"Family Bonding"

My family right now , as I type these very words are traveling cross country from PA to AZ with a few planned stops in between. The planned stops never seem to be the problem it is the unplanned ones that are never welcome and almost always a hassel. The Byerly's started the big trip yesterday. Big trips are a part of life for them. They are always moving and always traveling wherever the construction business takes them, so no big deal right? WRONG! Road trips seem to be a tad more difficult when you are driving your 40 ft. house down the highway. My mother in law jokes about how their life is basically a version of the Robin Williams movie RV. As far as I know they have not encountered racoons in the rv or had any sewage problems and my Father in law better not be hanging from the wipers on the windshield while driving down the road. My Father in law, God bless his soul did not make it out of the departing driveway without the rv generator cutting out, this delayed them before they even started the trip. My family also has some sort of Ohio curse on them, every time they travel through Ohio they breakdown, hence the blowout that occured today and tore through the RV floor. Ohio, what did the Byerly's ever do to you? Please let us know and we will apologize, because the only offense we can think of is that we may have let our dogs out one to many times to fertilize your Ohio soil, and if that is the case we are very very sorry please drop the curse! If you are reading this please please just say a prayer for the Byerly's they need God's hand on them and the RV. I love road trips so to feel at one with my family and their newest venture I think I will watch the movie RV.

Who are you talking to?

Security blankets, cherished stuffed toys, and imaginary friends. We all have had one of these at some point. My sister had an imaginary friend , I had a stuffed monkey named BO-BO who still sits on my bed today, and my husband had a piece of poly- filling that he would rub on his face and call fluffy. Calvin and Hobbes one of my favorite cartoon strips is based upon the very fabric of a child's relationship with an imaginary being, and a child's need to make magic out of ordinary life. In this cartoon Calvin sees Hobbes as a live walking and talking tiger ,and he enjoys misadventures and deep friendship with Hobbes, while others see Hobbes as a stuffed tiger toy. I enjoy this cartoon because it reminds me of how simple life was when I was a kid. Life really is simple, what complicates it is us and our need to control everything. For a moment in every day take the time to thank God for the simplicity in your life we really do have so much to be thankful for. As a little girl my dad could do no wrong, everything he did from cleaning buildings to landscaping dazzled me. I want to be child minded again, and be fascinated with what my Heavenly Father does for me and gives to me.

Whattttt!!!!

First there were Crocs and now we have Vibram five finger shoes. This glove like shoe was designed to make you feel as if you were barefoot and free. The basic use of this shoe is just to protect your skin because there is no padding whatsoever. I can assure you, (if you did not already come to this conclusion on your own) that if you wear these shoes you will look like an oddball. They have an amazing resemblance to the rubber Hobbit feet showcased in the Lord of The Rings and I for one get enough jokes from my husband about being too short and therefore do not need to add Hobbit toes to the package. I will not be wearing theses shoes any time soon for many reasons but if you want to dish out $80.00 to buy shoes that make you feel like your not wearing shoes I suggest you walk around barefoot instead because it will draw less attention to you and less laughter and rolling on the ground from your family and friends. Long live the sneaker!!!

The Soap Opera

As a child I remember a particular incident involving soap. Not just any soap but "fancy" soap. My grandmother was very insistent on bath time in the morning and at night. And as a child I could not understand the need to wash before bed and then after bed since all you did was sleep. I remember thinking "How dirty can you get while your asleep, why should I have to take a stupid bath again!". But grandma would hear none of it and of course my sister and I received the illustrious LICE LECTURE!!. After the lengthy teaching on lice I remember wishing to have never questioned bath time and succumbed to the soap. During this morning bath time I came upon a discovery, a dish filled with small, fragrant pink and blue soaps shaped like starfish,seahorses and seashells. At this time I thought to myself "Hey this might just make my bath time worthwhile". So as any little girl would do I selected a pink soap. I smelled it I traced the carefully molded lines on it and then I did the unthinkable (according to my grandmother) and I washed with it. Then Grammy walks in and screams "What are you doing!!". To that I answered taking a bath so I don't get lice (I was smarty tarty little thing and still am). Then grandma proceeded to tell me that the little soaps are for looks for fancy and that I have ruined one. I will never forget that dramatic moment or the Soap Opera as I like to call it. Every time I look at a bar of nice soap I think of grandma. I shared this story because I recently saw a luxurious chocolate orange soap online at etsy.com and I thought " Wow that looks good enough to eat", then snickered at the thought of grandma catching me eating soap. This is dedicated To : bath beads, bubble bath, tiny,fancy soaps, and deliciously fragrant soaps, may they be washed with for what else are they for?

We missed it!!! Did you know that the legal separation from the American Colonies occurred July 2ND 1776. John Adams wrote this in a letter to his wife, "The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.". Maybe we are late to celebrate or John Adams was early I'm not quite sure but I am sure that I will be one of the few that will be celebrating in devotion to God Almighty. Sadly so many do not realize that we have our freedom because God is allowing us that gift. We need to be thankful to our Lord for all we have on this momentous day. Tomorrow my family and those I love will spend our time at church hearing God's word and singing praises to Him and of course eating!! I could not think of a better way to enjoy the freedoms my Savior has granted me. Here is a picture of the cake my talented brother and sister , Mike and Rose created. They were sure to make it correct including perfectly numbered stripes and stars!! I Love it and can't wait to eat it!!

Ramen and Chocolate and Chips Oh My!!!

Months and months ago I tried to feed my husband Ramen noodle. I figured who hasn't tried ramen noodle or cup a soup. Ramnen really isn't unlikeable it is after all just noodles and broth albeit they are endlessly long, slurpy,and extremely difficult to get in your mouth, they are still tasty. It turns out that my husband is not a big fan of Ramen noodles he actually has a long list of things he is not a big fan of. Jeff my husband sat at the table looked at the noodles and said "Sunday Soup" I had never heard Ramen called that so I stared at him quizzicaly and said "What?". He then proceeded to tell me that as a child they used to eat Ramen on sundays and then they used to eat it on mondays and tuesdays and wednesdays and on and on, you get the point. My husband had a Ramen Noodle overload as a child and now it has lost it's yum for him. Jeff on the other hand has quite a devotion to dark chocolate. I search out various dark chocolate bars to feed his love of the bitter-sweet confection. I found pear and almond dark chocolate, raspberry dark chocolate, apricot dark chocolate, caramel (another of his favorites) and dark chocolate I even found chile and dark chocolate, but he would surely give me a scrunched face if I presented that to him. I did receive a disgusted reaction when I revealed to him a Ramen Noodle dark chocolate bar. This Ramen bar is made by Komforte Chockolates and it is composed of 53% dark chocolate and crunchy Ramen noodles mixed in. They also produce a French Toast milk chocolate bar and define it as (crunchy savory french toast mixed into rich milk chocolate) and a Tortilla Lime and Salt milk chocolate bar (crispy corn tortilla, lime and salt mixed into rich milk chocolate). I think a few Komforte Chockolates will be on my christmas gift list just because they are unique. But for my husband he will enjoy a plain dark chocolate Hersheys bar with no ramen, corn chips , salt , chile or toast in it........ Yes my Jeff will have the bland stocking while all other family members will be crunching through Ramen.

Tomatoes in Ketchup no way!!!

I remember the days when my youngest sister Rose could not sit at the table without a full bottle of ketchup accompanying her. Rose would assemble her sandwiches with just two ingredients: ham and a drenching of ketchup. My sister's tastes have changed since then. Just as ketchup has changed and morphed tremendously. Ketchup is just tomatoes right? WRONG!! We now have such an array of ketchup choices it has become practically a science. There is Heinz Hot and Spicy ketchup - made with Tabasco for those who desire a little kick. Banana Ketchup - a Filipino condiment made from mashed banana, sugar, vinegar and some tomatoes. Heinz green, purple and blue ketchup , since Heinz owns over 30% of the ketchup industry they decided to beguile American kids with chromism. And during my search for all things odd to blog about I found a cleverly named ketchup called Real Tomato Ketchup. Real Tomato Ketchup is a very simplified version of the type of ketchup we all have in our fridges and believe it or not it basically consists of tomato paste made from real tomatoes.....not fake tomatoes mind you but real ones! Ketchup has many names as well, it has been called: catsup, tomato ketchup, red sauce , Tommy sauce , Tommy K; or my personal favorite Dead Horse, as it is called in Australia. Yes ketchup has become quite a chemistry. And chemistry does not scare me especially when we are combining two great elements FRIES! and KETCHUP......... A worthy experiment indeed.