Meme Monday

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Happy Meme Monday all. I hope you had a good week. I do believe spring has finally arrived, and not a day too soon!

175certificate.gifI received this wonderful certificate from Hootin Anni for doing her 175 word challenge last week. If you haven’t already tried this one, you should. It really is a challenge!

And what would my Meme Monday be without yet another bloggy thing! I just can’t seem to get enough of these things. I actually saw this one when I was out visiting this past week at Quilts n More, who visited me awhile back.

fun quiz for myspace profile and blog

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Kitchen MeMe

I saw the Kitchen Meme at Pam’s at Random Thoughts last week and thought I would play along.

What three kitchen items do you use the most often?
refrigerator, gas cook stove, and sink

What kitchen gadget do you wish you had? A Cook!

What kitchen gadget do you never use/wish you hadn’t spent the money for? Breadmaker - I have only used it twice.

What is your favorite cookbook? I have a very old Betty Crocker cookbook that my grandmother had. The pages are falling out and somewhat yellowed, but I love having her cookbook.

Who is your cooking inspiration?
Mo at greatfullivin - she is by far the best cook I have ever known.

What are the three most important items on your spice rack?
Pepper, Cinnamon, Vanilla

What are three recipes that you use all the time?

1. Skillet Hamburger Caserole: very easy to make - brown 1 pound ground chuck in skillet (salt and pepper to taste), slice up 5-6 potatoes, add the potatoes to the browned hamburger with a large can of Campbell’s mushroom soup, stir all together with a little milk and cook until potatoes are tender.

2. Bag Apple Pie: this is such a yummy apple pie and very impressive to serve - many ooohhs and aaahhhs - I featured it as my first pie recipe on Slice of Life Sunday

3. Easy Sunday Morning Breakfast: in a large skillet, brown one pound of ground sausage (salt and pepper to taste), add four potatoes (diced), one small onion (diced), about 1/4 of a green pepper( diced). Once potatoes are tender, scramble up 4 eggs in a bowl with a little milk and pour over the cooked mixture, stir until eggs are fully cooked and serve with biscuits

Can you share a cooking secret?
To make the best mashed potatoes, put peeled and quartered potatoes in cold water and cook until tender. Drain potatoes and put in bowl to mix immediately (do not let the potatoes get cool or they will be lumpy). Add milk first and mash with an electric mixer. By adding the milk before the butter, the milk actually mixes into the potato better and makes a creamy mashed potato instead of lumpy. If you add the butter first, then the butter coats the potatoes and the milk can not penetrate into the potato and you have lumpy mashed potatoes.

Cleaning?? When washing windows, wash the inside of the window up and down, but wash the outside of the window from side to side. This prevents streaking.

What is your favorite thing to clean?
Windows

What is your least favorite thing to clean?
Washing ceilings and walls.

What is your most embarrassing housekeeping moment?
When it started getting cold last fall, the mice started to come into the house. I set mouse traps and put out the little weggie boxes with mice killer in it (which by the way worked very well). My neice and her two boys (5 and 3) stopped by for a visit and I was fixing dinner. I asked the 5 year old to get me some potatoes from the potato bin in the cupboard, forgetting I had set a mouse trap just below the bin. When he opened the cupboard door, he started screaming and crying because there was a dead mouse in the trap. I felt so horrible, first because it scared him so badly and second because my neice now knew we had mice, at least a dead one!

Who do you tag to do this next?
I tag anyone who loves to be in their kitchen and wants to play along!

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I hope you will visit Slice of Life Sunday and write a story about a slice of your life!

MeMe Monday

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I thought I would begin Meme Monday by doing Hootin Anni’s 175 Word Challenge. This was fun making sure it was exactly 175 words:

I was in my mid-20’s before I realized not everyone had two names. My entire family - aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings – all had nicknames for our daily name. Our legal names were just that, names used for legal purposes such as grade cards, mortgages, passports, and paychecks. Cricket has been my family nickname since I was 3 days old. I was a very small baby. . . just over 5 pounds, the smallest baby to be born in my family in many years. As the story goes, my Uncle Ralph (aka Raymond Amos ) came to visit on my first day home from the hospital. As he looked into my crib, he made a big issue out of not being able to find me. Of course I was there and I was making cooing noises. So Uncle Ralph said, “I don’t see a baby in here! There’s just this little cricket, can’t you hear her chirping?” Just like that, Evelyn Jean became Cricket. Yes, 56 years later my father still calls me Cricket!

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I found these fun bloggies at Small Reflections last Monday. I do not know why, but really enjoy taking these little insight quizzes. I guess I am trying to discover the true me!


Your Heart is Red and Purple


Your heart is strong and powerful.You are dominant, competent, and brave.You bring order and support to relationships.You’re good at being the one in control.

It is surprising to see how close these things come to how I perceive myself. I think I can be too dominant in relationships, which may explain two divorces - of course there were other reasons! 

You Are Fruit Flavored Gum


You are quirky and independent. You don’t tend to follow any one style or rule book.You are a mix and match type of person, and you draw inspiration from many sources.While you’re definitely a bit unusual, you get along well with other people.You’re eager to welcome anyone into your world. You are not judgmental at all.
You form close bonds with your friends, and your relationships tend to be very secure.You hold firm to your beliefs and values, and you don’t let anyone talk you into compromising them.

I do see alot of me in this one. I am a mix and match type of person, nor do I follow one style or rule book - which is why the Lord gets very frustrated with me from time to time. But He also knows that I do indeed hold firm to my values and beliefs, and on several occassions have suffered because I would not compromise them. I think He understands that!
And being an election year and just being me, I could not pass this one up I saw on the sidebar!

Your Political Profile:


Overall: 65% Conservative, 35% LiberalSocial Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal
Personal Responsibility: 50% Conservative, 50% LiberalFiscal Issues: 50% Conservative, 50% LiberalEthics: 50% Conservative, 50% LiberalDefense and Crime: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

Again, it is amazing at how close these come. I think I have opened my conservatism up a bit due to the state of the economy and the state of our country in general.
And finally, storyteller at Small Reflections also shared the following just for visiting her blog . . .  isn’t she a sweetheart!?!

And if that wasn’t enough, she honored me with this award!

I will select the blogs to share this award with at a later time.

Have a great week everyone!

MeMe Monday

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 For those who have not participated in MeMe Monday before, this is a special meme created by Melanie at Livin With Me in which we save up awards and other meme’s throughout the week and post them all on Monday. Cool idea!

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I would like to begin today’s post by saying Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone. .Although I am not Irish, I still love this holiday. There is something about little green men,  green beer, the luck of the Irish, a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow and of course cabbage! I have really enjoyed getting to know everyone through blogging and I want to give each of you reading today’s post this special gift that was made by cute girl, who is so much more talented than I, and also very generous with her time:

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I was very pleased to received these beautiful flowers this week from Pink Paper Peppermints (say that fast 3 times!) for being a host in the Ultimate Blog Party - actually I crashed the party as it was primarily for stay-at-home moms:

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In addition, I also received this Nice Matters Award from Chuck which I deeply appreciate. One of my grandmother’s primary words of wisdom was “If you can’t say something nice, then keep you mouth shut!” I realize that most of you have probably heard another ending being “then don’t say anything at all.” but my grandmother was always pretty much to the point. She was a very “nice” person, a little on the blunt side, but nice nevertheless. Anyways, thank you Chuck.

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I found this Curious as a Cat at Nutty Gal’s . I hopped over to take a look at the blog and found week #109 questions for today so I thought I would include them. Play along if you wish.

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Curious as a Cat 

1) If you spoke English with an accent other than the one you currently have, how would you chose to sound?I like the British accent.2) Be honest: how do you feel about people who smoke?My best friend is a smoker and I love her dearly! I just quit smoking in August so I know how hard it is to quit.3) Whose death touched your own sense of mortality the most?

I recently had a classmate die from cancer. I ran into another classmate at WalMart and we were discussing Rita’s death and I learned two other classmates die this past year. Wow - we are only in our mid-50’s!

4) What has been the most difficult promise you have ever kept? Why?

I had a difficult time writing in my friend’s Gratitude Journal last summer. She had made the journal for my benefit and I promised to be faithful and post something I was greatful for each day. I do not know why I didn’t, it just didn’t seem right for me at the time.

5) Show and Tell. What comes to mind first when you see this picture? Or, tell a story if it reminds you of one.
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I am still trying to figure out what is one the tree. At first I thought they were birds but now I am not sure.  I guess my thought would be “What the blue blazes is on that tree?”

  Happy MeMe Monday eveyone!

and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!

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Meme Monday #2

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I had so much fun last week stumbling around to other Meme Monday participants. I saw these at  KC’s Mindless Chatter of a Busy Mom   and thought I would give them a go. What a hoot!        


Your Ideal Hairstyle:


Sexy Waves

You Act Like You Are 29 Years Old


You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel like an adult, and you’re optimistic about life.You feel excited about what’s to come… love, work, and new experiences.You’re still figuring out your place in the world and how you want your life to shape up.The world is full of possibilities, and you can’t wait to explore many of them.

Your Birthdate: August 24


You understand people well and are a natural born therapist.
A peacemaker, people always seem to get along when you are around.
You tend to be a father or mother figure to friends, even to those older than you.
You enjoy your role, and you find that you are close to many people.Your strength: Your devotionYour weakness: Reliance on others for happinessYour power color: LilacYour power symbol: HeartYour power month: June
And, while I was completing the ones above, I saw this one and just could not resist trying it too!

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence


You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well.An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly.You are also good at remembering information and convincing someone of your point of view.A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary.You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.
And then . . . I stumbled onto this while visiting at Heather’s Not a DIY Life and could not resist - and I am so pleased with the results, although I never thought of myself as high maintenance - it is a compliment for me! LOL

You’ve got it all. Power, passion, precision, and style. You’re sensuous, exotic, and temperamental. Sure, you’re expensive and high-maintenance, but you’re worth it.

“Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

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Book Meme

 Then I was tagged by Chuck at Foster Me Up to do the Book Meme.  Here are the rules:1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag some people & post a comment here once you post it to your blog, so I can come see.I recently purchased a book from ‘Queen Jaw Jaw” of the website with the same name. Her book, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Throne” is so funny, I can only read a few pages at a time because I laugh so hard! I chose her book for this meme:”I mean, is this fair? For one thing, if I lied and she found out, the whipping I would surely receive would be worse than confessing. On the other hand, if I confessed, I stood no chance of escaping the cleanup that followed.”

As for tagging 5 people, I would like to tag 5 people participating in Meme Monday who have not already participated in making a Book Meme

Meme Monday featuring ABC’s and Photobucket

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Welcome to my first time participating in Meme Monday. Melanie at Livin with Me came up with this brillant idea to have us save all our tags and awards we receive thoughout the week and make one big post answering all of them on Monday. Cool Beans! I have two tags for today’s post. I hope you enjoy them.

My first tag is from greatfullivin. I have seen this on a couple of other blogs as I stumble about blogsville. And now I get to particpate. Thanks Mo!

Alphabet MeMe Here’s how it goes:  Rule #1: Copy all the links below and replace a single link under the appropriate letter of the alphabet. If your domain name, or even the title of your blog, starts with an “A,” you’d replace the link under that letter and put the replaced link at the bottom. Also, don’t forget to credit the tagger, or where you got the list from, at the end of the list with a full URL of the post so that a pingback gets generated.

Replaced link: C. Comedy Plus . Previous tagger: greatfullivin

Rule #2: You now have to “tag” at least five people and encourage them to participate so that this thing spreads.

I tag:

1. Chelle Y   2. Journeywoman   3. Amy the Black   4. Redness    5. tasha

My second tag is more of a challenge from Storyteller at Small Reflections to complete the Photobucket Meme. I have seen this, sometimes with different questions, throughout blogsville too. This has proved to be a bit time consuming as I didn’t follow the rules and select a picture off the first page of pictures that came up once I typed my search word(s). Some times none of the pictures on the first page made any sense for what I was needing. I had fun anyways and discovered a new resource for pictures. I apologize in advance for some of the pictures being so oversized. I am technologically challenged and still in the learning stage - may be for quite some time! LOL Anyone reading this is encouraged to make their own Photobucket Meme. Just follow these few rules (as close as you can):

1) Answer the questions below
2) Take each answer and type it into the search bar at Photobucket.com
3) Take a picture from the first page of results and post the html code found under the image.


1.Your Age on your next birthday
Heinz 57 Girl
2. Place you want to travel… 
australia

3. Favorite place to be…  
beach
 

4. Favorite Object… 
computer

5. Favorite Food… 
pasta

6. Favorite Animal.
THE LOVE OF A BEAGLE

7. Favorite Color… 
Favorite Color

8. Town where you were born…
Marietta

9. Town where you live… Amish Country in Holmes County, Ohio
Amish Crossing Sign

10. Past name of a pet…
penny

11. Nickname/Screen Name…
cricket

12. Middle Name…
jean

13. Bad Habit… 
HILLARY LEGS