Be Grateful

We Miss You

Ben's final resting place.

In memory of CPT Benjamin D. Keating 3-71 CAV
KIA Nov. 26 2006 Kamdesh, Afghanistan

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil:
For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil;
My cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.

The 23rd Psalm

Happy Birthday Nickie!

(Me, Sydney, my mom and Nickie)

Mini Tote

My friend, Elizabeth, asked me if I could make a tote for her daughter Megan. Megan is already developing a love of purses at a young age! I thought why not!? I knew how to make a regular size so what was the harm in trying to scale down the pattern.

(photo courtesy of At Home with the Cunninghams)
Isn't she so cute!

I had extra fabric from my tote so I decided to see if I could make a practice tote. (My niece Sydney will end up with the finished product.) It came out much better than I thought. I didn't make a liner (I will going forward with every tote no matter the size.) and I thought the pocket would be cool on the outside. It isn't perfect but I am still pretty excited!

What the heck?

I don't know about you guys, but around the holidays the mailman seems to deliver an obscene amount of catalogs. Most of the catalogs we get are from places I have never heard of so how they got my info, I have no idea. This weekend we received a catalog from Hammacher Schlemmer. On the front cover they claim to be 'America's Longest Running Catalog'. I have no idea how this is possible because I didn't find one thing in the catalog that I think normal folks would want to buy.

The most interesting item I found was The Fish Agility Training Set. Yes, you read it correctly a fish training set. Does this strike anyone else as odd!?! What the heck? The set actually includes hoops, soccer balls, slalom course, etc... The catalog states that the set 'uses techniques similar to those used to modify circus animal behavior'. Seriously!?!

(pic couresty of hammacher.com)

I thought people bought fish because it was an easy pet to take care of or maybe they buy fish to help reduce their blood pressure. Do people really buy fish to train them in agility? I just can't get my mind around this idea.

I actually started to feel bad for my fish Gilligan (A goldfish I bought at Wal-Mart for less than a dollar years ago.) because I never thought to train him. Did he feel as though I didn't love him? Was his short life a bore because all he did was swim around in circles? (He died after only a few weeks. Darn Wal-Mart for selling faulty fish.)

Rest in peace Gilligan. I am sorry I was such a bad owner that you never got to know the feeling of scoring a goal or making a basket. And although you were good company, I still don't think you were quite worth the $39.95 it would cost me to (apparently) give your life more meaning.

Well, I am off to see what other madness I can find in these random catalogs. I am not quite sure I can find something to top the above nonsense. Stay tuned!

'The Good Old Hockey Game...'

Aaron and I attended a Portland Pirates hockey game Saturday night. We hadn't been to a hockey game for so long we were going through withdrawl. I used to go to Buffalo Sabres games a lot when we lived closer. So when we heard the Pirates were hosting a military night we thought we would go check it out.

To our surprise the Pirates, as of June 2008, is the new feeder team for the Buffalo Sabres. It was cool to be able to see the guys in action who might one day make it to play for the Sabres in NHL.

(pic courtesy of portlandpirates.com)

The Pirates wore special stars and stripes jerseys to honor the military.

After 3 periods, the Pirates came out victorious over the Philadelphia Phantoms 5-3. We definitely want to go to another game before the season ends. The arena was pretty full and the fans were electric. We had a great time!

Sister's Blog

My sister, Nickie, finally started a blog of her own. Here new blog is Whole Lotta Fowlers. I am sure there will be a lot of quirky stories about Nickie, my crazy niece, Sydney, and their dogs.

Enjoy!

Happy Veteran's Day

Pumpkin Drop Cookies

I made pumpkin drop cookies the other day for work and they were a big hit! So, I thought I would share the recipe in case you were feeling like a cookie:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg

Glaze:
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.

3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.

4. To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency. Drizzle over warm pumpkin cookies.

Yummy!

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com, so it is not an original from me. I think I will be making these every year from now on. I have said it before and I will say it again...I love pumpkin!

New Trophy

Aaron hasn't had much time to go hunting and fishing so when he brought home this 7 point buck the first day of hunting season, he was really excited! It really was a beautiful deer.

Great job babe!

Tote #2

I finished my second tote! I must say it wasn't much easier the second time around, although I did try a few new things just to torture myself. :o)

I added extra fabric on the bottom this time to add some more color. Also because I knew that white in fabric tries to cling to everything around it. And the bottom would definitely get the most dirt. (I just noticed I didn't fully push the fabric to the bottom, causing the right bottom to look uneven in the picture. I assure it doesn't look that bad in person.)

I attempted a pocket this time. It was actually a pretty easy addition! I have decided that all my future tote creations will have pockets. Because seriously, who doesn't love pockets?!