Lands End Sale

I am so excited about Lands End bag sale THIS week only. So you really only have a few hours to get this deal. These bags are great to take to the pool, park, or whatever. I have one already in Orange that I use for my pool supplies, but it says food and wine on the side. Now I got one in Medium pink for myself. I am also paying the extra $5 for my initials. Click here to start shopping.

9 things you should not do at the gym

I go to my local gym several mornings a week. I see a very wide range of people. I try very hard not to judge people but there are just some things I notice about people that surprise me. So I think these are things you should not do while at the gym.
The gym is a people watching place, some use it as a pick up place (I do not) not saying that I don't look though. There are some very well build males that attend :) Right Ladies (wink wink).

Here are a few things I have noticed lately that you should not do:

1.  Men or Boys do not wear swim trunks as shorts...it's weird or maybe I just don't get it

2.  Ladies you really don't need all that makeup, natural at the gym in NORMAL

3. Tennis skirts are for when you play TENNIS!

4. Sweat so much you have a lake forming under your machine...ever heard of a towel?

5. Talk loudly on your phone, it's rude and WE DON'T CARE!

6. Wearing clothes 3 sizes to small

7. Wearing clothes 3 sizes to small and riding bent over a bike = GROSS.

8. Putting 400 lbs of weights on a bench press, have no spotter, then drop it =you look like a douche bag!

9. Wearing shirts with the sleeves and sides of the shirt cut out..again douche bag might as well just not wear a shirt.

Well I think I covered the things I saw at the gym this week! If anyone reading this blog is offended I'm sorry, these are just things I notice when I'm working out. This is my own opinion and I'm entitled to that. If in someway I'm helping you realize you do some of these, your welcome :)

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

September's book club book was Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. I really enjoyed this book from page 1. I found it to be a long read but good.  Henry the main character is a Chinese boy living in Seattle with his parents during WWII (1942-1986). His parents have him attending an all white school where they treat him poorly. He works in the kitchen serving lunch everyday until one day a Japanese girl starts working with him. The become friends very quickly. They both like each other but don't want to admit it. I kept feeling like just kiss her already!  The book transitions from Henry being a child and living this life to an adult with a son who is getting married to a white women and he's trying them his past. The book is very detailed on how much Henry struggles with bullies, his father banishing him, and how he longs for Keiko. The unspoken love they have between each other had me in sobs by the end of the book. I thank the lord we don't go through what people had to endure in the 40's. The ending is fantastic although the last sentence had me a little upset....(spoiler alert) what the heck did they say to each other? I couldn't find in the book when they had previously said those words to find out what it meant. But my imagination leads me to believe that they were saying they missed each other and I love you! I'm so happy that it ended the way it did.
I think I may have been 1 or 2 of 9 people in the book club that liked this book. Others said it was slow and hard to get into. Some didn't even finish the book. Like I said it was good but it was a bit difficult for me to grab every night. I am also reading another book at the same time that was a little more fast paced that had me reaching for that one more.
All in all, I do recommend this book to anyone. I am also from Seattle and miss is so much that just reading about locations they were in made me picture home, like I was there.
Enjoy your read. If you have read it what do you think of it???

Golf Course Cake

Mr. T turned 7 in August and he wanted everything to do with miniature golf. So of course I had to come up with a golf course cake! I searched high and low for little plastic golfers, flags anything you put on top of a cake with no luck. I thought this is really putting my creativity to the test. I didn't mind though I just love to bake and feel like a little Highlands Ranch Martha Stewart!
Here are some step by step directions on how to make a Golf Course Cake with limited supplies.

Make your desired cake mix as a long sheet cake. Get white (vanilla preferably) icing and green food coloring.
Mix icing and green dye together to make a grass green. You will need 2 greens one darker then the other. I decided to put a river in the middle so make a small batch of blue icing as well. Using an small spreader start applying the icing slowly. Make sure the cake is completely cooled off or it will rip the top layer of the cake.



 Once you have your grass down put in your river. I then put rocks down on the side of the river. I simply mixed a white and black gel icing together to make grey.

 For your sand pit crush a 1/2 a graham cracker and sprinkle in an odd shape by the green. I then made a square flag with a number on it. Put a black gel icing spot for the hole.

Since I didn't actually have a golfer I put a white icing dot for a ball and two clubs crossed on the side. This is the best I could come up with. My son was happy and the kids at the mini golf party were so excited! I think if you have experience with Fondant it would look better but that stuff is very hard to work with and doesn't taste all that great.

Fajita Seasoning Recipe

 I just love the colors of Fajitas!

I went to go make Fajitas for dinner the other night and realized that I ran out of my wonderful seasoning. I still wanted the dinner so bad that I had to come up with my own. It turned out pretty good!

Seasoning:

•2 tbsp chili powder


•1 tbsp salt

•1 tbsp paprika

•Pinch sugar

•1 or 2 crushed chicken bouillon cube

•1 tsp Onion powder (optional)

•½ tsp garlic powder

•½ tsp cayenne pepper

•¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes

•½ tsp cumin

I only ended up using a small portion of the seasoning since I only used 1 1/2 chicken breasts. I put the rest in a snack sized zip lock bag and labeled it for next time.

I'm so excited...

I'm so excited, Halloween is less than a month away! I love everything about Halloween, the costumes, the candy, trick or treating, and I love to decorate and doing crafts and of course being scared. I love to be scared, but just for a second. Roger and I went to 2 haunted houses last Halloween downtown, they were scary only because it was literally pitch black, you could not see in front of you and there fore you couldn't see if something was next to you or about to scream in your face. Once you were in the decorated room, it wasn't that scary it was pretty obvious who was going to move off the doctor's table or that the head laying on the table was going to open it's eyes. I held onto the back of Roger's shirt and made him lead. Even Roger was to scared to walk in front. It was worth going only because we went for cheap.

I sometimes wish the boys were still so little, I remember Tanner was a baby duck for his 1st Halloween, he was precious. (I'd post that picture but it got a little wet and ruined) Dylan was a little devil, which really fit his personality at 2. It was cute having them try so hard to say Trick or Treat and take candy from a stranger. They used to give the candy out of there bags into the peoples buckets. So cute, now they want to trick or treat for hours, and have large bags. I told them when I was at least in middle school my dad would drive us to every neighborhood and fill up pillow cases full of candy. They cannot wait to do the same. At this time the boys don't know what they want to dress up as, but I refuse to let them be anything with a mask. I end up carrying it all night long. That gets in the way of holding my adult beverage :)
Yes, we here in "The Ranch" carry adult beverages while taking the kids trick or treating. I usually do a warm drink like hot chocolate or cider with a little "spice". It keeps me warm because usually it's freezing outside. Last year we had a snow storm the night before, it was a cold, wet mess. But of course like I said I really look forward to it. I'm thinking today after church I will get into the crawl space and get out all my decor and start planning my crafts!

 Mr. T and Mr. D as star wars and transformers guys...yes I carried the masks all night!

Me being creative, my Frankenstein cake! If you need to know what I used to create your own let me know and I can blog the recipe.
Anyone else have a Halloween craft they just love to do? I'd love to see pictures!

The Santcuary Golf Day

Once a year Roger, Simon, Nique and I play a day of golf at The Sanctuary Golf Course. Usually on a Monday at the end of September. It's always been hot and sunny with an amazing view from each hole. It's just off Daniels Park in Castle Pines, CO. 
This annual trip is a great time with obviously gorgeous golfing, drinks, talking and laughing. There plenty of time for all of that along the course cause we were there for like 6 hours. In spite of having a horrible headache I did a great job! I hit 5's and 6's on almost every hole, except 17 because that's the longest and hardest on the course. I switched using Nique's and Roger's clubs too, so it was such an adjustment on each hole. I cannot wait to get my own set of clubs. I think I like this golfing thing! It's also something Roger likes to do, maybe we could play more than once a year if I start playing! It would be pretty cool to be able to really learn and play with my mom up in Seattle or a round with my dad is Arizona. Who knows, I could be dreaming. I do this thought process once a year after a round at The Sanctuary, who wouldn't after playing one of the best courses around!  Maybe I'll keep a look out for a good special on some lessons.

 

 Roger did a lot of this :)

The Crew!