGH
3 cups flour
2 tbsp yeast
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1-1 1/3 cups OLIVE JUICE
2 tbsp olive oil
spices




I cheated and used the mixmaster my Mother In Law snagged for me at a yardsale, but this is just as well mixed by hand. (Probably better as your hand flavor is then in it! lol - everyone will ask you what the 'secret' ingredient is) In a bowl, pour the water, add the brown sugar and the yeast. Mix with a spoon till blended. Let sit for five minutes. Add the OLIVE JUICE, olive oil and spices. Start mixing steadily, adding in the flour until you have achieved a nice dough, you know, till its warm and soft as a baby's bum and is not sticky. Let raise for 1 hour.





HINT: I coat my pizza pan with oil, and sprinkle with cornmeal or finely ground cornflakes to make a crispy crust. Optimal temperature for pizza 425 degrees for 15 to 20 mins. (PS - I do not put extra salt in the pizza dough... the OLIVE JUICE makes it just salty enough!)










I would like to briefly share a thought and scripture with you which addresses something that has been troubling me. It seems that 'anything goes' almost these days, laws get approved that are detrimental to people and sometimes I struggle in my faith when I wonder why. When laws get passed we sometimes hear people crowing "well, its legal!" and it's hard to argue with that. However, this is what I found that brings me comfort:

Making Sin Legal Does Not Make it Harmless

"All things are lawful,
but not all things edify,
Let no one seek his own good,
but that of his neighbor.

1 Corinthians 10:23,24


This scripture encourages me to not be discouraged... to never give up, and to be the one who stands in in those areas which I can see are harmful to those in my life. Do you have thoughts about this you will share? I would love to hear from you.

I came across the following website recently and I would like to share it with you. Its a video of a talented young guitar player who playes Pachebel's Canon...but not in any traditional way you and I may have heard before. Though it builds into a 'rocky' style, you have GOT to admire the talent of this fella. I heard it on NPR (radio) and they said that his identity is revealed and he is a 23 year old from Seoul. You can view the video HERE.

BARB'S HANDY TIP # 65

Filthy Fan?

If you want to vacuum your ceiling fan, but your vacuum hose won't extend quite that far, tape the inner cardboard tube from inside your christmas wrap, onto the end of it!

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE





PAPER ROSES No. 2 ELEMENT
I apologise for not posting a second part to the blog yesterday - Blogger and I fought all day long and Blogger won. Its just like that some days. I really wanted to post and share the pictures I took on Sunday night at a restaurant Miles took me too.

APPETIZER AT RANCHO CHICOS

The waiters bring you this appetizer before you even choose off the menu. The salad on the front plate has a delicious dressing on it...and we assume its to put on the chips as well, but we're too shy to ask. If you manage to make it through this bowl of chips, they will whisk the basket away and refill it.

For my main course I chose the Fajitas. I've always had different things in the past but found myself longing after the Fajitas as they've gone sizzling by our table to another customer. You can hear them and smell them before you ever see them and they are awesome! Miles likes to have Tamales as there are few places that actually make them.

The decor is beautiful, with hand painted murals on every wall and carved wooden booths and chairs. The waiters are gracious and polite and treat you like royalty. They always remember us, even if we only come in twice a year. This is Rancho Chicos in Omak, Washington.

Miles is back at school. Students won't arrive until next week so this week is all preperation. There is an incredible amount of work involved in making sure the courses are ready to deliver and all the equiptment is ready to go. As Miles writes most of the computer courses to stay current, he has to be especially up on things. With this in mind, would you please pray for our teachers as they get ready to accept students?

GOD MADE TEACHERS

author unknown

God understood our thirst for knowledge,

and our need to be led by someone wiser;

He needed a heart of compassion, of encouragement, and patience;

Someone who would accept the challenge regardless of the opposition;

Someone who could see potential and believe in the best in others . . .

So He made Teachers

Its still smokey outside. It was, in fact, so smokey the other day that I jokingly said to Miles the other day that I'm sure if you wanted to 'smoke' a fish you could just hang it outside on the clothesline. I know, bad pun. This in mind though, it occured to me that while the rest of us are going about our daily business, enjoying the great weather and air conditioned homes... someone is out there fighting the fire that is creating all this smoke. Lets also pray for them, for their safety. I have true respect for each and every one of these firefighters who put their LIVES on the line for our safety.

BARB'S HANDY TIP # 64

Get Cooking!

If your like me, and have only two channels - ok... in this day and age thats rare, but if you even have channels but dont' have the cooking channel, you might like this link. This link could also be very valuable if you have a laptop and want to have a recipe that you can 'step thru' - I know, like you watch an excersize video and follow along...

This link is for Martha Stewart's Video Recipes... and there are some really new and interesting recipes I am dying to try. Let me know what you think!

Martha Stewart's Recipe Videos

Monday, August 28, 2006

PART ONE OR TWO OF TODAYS TWO PART BLOG ENTRY

I am having a REAL PROBLEM trying to upload pics to Blogger today...so I will do my entries in two batches instead. 2 pics here, 3 on the other.

BEFORE YOU DOWNLOAD MY ELEMENT READ THIS:

I would like to give you some instructions. I am still hosting my elements with yousendit. I've really enjoyed the site because, unlike many other upload sites it did not have a LOT of ads and popups. Unfortunately I notice they are now doing it. I know some argue that they HAVE to have the ads, but hey, I'm giving free elements everyday without relying on ads, right? I promise to never have ads on my blog.

SO, when you arrive at the yousendit download page, chances are you will likely be presented with a BIG popup advertisement (I'm looking at one for holdem poker) and it will APPEAR as if you can't go on until you click on it. DON'T CLICK ON IT. Look beyond it, down until you see the sentence that says: 'your file is available for download' and then click on the BLUE BOX that says download.

This said, I am now on a mission to find a new place to share my elements. I know a lot of you download goodies from other sites... do you have any sites that are good and don't have a lot of ads? I would love it if you can steer me in the right direction. Email me at lalalime@hotmail.com


PAPER ROSES ELEMENT

download

I hope you like this element. Its something I am experimenting with. It is supposed to be like it was torn out of a magazine, so you can use it like a collage effect or 'staple' it onto your layouts etc.

MEETING GINA LAYOUT

kit by: Arli L "Long Days of Summer"

I finally got my buttocks in gear and scrapped the picture of my friend Gina (her link is in my links list) who I got to meet and spend time with this summer. Loveya Chica!

Sunday, August 27, 2006

ITS SMOKIN' OUT THERE!

Fish Basket Element


Today's element is dedicated to the most fishinest persons I know, my brother Barry and SIL Judy and my brother Dave and his lovely bride Neti. Hope to see some layouts using this basket, Jud!
Pssst... don't tell anyone but we are skippin' church today. Miles goes back to school tomorrow and I selfishly want to have him all to myself today. The first week back is devoted to 'teacher training' and then the students return the following Tuesday.

The hazy shores of Lake Osoyoos this morning

We got up early this morning and went for a walk out to Hayne's Point Provincial Park. Everything seems a bit shabby outside, the edges of summer are wearing. The smoke hangs in a thick pall over the water obscuring the horizon. A Bell blimp is just barely visible over the north part of town as it tracks the racers for the Ironman triathalon which takes place each year. It will be hard on the athletes to have to breathe all the smoke in the air. There are two locals in the triathalon and we hope they do well.

We are taking a break this afternoon and will drive south across the border and have dinner. In the meantime I will do a quick straightening up of our house. Have a safe and happy Sunday!

Barb's Handy Tip # 63

WD to the Rescue!

I watched A LOT of shows with my mother in law recently and I particularly enjoyed one. It is called How Clean is Your House. In the particular episode I saw there was a window which had 10 year old paint on it. The women sprayed WD40 on the paint and let it sit for a few moments. This allowed the paint to soften and they scraped it off easily!

I would highly recommend a visit to their website HERE as there is a wealth of handy hints listed on their site too!

Saturday, August 26, 2006

ITS GOOD TO BE HOME

I've been fighting. Fighting with Wordpress, fighting with Blogger. I've written the post over at least five times and failed each time. I'm learning a big lesson in patience and determination and I refuse to let it best me!





Purple Gem Element

Thanks for your patience as well, while I get settled in. I plan to STAY here at Blogger and hopefully I can tame it along the way. As a welcome back gift, I've created an element for you. Unfortunately each time I tried to post the link at yousendit the link they gave me conflicts with Blogger, so please just email me at lalalime@hotmail.com and put Purple Gem Element in the subject line and I will email it straight to you. Also, someone recently asked me for the sheep and I will get that out to you soon as well... If I don't, please remind me?



Our van - packed for the trip home!

I am settling in. Yesterday was devoted to unpacking all our goodies. Besides all the essentials we took with us for vacation there were many treasures I picked up at yard sales and our Mom sent us home with a bundle too. I have not unpacked our clothing yet - I want to make sure some of that makes its way to our local thrift. I was getting pretty tired of wearing the same clothes for two months!



I also did a clean sweep of our patio and little garden space. I have created a little romantic space for us to pass away the evenings. I decorated with some candle holders that our sister Michelle gave us.




Pretty candle holders from Michelle - thanks Sis!


I look forward to posting and sharing with y'all over the coming months. Missed You!


Barb's Handy Tip# 62
spice it up!
I love experimenting with new flavors and here's a great opportunity to do just that, for free. I found the website address in The Vancouver Province newspaper. This company makes Oriental Seasonings and they are giving away a package to each household, US and Canada.
Enjoy!

Sunday, August 13, 2006

MOVING TO A NEW HOME!




Don't panic! I'm only moving to a new blogsite. I was experiencing problems with my blogger - could be just the template... though I was sure it was due to using Qumana again. I'm on VACATION so thats why I've been out of touch... lol... we are now back in BC, returning early. We are back in Abbotsford for a bit and will be for a week or so. I've had an accident prone summer - we are both healthy and happy. I'm rambling now... so I will just 'get on with it'. As my friend Gina said upon my asking her if she noticed I'm accident prone: Says She " What? You drop your camera down a cliff; you smash your bikes and doing that cause Miles to land in the ditch and you kill your computer... I think I see a pattern here..."

You all rest assured we are OK and all is well...but I want to organize my thoughts and pictures before I post on my new blog. Love and God Bless. Barb

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