Miss Missy is a Dork

Yesterday I had read all over the Internet about Baskin Robbins $.31 scoop night.

Join us for 31 Cent Scoop Night at Baskin-Robbins®and help us honor
America’s firefighters.Participating stores will reduce prices of small
ice cream scoops to 31 cents.* At some locations, you may also have an
opportunity to make a donation to your local fire charities.

What a great deal and for a good cause! I was all over that!

Last night buddy and I had to go shopping for a suit for his school musical - he looks so cute in it I could eat him with a spoon! After shopping we stopped for a quick bite and then I had the brilliant plan of getting our grub on at 31 flavors for the $.31 scoop. We ate and I even spread the word to a nice couple sitting next to us about the good deal. I figured it would be pretty busy so I warned buddy we might have to wait in a line. As we drove up, to our surprise it wasn't really crowded - Score!!! There were a few people in line but not as many as I had expected. The general population didn't know what I knew about the good deal. Ha! Suckers!

While we were standing in line I noticed the sign.... Crap! The $.31 scoop isn't until the next day. What a loser I am. And those poor people I told at dinner - they were all excited too. As long as we were there we ordered up two child scoops only to find out that it was $1 Scoop Tuesday! Well in that case make it two regular scoops!!! Woot Woot! Maybe I didn't get my $.31 scoop but I felt a little better with the $1 scoop.

How much is buddy hating taking this picture?? Can you see the little bit of Chocolate Fudge Brownie on his lip??

So tonight - April 30th get your ice cream on!!!

Yummy Hamburgers

Please note: This is not a picture of my hamburger - it just looked really good!

I love that J loves to BBQ and he does it so well. Any chance we get we will fire up the grill. This is my favorite recipe for hamburgers.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 pound ground beef
1 envelope of Lipton Onion Soup Mix
6 hamburger buns, split

In a large bowl, mix together the Cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese, onion soup mix, egg, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Crumble in the ground beef, and mix together by hand. Form into 6 patties.

Place patties on the grill, and cook for 5 minutes per side, or until well done.

A New Favorite Blog

I can't remember how I found this yesterday but I'm so happy I followed the trail to this great blog. The Pioneer Woman - I could spend hours going through all the goodness here. She describes herself as

I’m a thirty-something ranch wife, mother of four, and
moderately-agoraphobic middle child who grew up on a golf course in the city. I
attended college in Los Angeles and wore black pumps to work every day. I ate
sushi and treated myself to pedicures on a semi-regular basis. I even kissed James
Garner in an elevator once. Now I live in the middle of nowhere on
a working cattle ranch. My days are spent changing diapers, chipping dried
manure from boots, washing jeans, and frying calf nuts. I have no idea how I got
here, but you know what? I love it. Don’t tell anyone.

Over a decade ago, I gave up my pumps and the conveniences of city life, all for the love of a rugged cattle rancher. Come read and enjoy our wild tale of romance.

She has a wonderful cooking blog where she has beautiful step-by-step photos of delicious dishes. How yummy does this look?

From this

To this

She also has GREAT photography tips. With great Photoshop tricks.

The Home and Garden section is fun too!

I love finding new blogs!!!

Happy Birthday to My Mom!!!

Today is my mom's birthday.

We took her to Sagebrush Cantina in Calabasas yesterday for a yummy brunch and tasty mimosas.

What a special lady she is. I am so blessed to have her as my mom. She's loving, kind, caring and patient. Lord is she patient. She is a preschool teacher and is loved by all her students and their parents.

Last week at her school they had a box car parade. She's so adorable in her little Anaheim Angel car she made.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Being a Better Missy

I've made a commitment to myself to be a better, healthier, more productive, more organized Missy.

Step 1 - I was in such a bad habit of having my morning sugar-free non-fat Vanilla latte everyday that I would get bad headaches if I didn't have it. Really bad for me and not to mention expensive. What did I do? I stopped by Albertsons picked up a can of General Foods International Coffee. For what it costs for around 2 lattes I can have a 8. Step 2 - Exercise! I used to work out religiously back in the day. I just don't have the time anymore during the day. I was feeling blah and yuck. What did I do? I've started waking up at 4:45am to be out of the house by 5:00am to go walking. My friend and I walk for an hour up in the hills near where I live. These are steep steep streets and are a great workout. I'm feeling much much better, sore as heck but feeling better about myself. 5:00 is early and even though I'm sleepy - I feel so much better after my walk.
Step 3 - Get to work earlier. This has been easier because of 1 and 2. I don't stop in the morning for coffee and I'm up earlier so this has been quick easy.

Step 4 - Start the work day off right. I had gotten into the bad habit of checking my Google Reader as soon as I got to work which would cause me to get very distracted and not be a good little worker. What did I do? I've set a rule for myself - I can't check anything until after I've gotten three things accomplished and off my desk. This has helped a lot!

Step 5 - Organize my life better. Sometimes I think I have it all together and am so organized until I start reading all the fun stuff on this blog. I need to do a better job of organizing my house, office, finances, life.

Go Lakers!

Playoffs - Game 2 - tonight



I'll have one happy husband if the Lakers can continue on through the playoffs.

Sharing Some Exciting News!

I just read on another blog that one of my favorite books will be turned into a movie. I'm so happy - I can not wait to see the movie.

My Sister’s Keeper film news: During a brief visit to the LA set last week I had the pleasure of meeting many of the actors, and watching them work. Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric are brilliantly portraying Sara and Brian Fitzgerald - you’re going to be very impressed. As for the Anna and Kate’s characters, Abigail Breslin and Sofia Vassilieva are such remarkable little actresses that they literally had the entire crew in tears during one particularly emotional scene - an assistant was handing out Kleenex! Kudos to Nick Cassavetes, the very gifted director who is working all this magic. I will be going back to the set soon, meeting the rest of the actors (including Joan Cusack and Alec Baldwin) and will post more about my second visit - I can’t wait!

I just had to pass on this news!

Tie One On

I made a couple Tie Blankets this weekend. They are very easy to make. I wanted to have something warm and cozy for Buddy's night baseball games.

JoAnns had perfect Anaheim Angel fleece fabric. They have every print you can imagine. These are nice presents to make. **Mother's Day is coming up**

What you need -

2 lengths of 54-inch wide fleece, each 2 - 2 1/2 yards long in coordinating colors or patterns
A 12-inch ruler
Fabric scissors, sharp

Step1

Work on the floor. Clear enough space to lay the fabric out flat and to move around the edges of the fabric.

Step2

Position one piece of the fleece, softer side down, on the floor. Smooth the fabric so that it lays flat. Place the second piece of fleece, softer side up, atop the first piece.

Step3

Make sure the edges of the two pieces are even on all four sides. Use the scissors to correct uneven edges. Note that there are two short sides and two long sides of the rectangle.

Step4

Move down about 5 inches on one of the short sides and make a cut 5 inches deep into the fabric. Cut perpendicular to the edge of the fabric. Move over one inch and make another cut 5 inches deep. Continue making the cuts 1 inch apart. Stop within 5 inches of the other end. **this is an important step**

Step5

Start working across the adjacent long edge. Measure in about 5 inches and make a cut 5 inches deep so that it intersects the last cut on the previous side. Remove the 5 inch square corner piece.

Step6

Continue fringing the fabric by making a 5 inch deep cut every one inch, stopping 5 inches before each corner and removing a square from each corner. Keep the two layers of fabric even atop one another as work continues.

Step7

Take the two strips of each cut and tie them together in a knot. Continue around the fabric until all the strips are knotted and the blanket is completed.

Wash and tumble dry per the instructions on the fabric bolt.

I love how the blankets turned out. Very warm and cozy.

The fabric was normally $12.99/yard but I had a 50% coupon.

I made two - one was 2 yards ($21 total to make) and the other is 2 1/2 yards ($23 total to make). I personally like the smaller one. I was a nice sister and made the bigger one for my sister.

Crowds, Dresses, and Dessert

Sunday was the big shopping day downtown in the Fashion District. I was all set with my maps, lists and recommendations. We zipped down the 101 to the 110 with no traffic and quickly found a parking lot.

Our first stop was Trendy Too, I had been told they had the biggest selection. They did - a lot of dresses. Sadly, the girls would not let me take pictures - I got a lot of eye rolling and "mommmmmm".

Let me preface the rest of this post with the fact that my daughter is some what claustrophobic. She does not do well in areas with a lot of people (and dresses).

She gets overwhelmed very easily (her room is proof of this....). We started looking at all the dresses and trying to decide on a style, color, etc. We didn't have too much luck here so we tried our luck at another store. Our next stop was Cinderella.

This store was PACKED full of girls waiting to try on dresses. Both girls' faces lit up though when we walked in this store. All the hard work had been done - all you had to do was pick out one of the dresses on the wall and try it on. Ahhhh.... the only trick was they could try on only 3 dresses. At first I didn't understand the reasoning but after spending time in the cramped store, I liked that policy. Get 'em in and get 'em out!

Chels found her dress here, very pretty, very elegant and it was at a good price. Ash had found one but I could tell that it wasn't what she really wanted so I talked her into looking at a couple more stores.

Our next stop was Nobell. This store was bigger and not even as crowded as the first two. A much better environment for my little claustrophobic baby. She looked through the racks until she found the perfect dress she had been looking for. Frosty blue with just a few rhinestones on the straps. Very pretty, very elegant, very Ash. And it was on sale... very me.

We headed down Santee Alley to look for jewelry and shoes. Here is where I learned that Chels' mom, my dear friend Bet is also claustrophobic. We always joke that Ash could be her daughter and Chels could be mine. Chels and I could have shopped down there all day! I was loving it.

It took Ash and Bet just a few stores and they were done.

That was fine, we had accomplished what we had come down for.

Being that it was also the first of the playoff games for the Lakers we decided to leave the area before the traffic go too bad.

We had a lovely lunch at Cheescake Factory and ended it off with a scrumptous piece of Key Lime Pie to share.

YUM!

**Update - I already have the green light to take pictures the night of the prom. The kids are meeting at a friend's house for all the parents to take pictures before jumping in the limo and going to dinner.** Mark my word - there will be pictures. ; )

"You're quirky but very cute.."

So timely is the tag by the lovely Jordana. Yesterday morning my husband sent me an e-mail with the title "You're quirky but very cute..". I thank God for him and his patience with me and my million quirks.

Here are the rules to the games.

1. Link the person who tagged you.

2. Mention the rules in your blog.

3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.

4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.

5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

1. I have to make my bed every morning. I can't stand to leave the house with an unmade bed. I don't care if it makes me late for work or the kids late to school, I hate an unmade bed. This has not always been the case and I'm not quite sure when I picked up this quirk but I have it now. I cringe with the thought of climbing into a bed that has been unmade all day.

2. I'm odd when it comes to my grocery cart. I like to try and have things grouped as I shop. When I unload the groceries on the belt I like to have the frozen items together, cleaning items together, dairy items together - you get the idea. Drives me bananas when I shop with others and they just throw things in my cart. ::shudder::

3. Poultry grosses me out. I love to eat chicken, I cook all the time with it, but I hate to touch raw poultry. I don't know if I'll ever be able to cook a Thanksgiving turkey - it gives me the chills to think of having to clean and prepare it. I like to get the frozen boneless breasts of chicken that are individually frozen so I don't have to touch it.

4. I LOVE the smell of bleach. To me, if it's clean it will have the slight scent of bleach. I love all and probably have all cleaning products that have "with bleach" in the title - Dawn with Bleach, Lysol with Bleach, etc. After I clean and my hands smell a little like bleach - I like that. (yes, I'm very weird). My husband jokes that I'd probably love it if there were a cologne that had a bleach smell - he's right.

5. I hate to be mismatched when it comes to bras and panties. I shudder at the thought of wearing black bra/white undies. It's for no one else but me, it makes me feel pretty. Even if I don't like a particular outfit, as long as I'm matching underneath - it's all good. I won't, I can't buy a bra without buying panties that match.

6. I sleep on my side and have to have a pillow on my head. Just something over my ear actually. I think it all stems from when I was little I had a teddy bear and would sleep with it on my head/ear. I like it to be quiet when I sleep, so a little something on my head helps. Everyone laughs at me, but I don't care - a good night's sleep is when I'm all sandwiched between my pillows. mmmm sweet dreams, nighty night!

I now tag the following little pretties...

Jane

Winnie

Tater

Kate

Trisha

Monkey

A Shopping We Will Go

Daughter has her Prom next month so it's all about finding the perfect dress right now. She asked me to take her and her best friend Chels to the Fashion District to shop for prom dresses this weekend.

~

I've shopped downtown years ago but not for dresses, namely prom dresses. When I'm entering uncharted territories I like to be organized, have a plan, a map, names, numbers, etc. I research the crap out things. I know I drive people crazy but I like to be in the know. I like to have answers and know what to sort of expect. So far, I've got maps, list of recommended stores, and helpful hints I found on the wonderful web.

~

The girls are quite excited to go - I hope we have luck finding what they have in mind.

Ready for their 7th grade dance.
~
If anyone has any helpful hints, store recs - please let me know. : )

Got Books?

PaperBack Swap is a great website and very easy to use! If you have books that you want to trade - this is very handy.

1. I listed all the books that I recently had read (and one that I just couldn't finish)



2. Added some books I want to read to my "Wish List"

3. Within hours of listing my books I have I received notices that all 4 of my books had been requested.

4. I printed up the mailing labels they provided.

5. Packaged them all up nice and neat

6. Took them to the post office and sent them off to their new owners.

Today I got a notice that one of the books I requested is on it's way to me. : )

A Bad Egg

Random question for the day.

Do you know how to tell if an egg is bad (without cracking it open)?

There is a small air pocket in the large end of the egg. When the egg is fresh, the pocket is only about 1/8th of an inch deep and as large around as a dime.

As the egg ages, however, it loses both moisture and carbon dioxide — shrinking — so that the size of the air space increases. And the size of the air space determines the buoyancy of the egg.

~So if you submerge a very fresh egg in water, it will lie on the bottom.

-

~An egg that is a week or so old will lie on the bottom but bob slightly.

-

~An egg that is three weeks or so old will balance on its small end, with the large end reaching for the sky.

-

~And a bad egg will float.

Go Daddy!

Spoke to dad last night - (in his most southern Oklahoma accent) he told me "The visit went real well, the doctor ran the tests and said I didn't have to come back until next year" Still praying for good results on the PSA test (which he should have in a couple days) but for now everything looks great!
.
Since his episode a few weeks ago, he's stopped smoking. This is HUGE for a man that was smoking 2 - 3 packs a day!!! While Sister and I were visiting we helped convince him that he'd probably need the patch, or pill to help stop.
.
3 weeks today was the last time he had a cigarette. So proud of that man!!!

I'd hug my dad everyday if I could!

It's Almost 5 O'Clock

It's almost time for me to have my "date" with my dad.

I've been thinking about him all day!

My dad is a prostate cancer survivor and is suppose to have his PSA levels checked every 6 months. I recently found out that it's been a year and a half since he's been to the doctor to have this test. He put off the testing after he found out his doctor had retired and never found a replacement doctor.

While my sister and I were out visiting we found him a doctor and set up his appointment. Today he went to have his PSA levels checked.

I'm praying his appointment went well.

My New Toy

I picked up this bad boy last weekend at Target. My first label maker.

I was fascinated with this idea - so I had to put mine to work.


I now have nicely labeled spices in containers I can easily see and get to.

Thanks Winnie!!

Miss Missy's Weekend

This weekend was great! The weather was hot but I love it when it's hot. I would take a day over 100° before I'd take a day in the 40°'s. I hate to be cold - love to be hot.

Woke up early Saturday morning, and opened all the windows, hung all the rugs outside to air out and piddled around the house until it was time to head out to Buddy's game.

The game was great!!! It was a nail biter but they won!! Woo Hoo! I have to brag a bit... Buddy has the best batting average on the team. The boy hit 3 of the 4 times he was up on Saturday. Before baseball season started he had serious reservations about wanting to play this year. He was moving up in division so it was scary for him. He thought he wouldn't be able to hit off the pitchers... silly boy! So proud of my little Buddy.

Jay worked a bit out in the garden getting it somewhat ready to plant. Our little garden area has been neglected so it's a complete weed patch.

This sign should read weed patch instead of tomato patch.



Sunday was another gorgeous day! I woke up early and took Duncan for a walk before church.

He loves to go on walks - I can not even look at my tennis shoes without him going crazy. I feel so bad sometimes when I just don't have time for a walk - I'll put my shoes on outside so he doesn't see me.

Picture of Daughter and Duncan

Daughter is gorgeous as usual - Dunan is not up for a photoshoot.

After lunch we headed over to Lowes to pick up plants for the garden. We aren't quite ready to plant yet. The ground needs to be broke up and topsoil added.

J worked had turning our little weed patch into an almost garden.
Looking so much better!Some of the plants waiting to be planted.

While J worked in the garden I picked avacados. We have two trees that are full of this tasty fruit.
These babies are just waiting to be turned into guacamole!