Happy Halloween!

Hope you have a very 
Safe
Happy 
Halloween!

I have two different e-cards that were sent my way that I want to pass on, but there was no way to embed them in this email message so please click on the links and go watch both.  They are absolutely adorable!!! (click on the “link” below each photo :))
Nicole

Straight out of the Camera

One of my goals in the 101 in 1001 is to learn Photoshop.  I haven’t mastered it yet.  I need to find time to sit down and work with it!  That wasn’t the case this weekend.  This was the same day as PC and my dad cleaning out my dad’s fence row to fix the fence so the cows couldn’t get over on my grandpas.  I was in photo taking mode!  I photographed everything I could. 

Here Audrey is watching PC & Tbug unload a log.

I can’t figure out for the life of me what is between Mudflap and me…

Nope can’t tell from this angle either….

Morelli decided it was too hot in the sun with his black coat so he came over to the shade of the truck.  It was about 80 degrees that day.  This morning we had frost and frozen dog water 🙁  That’s the difference of 2 weeks.

And my Relli dog HATES having his photo taken
I’m not sure why he hates it so much but he has since he was a pup.

trying for a different perspective.  Wasn’t completely happy with this photo…

haha… that’s my little man!

Then as I was walking back to the house Munchkin wanted his photo taken… LOL

And Sis couldn’t be left out.  I had my zoom lens on so it was difficult not to cut parts of her out!

Then I was standing on my parents back deck and spotted Joe so I had to get his photo too!

Peace, Love and my critters!
Nicole

One Sunday Afternoon

2 weeks ago we had quite the Sunday afternoon.  My dad was pulling tree/logs out of the woods so he could build fence between us and my grandpa.  Our cows needed more pasture and we wanted to keep them on our place so we went to work cleaning out the fence row.  And I use We very loosely here.

Looks like we had a bored little girl on our hands here 🙂

I spent the afternoon keeping Audrey out of the way of the tractor.

There is something about this photo I like…

Audrey didn’t want to stay in the bed of the truck.

Eventually I had PC stop and let Tbug on with him.

Woops I’ve been spotted.  Oh wait I have my telephoto lens on, how did he know I was shooting their picture?  I was in the shadow of the truck!

Ahhh!  That’s better 🙂

Now I have a different bored little girl on my hands.

This is almost blown out 🙁 but you can see the logs they were dragging out of the fence row.

This is Red Dog (go figure ha).  She was sitting in the shade of the truck with me.

And back they go.

Morelli & Mudflap.

She doesn’t look bored now…  She’s probably yacking his ear off.

I had my 70-300mm lens on but you can still tell how far away into the woods they were from where I was.  I had it all the way extended.

The boys (and Millie) watched from the shade of the truck.  It was a rather warm Sunday.

And here they come. haha

They were having to duck around other tree limbs

There’s my dad… he didn’t know I was taking photos I don’t think. hahaha

Yeah this was photo heavy!  Sorry.  I was having fun playing with my new lens.  And it’s not that new but still 2 months is new to me 🙂  It was a wedding present.

Peace, Love & “Lazy” Sunday afternoons

Nicole

Life

I had a completely different post that I was working on today and just a few minutes ago I found out that a man that I worked with died last night from a massive heart attack.  When I came to work for the company 4 years ago I met this man.  He worked in our IT department.  Now when you say that at my company, that’s over half the building, but still… This was the sweetest man you would have ever met.  He always spoke to me in the halls, even after I left the AP department (where I actually worked with him) to come to my current department.  He would walk past me heading to Accounting.  And always asked how my cakes were doing and if I’d taken any more classes.  In fact I used to take him a small piece from when I did take classes.  And his granddaughters, they were the cutest thing!  He and his wife would have his son(in law) and daughter(in law) bring their kids out at Halloween time to trick-or-treat.

Ok and this is a very discombobulated post I realize, but I think I’m still in shock.  I just recently talked to him.  It just makes you realize how short life really is and that it could end in a minute.  And unfortunately the world doesn’t stop just because one person died.  I mean I guess I can’t recall another time in the building in the 4 years I’ve worked here where someone has passed away, truthfully I’m not sure anyone has and if they have I guess I didn’t know them but wow, just wow. 

I’m so sorry this is so dysfunctional.  I’m just in shock.  I guess my message from all this, tell those you love how much you love them because you never know when it’ll be the last chance you get to tell them.

Nicole

Maple Leaf Parade – Part 2 – All the rest

Ok here were some of my other favorite photos/floats in the parade.  There were close to 200 entries (give or take) and so I obviously can’t show them all to you.  If you missed the first edition, I devoted it just to our Hometown Hero’s!  One of my other 101 things is to get PC’s uniform quilt done.  My goal is to have it done by next years Maple Leaf Parade so when he rides on another Hometown Hero’s float he’ll have it to snuggle up with 🙂

Here is Miss Tbug and Miss Audrey waiting patiently.

and the spoiled rotten Dill Pickle.  He wasn’t camera shy at all!

and Tbug entertained us doing flips and cartwheels, etc.  She should have been with her cheerleading squad but told her mom she didn’t want to be in the parade, she wanted to watch with us.

They knew how to do it in style.  Wonder if that’s their living room furniture??

This dog cracked me up.  He was extremely gentle but I swear if he hadn’t been he could have taken that ladies head off in one bite!

Our town is known for the beautifully colored Maple Leaves.  They were just starting to turn.  (the parade was October 16th)

Seriously how cool would it be to own this truck!

This speaks for itself!

Can you imagine this was for the eye doctors??

This is where Tbug does her Cheerleading.  They also have Gymnastics.  This was a trampoline being pulled by a truck through the parade.  That’s not the only picture of the kids flipping I got.

One of the salons in town.

When the politicians came through, they branded the dog 🙂

This so reminded me of something the Addams Family would have driven.

Remember seeing this at our 4th of July party?  That is PC’s cousin driving.

I was laughing so hard here.  They got up to 3 people tagging along.

Yeah this says it all!  It’s actually a pulling tractor.

And the rock climbers. Eventually one of them accidentally popped their front tire and had to limp the rest of the way through the parade.

an old fashioned hay baler.

I just thought that was too perfect!

look at the size of that saddle horn!!!

Peace, Love & Parades!

Nicole

Maple Leaf Parade – Hometown Hero's!

One of the things I have on my 101 in 1001 was to attend the Maple Leaf Parade.  Now that isn’t something new and it really isn’t something I couldn’t accomplish especially because when I did the 101 list, the Maple Leaf parade was only a few weeks away, but it’s something that is so cool to go and watch you can’t help yourself.  And this year PC was in the Parade on our companies Hometown Hero’s Float because he is a veteran.  I got a TON of pictures but have narrowed it down to a few to share, but I’m breaking them up into 2 posts.  This post is just to the Hometown hero’s floats.  It’s because of our veterans that we are where we are today.  That we can believe what we want to believe.  That we can act the way we want to act.  That we can do anything we want to do!  Never forget!

Peace, Love & Hometown Hero’s

Nicole

Chicken Sketti

So last night I went through the Pioneer Woman’s cookbook and made another tasty dish.  This time we had Chicken Spaghetti.  I actually made this as my first recipe when I got her cookbook so I wouldn’t have had to make it again for my 101 in 1001 but I figured I would anyway.  It’s good and we needed dinner… plus I made it in the time frame of my 101 🙂  I would highly recommend that if you haven’t tried this you run right out to the store, buy the ingredients, and indulge yourself!

Start with chicken.  She says a whole fryer chicken, I just use Chicken breasts cut up into bite sized pieces.

Drop them into some EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil for those of you who don’t know who Rachael Ray is) and cook your chicken.

season it up with some S&P (Salt and pepper)

Then start your water to boiling.  Once it is at a boil, put some salt in (only time to salt your pasta) and then throw your spaghetti in to cook.  Cook al dente (or just shy of being done b/c it’ll cook in the oven as well).

She didn’t say to saute up your pepper/onions but I thought it might take some of the crunchy bite away and make them oh so flavorful.

Then put your pasta, your Cream of Mushroom Soup and your cheese in a bowl.

To that add the peppers, onions and pimento.

Then add your seasonings

finally add the chicken

And go to town mixing.  (see I own things other than green and yellow, my spatula is orange 😉 haha)

Then plop it into a dish, top with the remaining cheese and bake it.

I’m getting closer to making it through her book but still have quite a ways to go.  It’s all good.

And I swear, I have other things I’ve done for my 101 in 1001 but I have so much I want to blog about that there are times I’d swear I have to write 12 posts a day (ok that’s a bit of an exaggeration) to be able to get them all blogged about before Christmas. hahaha!  Happy Tuesday and seriously, this is delish!

Peace, Love and Good Food!!!

Nicole

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!

I know, not a creative title!  I couldn’t help it!

So for my first give away, I think I had fairly good turn out!  Thank you to all that participated and I just want to know, I wish I could give every one of you a present.  I went and tried out the random.org site.  It is the coolest when coming to this, otherwise I’d have thrown all your names in a hat, but it saved me!

(more…)

Gracie Allen Cooking Lessons

Ever heard of Gracie Allen?

Yeah me either!

But I like her cooking lessons!

Cooking the Perfect Roast

1 large roast of beef
1 small roast of beef

Take the two roasts.  Put them in the oven at the same time.
When the little one burns, the big one is done 🙂

Hey makes sense to me 🙂  Don’t forget you have until 11:59pm tonight to register for the Gift 🙂

Peace, Love & Perfect Cooking Lessons!

Nicole