Ahhh...

We had a great week with Keara. It seems like we were constantly on the move. There was something to be done, every day of the week. Who knew that we lived in such an exciting area? Well, to be truthful, we didn't do anything here in town. There's nothing here but Walmart and it's not even Super! (Keara, however, doesn't have Walmart close to her, so she was excited to go there -- once.) But there is, I found out, plenty to do within a couple hour's drive of home.

My poor skin was assaulted by the sun on almost every occasion and I fear I'm thisclose to more wrinkles, more freckles and the ever dreaded "sun damage" -- whatever that is. But it was worth it. Keara is a fun girl, so polite and incredibly patient with an almost 6 year old cousin that constantly assaulted her with, "Keara, guess what.....?"

Her mom arrived last night (after spending a WONDERFUL week with her sisters in Wyoming) and they left this morning. We're a sad house today. We miss her.

THANKS KEARA FOR A FANTASTIC WEEK!!

Lagoon, here we come!!

We found some cool Hannah Montana stuff at the mall.
Swimming @ Heise with our friend Maddie

Floating @ Mack's Inn (we saw a bull moose!!)

We spent a day in Jackson Hole and had a blast!! We rode the Alpine Slide, spent some time in town (w/ Sasquatch) and drove the Gros Ventre road which allowed us to see two more bull moose and a herd of buffalo jumping fences. Who knew buffalo could jump a fence?

Pointing out the "sleeping Indian" in the mountain

And now, today, we're bored. Guess that means we'll have to clean the house that has been neglected for too long. Bummer.

Update: I made the Sugarfree Chocolate Mousse last night and it turned out great! I will probably play with the recipe a bit (I added 1/2 tsp of vanilla, some choc. chips and marshmallows), but it was met with raves from the fam. It's definitely a "repeat recipe".

Woot!!!

I don't usually win contests.

Oh, I try. I always put my name into drawings, but all I win from those contests is a "free" carpet cleaning from the Kirby vacuum people or an offer for "discounted" vinyl windows and new siding for my house.

Big deal.

I have won two pretty cool prizes in my life: At my high school reunion, I sent in old photos of my classmates and won an Ipod Nano, which I took to Best Buy and traded in for a bigger better version. And I won a pretty cool digital photo frame from an online photo contest.

I can add one more cool prize to my winning list: An expired (July '08) Hershey Candy Bar with Almonds from my local grocery store.

Oh yeah....

I feel soooo cool

and....

so smart.

The store was asking pop trivia questions over the PA system and I happened to know half the correct answer.

"What is Nicolas Cage's real name?"

Don't ask me how, but I knew that he is related to Francis Ford Coppola, so when I was paying at the check stand I mentioned it. The guy in charge was very impressed and even though I didn't know the first name, he gave me a candy bar for having USELESS POP TRIVIA KNOWLEDGE.

Is it cool to be me?

Probably not, but I enjoyed the expired candy bar anyway.



FYI: the correct answer is Nicolas Coppola.

I was checking out Thorny's blog and saw this new meme. I loved it because it's different from any other meme we've done. I also loved it because I loved trying to find the right photo for each word I typed in. It was a fun way to spend a quiet Friday evening watching the (amazing) Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. Here's how you do it:

Mosaic Meme:
FIRST: Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
NEXT: Using only the first page, pick an image.
THEN:Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into mosaic maker.

Hint: I had a hard time uploading my mosiac to Blogger. I saved it to my Flickr acct., but the URL wouldn't work on Blogger (don't know why). I did a right click on the creation, clicked on "properties" and then used the URL that popped up there (it was different). I'm not computer savvy, so I'm not sure why this was different, but it worked! I was glad!!


The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name. (kid version: favorite animal?)

Like Thorny, I'll be very interested to know if you do this. If you are reading this and you have a blog, you can do it!! Please leave me a comment so I can check out your creation!!

I want to be honest, so I'll tell you where I got the pics!
http://flickr.com/photos/mormegil/852655340/
http://flickr.com/photos/kasiawska/491444216
http://flickr.com/photos/hombredesteele/1198699709/
http://flickr.com/photos/heatherb/65385512/
http://flickr.com/photos/nanitas2727/719558565/
http://flickr.com/photos/compmouse/68245903/
http://flickr.com/photos/blackdiamondimages/2541046436/
http://flickr.com/photos/12861589@N03/2540234500/
http://flickr.com/photos/wazari/2379936146/
http://flickr.com/photos/daiharuki/360064291/
http://flickr.com/photos/prettypony/2515744288/
http://flickr.com/photos/me_echo/308595350/

HAVE FUN!!!

You Gotta Try This!!!

My friend, Jennifer, who hosts Where the Heart Is sent me this recipe. I first became aware of it when she made some and brought it to Enrichment Night. When she announced that she brought a sugar-free chocolate mousse made with tofu, I wrinkled my nose and though, "Auck, gack, aaargh!! Why in the world would someone ruin chocolate mousse by not using sugar and put in tofu?" To be polite, I took a spoonful and put it on my plate.

I looked at it the entire time I at my meal. It looked like normal chocolate mousse. Actually, it looked kind of yummy. Her daughter, Celeste, was sitting next to me and I knew that she'd notice if I didn't at least try it, so I gingerly dipped my spoon into the chocolate mound and tapped it on my tongue.

HUH!?!

Could it actually taste good?

Well, I couldn't tell because I'd had such a small taste, so I got brave and scooped up 1/2 a spoonful and ate it.

HOLY COW!!!

It was DELISH!!!

I ate what had, picked up the plate and licked it off and then sat in my seat, looking longingly at the bowl up at the serving table, wishing I was brave enough to act like a pig and get myself more. I never did, but to this day, I wish I had.

I have thought longingly about that bowl of chocolate mousse ever since and I was finally able to procure the recipe. I want to share it with you. I want you to try it. You'll thank me (and Jennifer) for it!!
*************************************************

SUGAR FREE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
1 pkg (4 serving size) chocolate sugar-free instant pudding mix
1 pkg soft tofu
1 heaping tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 to 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream, chilled

Use an electric mixer to beat the pudding mix, tofu, and cocoa powder until very smooth. In a separate bowl, whip the cream until just about stiff. Turn the mixer to its lowest setting, blend in the pudding mixture til just mixed. Do not over beat or you'll end up with chocolate butter. Dish up into serving bowls and chill til ready to serve.

Vanilla pudding mix can be used; just omit the cocoa powder and add a teaspoon vanilla extract. In fact, any flavor may be adapted.

Boo!

You know what's funny?

When you have three teenage girls -- age 15 & 16 -- in your house watching a scary movie and you burst into the family room, slapping the door with your hand and yell "BOO!!"

Three girls scream at the top of their voice and jump about 12 inches out of their chair.

Oh yeah,

I got 'em good!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Summer started late for me and my family and I am cramming as many activities I can into a short time frame. After all, SCHOOL STARTS IN A MERE 13 DAYS!!!

Augh!!!

(I won't even go into the sadness I feel as I contemplate the fact that my boy starts kindergarten... **sniff**)

We have been hanging out at the International Dance Festival (annual event); boating with two girls (staying w/ Dave & Jackie) from Israel whose team came for the dance festival ; hanging out with Calvin's sister Carlene and her two daughters; and now hanging out with Keara, Carlene's 15 year old daughter that stayed this week while Car visits other family in Wyoming. (We got the house cleaned for Car's visit, but now it looks like it threw up on itself. I just tell myself that I'll have plenty of time to clean up after Aug. 20.)

We've been having a blast!

Dancing Hava Nagila with the Israel dance team

Two from team Israel wait to ride the tube.

Dana & Caramel

Calvin & Dave compare due dates.

Keara & Aly

And this is just the beginning of the pictures I have downloaded!! I still have pictures from our day at Lagoon; swimming at Heise as well as floating the river by Macks Inn (that's tomorrow). That's about as far as I have planned, but I know there is more in the works.

It's a good thing I still haven't received Breaking Dawn in the mail. (That's the LAST time I pre-order on Amazon!!) I don't have time to read it anyway!

It Made Me Giggle

I hope to have some time in the next day or two to write about all the fun things we've been doing. We've been crazy busy and have had some great times!! But for now, I'd just like to post a little clip from the movie Mama Mia. Calvin took me to see it last weekend and I have to admit I really enjoyed myself. Yes, there were some wholly inappropriate moments during the movie and... was it me... or did it seem that a 10 year old did the editing? But still I thoroughly enjoyed tapping my feet and singing along (in my head) to the same Abba songs that I grew up singing. It was a BLAST!! (Thanks, Calvin, for being the only guy there!)

(I love this clip because I love Mr. Darcy. Nuff said.)