oh Superbowl!

It comes but once a year, the day that you get to spend 5 hours watching one program on tv. Whether you care about the game (which this year I actually do) or you're just in it for the commercials (and yummy snacks) Super Bowl Sunday is rapidly approaching. My mom is a huge Steelers fan, (I mean, huge!) and that has translated to her children. So at least I can say one football team I root for is actually doing well...sigh oh Aggies. I've never been to Pittsburgh...in fact the closest I've ever been is probably Indianapolis, which is not really all that close. However, I think I may be disowned if I decided that I didn't like the Steelers. In my family, my mom watches the sports and my dad hides (she can get kind of loud.) The dog even participates on game day by shaking her football toy and running around (well as well as an arthritic dog can) like a nut. She even allows my mom to put a Steelers kerchief around her neck. I've entered my mom in Ellen's contest to win Super Bowl tickets. It's a long shot, but how awesome would that be for her!? Oddly enough, there are quite a few Steelers fans here in Florida. I don't think I've been in a parking lot without seeing at least one car with some sort of Pittsburgh lovin'. A Steelers cake is also in the works (we can't have a special occation without a cake can we?) which will appear on MSM next week. So, yeah, get excited, football and commercials are coming!

more things that make me think "hmmm"

• I'm not sure why, but I was thinking about the magic eight ball today. I never owned one, but remember one of the answers was something along the lines of "try again later." Oh, gee magic 8 ball, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize you were busy. Please just let me know when you're free so I can ask you again. What is it on a smoke break? Why can't it answer me now? All I need is a yes, no, maybe so. Is that too much to ask? Hmmmm...
• Also, why do some rock band and singer names deal with food? And misspelling food. Meatloaf, Korn, Limp Bizkit, the Cranberries, Blackeyed Peas, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eminem...hmmmmm...
• Why do we buy Apollo toys, when a simple leaf can entertain him for hours? Seriously, he was playing in his pen on the porch and I put some of his toys in there for him to play with. No, he'd rather eat the leaves. Hmmm....

MSM fondant bears

It's Monday again! (ok, I know it's actually Tuesday, but this would have been posted yesterday but as you know, I'm experiencing computer problems. I know excuses, excuses. However, I do have a MSM post, and here it is! We're making fondant/gum paste bears today! (um...yesterday) Same rules can apply to clay if you'd rather make a clay bear. First of all, you must start with your medium, whether you want to make cake decorations, or a clay bear for...whatever reason. I used a 50/50 mix of pre-made fondant and gumpaste, and used food coloring to create the brown I wanted. You can make black if you want a black bear, or if you're making an Al Gore cake, you could leave it white to make polar bears. I began to make the head. I rolled and formed into a bearish head shape, made a nose and put in pins for eyes. (I made the ears separately to "glue" on later.) The nose is also fondant I dyed black. I formed a ball and stuck it on, then using a toothpick I formed the nostrils. Then, I made thin strips of the brown fondant and formed them over the eyes to give the face some eyelids. These aren't necessary, but it gives expression to the face. If you want a wide eyed expression, leave the lids off. I will take a pen later to add pupils, he won't look possessed for ever, I promise. For the ears, I formed half circles and then pinched the flat ends together. The fondant isn't quite as easy to use as clay, which is why I opted to use gumpaste glue to adhere them onto the head. If you're using clay, you could just add them on.

Moving on, I then formed the bear's body into a little rotund oblong shape, and inserted a toothpick into the "neck" to give the head a stable connector. I will also use the glue to make sure the head doesn't fall off later, because that may be traumatic. You really can't mess up the body, bears come in all shapes and sizes, and around the beginning of winter, are probably lumpy. Next come the legs...which for some reason I didn't take pictures of, but you can kind of see them in the finished result picture at the top of the page. For the legs, I formed the back legs as one solid piece including haunches. To do this, I made little snakes and flattened the top half to form the haunches. Then, for the paws I rolled the bottom up a little to create the look of feet. The front legs are just the "snakes" with the rolled up bottom to form paws. For the tail I made a shape that resembles...well poop, because its small rounded and brown. Now, with fondant/gumpaste you have to wait a few days for everything to dry before you glue them together. I waited for a week (because the body is solid, and would take a while to dry.) I have these little muffin trays that are great for little parts to dry. You can also see the little legs in there. (Yes, there are extra bear parts in there, I will be making a total of 3.) They're also great for forming flowers, because it lets them dry in a cup shape. With clay, you can bake it and be done with that with in a few hours.

You may be asking, "well Amanda, why are you making fondant bears? I have no use for this information, why would I make a bear." Well, I don't know the answer to the second question, but I didn't want to do another recipe, and I am entering a cake competition that will take place at the end of the month of February. The theme this year is 'The Great Outdoors' and I am going to make a 'grizzly camping trip' cake. I'll have three bears, one will have his tushy sticking out of a tent, one will have his head buried in a cooler and the one that you see there will be checking out some abandoned smores by a smoldering campfire. Other than that, I'll make some trees and such to go on the cake. What's great about this, is that I've gotten a dummy cake (which is foam cut out in the shape of a cake) so that A) I can work on this for a long time B) the cake won't go bad or start caving in over time and C) I can keep this cake forever.

So there you go, you can make a bear now if you want to

check 1,2,3

Is any other blogger user having issues? I posted on Saturday, and it shows up when you look at the "Apollo" section, but not in the main page. Also, the links to the blogs I follow are not updating. Is anyone else experiencing this issue?

*I think its an issue with my laptop, because I have no problems on Brandon's computer. Weird! Thanks for answering guys!

Pupdate

A few of you expressed your confusion of Apollos size based on a picture I previously posted of him sleeping. Well, we took him to the vet today to get his stiches out and he weighed in at 36 lbs. We also saw a puggle at the mall puppy store, and are beginning to wonder if Apollo has a bit of beagle in him too. A Boggle as I've found Boxer/Beagle mixes are called. I think hes a Pit Boggle. I guess we'll never know for sure though.

men!

Whenever Brandon and I watch something on tv or see something stupid that men do, I always shake my head and jokingly exclaim "men!" He laughs and attempts to defend his sex, but I know better. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an uber feminist nor do I think that women are better or smarter than men, but I do like to comment on the silly things men do. Such as today, I woke up and headed out to the kitchen for breakfast, where I see Brandon preparing his morning meal and pouring milk into his cereal. I happened to know that there wasn't much milk left, but there was enough for both of us to BOTH have cereal for breakfast. I knew this because I made waffles especially for him for dinner last night, which calls for milk. Anyhow, as he's pouring I notice he doesn't seem to notice that he's nearing the end of the carton. So I gently ask him to please not use all of it, only to watch him ignore my plea and drain the entire container into his bowl. All I could do was just gasp and watch his ceral drown in precious milk while he looks up at me, shakes the empty milk carton and says "we're going to need more milk." Not, "oh I'm sorry honey, I ignored you like a jerk face and needlessly used up all of the milk in front of you, leaving you to either eat dry cereal or chocolate chip cookies for breakfast, let me buy you flowers and platinum jewlery to make up for it." (Hey, I can dream can't I? Just kidding...I know I can't) I just walked out of the kitchen and sat in the living room (ok, I pouted a little...again, I never said I thought women were better) and toodled around on my computer. It wasn't until after he loudly slurrped his last spoonfull of cereal that he finally realized what he did and apologized. Men!

It's time for change

Well, yesterday was the big day, the dawn of a new era. We're hoping to see a promised change in order to improve and renew. Some were excited, others scared or nervous but we all came together for one purpose. To train our dogs to become more obedient. What'd you think I was talking about? Yes, Apollo is back in school and rightfully so. We've been slacking on reinforcing what we've previously taught him (I completely forgot about working on 'stay') in puppy school. It showed in class. Big time. He wouldn't even sit on command, and we use that one every day! I think he was too excited by getting to see his lady love (we have the same instructor), and meet all the new dogs in his class, because he didn't do very well. Within the next seven weeks, he'll learn 'wait' (which is a loose stay just in order to get out the door without the dog going too), 'heel' and I think some new tricks (such as stand) while building on the things he's previously learned...uh forgot. So we'll see how it goes. If nothing else you'll get to see new pictures of Po in a graduation hat. Yay for change!

It's Monday Let's make soup!

I'm not sure where you live, but it's cold here. Probably because of that whole "winter" thing. Anyhow, being that it's cold and people are incessantly discussing ways to save money, I have a recipe given to me by my aunt that is perfect for cold weather and saving money. (I'm not sure why, but for some reason I miss-spell recipe all the time. Now that I've done spell check, I can't remember how I normally spell it, but it's wrong. Oh yeah, I add another i before the e. Thought you'd like to know) It's a hearty soup recipie no...recipe that makes for I don't know how many servings, but it's a lot. You can freeze what you don't use now, to save for February and the weird cold snap that will re-appear in April.


Taco Soup

1 lb. ground beef
1 med. onion, chopped (optional, we don't like onions in the Elms house)
1 clove garlic, minced

Combine, brown and drain.

In a large (5 qt.) pot combine the following:

1 can whole kernel corn
1 can pinto beans
1 can red kidney beans
1 LG can diced tomatoes
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes (If you can't find this, use tomatoes with diced chilies, or in a pinch, a good Hot salsa or Picante sauce will do.)
1 pkg. Taco Seasoning Mix
1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix

Do not drain the cans. Add it all, it's very simple 'open and dump' recipe.
Pour in the seasoning mixes
Add in meat mixture
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for an hour. (you can also use a crock pot if you'd like and leave it all day)
Serve over or with tortilla chips or tamales. Garnish with sour cream, shredded cheese, cubed avocado (Mandy)... or all three for you ambitious types.

Things that make me think "hmmmm"

The title of this blog was inspired mainly due to Brandon's naval task for the day. They assign a flight student to "taxi duty" (or something like that) in which they have to sit at home by their phone all day waiting if someone needs a ride from the airport to the base (or vice versa.) I guess they only have a slight idea of who my need the service, but other than that, you pretty much can't do anything all day long. I can't either because the one person Brandon was informed of in need of his vehicular services, needs his own car moved from Whiting field to the Pensacola regional airport. Since I doubt the guy would be kind enough to drive Brandon back to Whiting field to pick up his car, I need to follow. The thing is, we don't know what time this guy's flight is. I'm not even sure if he's on a commercial flight, or flying himself. If he is flying himself, why is he leaving the plane in Pensacola? You'd think that a naval air base would follow schedules of flights more carefully. Unless perhaps they frequently have surprise visits. Hmmmm.

Po Post

Well folks, I know you've been on the edge of your seat watching your clock and continually refreshing PDR to hear how Apollo is doing. (Perhaps not, but I let him think that you are, because he understands such things) Well, he just fell off of the couch....but other than that he's doing quite well. He's groggy (which is nice because he's just been sleeping all day) and really thirsty...and gassy (which is just gross) but he's off to a good recovery. He's now just gazing out the window at the Uhaul thats really poorly parked in front of the apartment building, and wagging his tail at the people walking by. He doesn't understand that they can't see him, and so therefore don't care about him. Wishfull thinking, I guess. Oh well, he's stuck with us, and can't be a father. You're welcome Bob Barker.

Poor Puppy Po

Poor Apollo. (Or Po for short, since Apollo is so long to say.) He just doesn't know what's going to happen to him today. He woke up thinking today would be just another day. When breakfast didn't come at its normal time, he got a little annoyed but just thought his parents were irresponsible and forgot. Despite his efforts to remind them by barking, nipping at their feet, and scooting his bowl around, his people still didn't feed him. Then, he got to go for a ride in daddy's truck! This generally means he's headed to Heaven (aka Petsmart) or Hell (the vet's office.) Unfortunately for him, the latter proved to be his destination. His mom kept throwing around this word "neuter" at the front desk, but he just didn't know what that meant, all he knew was that he smelled fear all over the office floor. (and a rottweiler) Then, the assistant came out and took him behind the double doors. He went happily (because he has no sense of loyalty) with the lady, to his unbeknownst male doom. We'll be able to pick him up tomorrow afternoon, he'll probably never trust us again. I'm curious to see if they weigh him, because we've been asked how big he is now that he's 7 months old. We're guessing around 30 lbs, but we don't know for sure. We're hoping, though, that his temperment will improve a little. He's been quite obnoxious lately, which I realize he's a puppy and all, but he barks at nothing. He just starts yapping, and it's pretty hard to get him to stop. We were taught to just turn away from him, and not give him any attention. If it continues, just leave the room. (Which isn't a great idea, because then he finds something to tear up.) Hopefully without all these hormones raging, he'll calm down a little. I know it won't make a huge change, but if nothing else, we won't have to worry about him..um..'hugging' Brandon's leg. Po goes back to school starting next Tuesday, in which he'll continue his obedience training with his lady love. Even though now...he may not be as interested. Stay tuned for updates.

just what is a photo worth?

I don't know about you, but there are many instances that I wish I had a camera with me. Most, if not all, cell phones have them, but the one I had couldn't transfer the pics to a computer, so I didn't count that. Every once in a while, I actually do have a real camera on me, and thats how you capture fun things like this...

A flat bed truck on a flat bed truck. Not only that, the Toyota trucks are carrying 4-wheelers in the bed. How efficient are they?

Are we by Ellis Island? Nope, just a lawn ornament store outside of Houston. I cut off the torch, that lit up. Its hard to take a picture from a moving vehicle. Luckily traffic was heavy enough, I could get the picture somewhat in focus. Can you picture this in your neighbors yard?

Apollo has many interesting quirks about him when he sleeps. He barks, wags his tail, sleeps stretched out on his back, contorts his body so his paws are sticking out of strange places, and this one is my favorite.

I have returned

I've realized I promised a MSM with the gingerbread house we made, and yet half a month later I still haven't posted it. I also realize it is no longer Monday, however for today we're going to pretend this was posted yesterday. I don't want to say we'll pretend its Monday, because that's just mean. Unless you look at it that tomorrow is Wednesday, man this week is going by fast, its almost as if Tuesday never happened. Anyhow I will finally post the gingerbread house of God, and today! We started (by 'we' I mean Brandon) took an existing ornament as inspiration and figured out angles and such and made a mock up in paper. This way we had a template to cut out the gingerbread. (later we discovered that the gingerbread stretches a little in transport from the cutting board to the cookie sheet, so we should have just baked a sheet for 30 min, and then cut out the pieces, but it worked out ok) Word of warning while cutting out the windows, the dough rises a little while cooking, so cut out the windows a little larger. (If they still swell, you can file them down with a sharp knife, which is what we had to do.) While the gingerbread baked, we broke up pieces of Jolly Rancher candies and melted them in the oven on aluminum foil for about 3 minutes. After all the pieces had cooked and cooled, we started piecing together and gluing with the royal icing. As you can see, we didn't quite finish the project. We had gumdrops and redhots to use for decor, but yeah, that didn't happen. However a large snow storm blew in and only hit the steeple...I'm not sure how. Weather is funny that way. And yes, that is an outhouse. I'm not sure how that came about, but yet there it is. I think we were feeling silly. Gingerbread houses are a lot of fun, they also are time consuming, so make sure you have a day or so to plan and assemble. They do come in kits, but if you're planning on eating the house...I don't know how good that'd be. That and you don't know if your walls have broken in your store bought kit. So, there you go, late, but as promised. If you feel inspired, you could make MLK jr. house or maybe the White House for inauguration day.

seedling to a sapling

I'm not sure if a seedling is a real term or not, but it just seemed to flow better than "seed to sapling." Why does it need to flow? I don't know, it just does. A year ago (tomorrow) Brandon and I were just a seedling couple. Just married, trying to make our way putting down roots, and trying to break through the soil to reach the sunlight. Now, a full year later, we're a little bitty sapling, still fragile but better rooted and not so much in danger of being eaten by a bird or small rodent. Now we just have to watch out for full bladdered dogs...and woodpeckers...and perhaps termites. Maybe being a tree isn't such a good analogy. Anyhow, It's been a very interesting journey full of ups and downs and many many learning experiences. We've been through a frustrating employment, a graduation, our first move to our first duty station, our first car, some of flight school, a frustrating unemployment, a new puppy, first camping trip, our first Thanksgiving, our first Christmas, first New Years (which we were both sick, and didn't go see the pelican drop) and now unfortunately a death. My Papaw, a former B17 pilot in the Army Air Corps during WWII, has been battling Alzheimer's for the past few years, but was still able to make our wedding a year ago. I was extremely happy they could make it then, but now, I'm even more glad I got to spend some time with them. During this past year, his health has rapidly declined and we're finding ourselves having to say a very hard goodbye to a wonderful man. If you guys could just pray for him to pass without pain, strength for my Mamaw (who's also been sick in the hospital being treated for dehydration) in dealing with this tough time, as well as my Mom and her brother and sister, I'd really appreciate it. I know most of the people who read this know the power of prayer and walk with the Lord, which is the only reason why I'm posting this here.