A little inspiration...

If this Sunday afternoon finds you lounging and needing a few images and ideas to inspire you toward summer or a new project or a treat for yourself (or a swap!), then you should FOR SURE head yourself right over to Matthew Mead Style and click...for hours. Here are a few images that I just can't help revisiting:

Cinnamon Bun Babka Cake

Pavé Arrangement

Ruffle-collared ice cream cones
Doily wrapped votive holder
Old paperback book used as a picture holder - and his site has plenty of instructions and downloads. Seriously - get over there!

Oh - just a little sliver for me...

I guess I'm thinking of my Grandma Siple a lot these days! I saw this pan and instantly thought of her. This allows baking of a cake with many slice sizes - so that the host or hostess doesn't have to guess what "oh...just a small piece" - because Wavie has no idea how to serve a "small piece" of anything! Head over to Kaboodle for this awesome pan!

There is ALWAYS room for...

You're not having fun until you head over to Jello Time. Creepy and hypnotic - and making me hungry...

It also makes me miss my Grandma. She always makes such good Jello - great flavor combinations. And she never skimps on the fruit or Cool Whip.

Arrival...

I'm sure you've guessed that the road trip portion of the summer is over - for now! I arrived in Salt Lake on Tuesday morning and by 11:00 a.m. we were headed East, singing and snacking. We had two cars and cruised our way to Cheyenne, Wyoming. And I'm just going to say that I'm glad I don't live in Wyoming all the time. It was just fine to visit for a night - and that was enough.
Day Two of the road trip turned into the longest day, going from Cheyenne to Des Moines, Iowa. We saw a lot of flooded areas or fields that had clearly been flooded in the last few days. The rivers were swollen and quite high - with the water being right up under bridges as we crossed them. We had many a Baby Einstein and Elmo DVD and really made it through the long day without much incident. Although - sometimes grown up rest stops weren't as accessible through Nebraska and Iowa...and I did learn the art of the bladder punch. Funny, but not nice.
Day Three was our lightest day - so after a leisurely breakfast we drove along, still asking questions from the question books and discussing a wide variety of topics. We made our lunch stop in Davenport, Iowa at a McDonald's playland. After tag and dodge ball, we were on the road for the final two hours - which absolutely flew. I'm not going to lie to you folks, this road trip went SO FAST. Each night I was tired, but not crazy exhausted - and the company was delightful. Everyone traveled so well. So - now - we go about the business of getting the new house cleaned and ready to receive the contents on Monday! And now - it's nap time...yee-haw.

Best thing in a while...

So - there will be more pictures over at Making It Look Good along with his letter from this week - but this picture of Elder Taylor has brought me such joy today...and I think it will keep making me smile for many moons.

The Eldersaurus Rex...in his natural habitat.

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

So - in just a few short hours I'm on a plane to join my friends as we road trip to the newest chapter of their lives in Chicago. I'm super stoked for a fun road trip and many exciting adventures in Chicago. Here are just a few of the things I am excited about:





I will miss Portland and all my dear friends and Primary peeps - but am sure excited for my next adventure!

2008 Cheese Races...

Oh dear friends...it was spectacular. I loved it. Amazing. And I have proof and will have more proof once I get more pictures from my friends...

The McDermott ladies - ready to rock the cheese races!

The crowd gathered in the Cheese Arena

Many cheese racing hopefuls - but there can be only one winner.

During one of the second round "casts" Jane B.'s cheese had an unfortunate landing...a half-on-dangler. Sad.

So much cheese! Oh, and the tournament brackets! I do hope you'll join us next time. When that will be, I have no idea. But seriously - you should come...because it is SO fun.

We really lucked out because my father, McGyver had all the tools and equipment needed to make our Cheese Races successful: an above ground fire pit; a nice big grill; a charcoal chimney to prepare the briquettes; gloves; tongs; a bucket for collecting the raced cheeses. Amazing. We truly couldn't have done it without the Cheese Master. Thank you, Dad.

I'm back - and I'm serious!

Tonight is the night. Not only is it my return to my loved and missed blog but it is also the first official night of Cheese Racing. You may remember a million years ago I posted about Cheese Racing. If you don't remember, don't worry. It WAS one million years ago. But tonight is the night - and will begin in about five minutes. I thought about live blogging tonight - but I really want to enjoy the fun...so know that I will be back later tonight with plenty more fun things to read about. I'm serious.

In the mean time - you could head over to CheeseRacing.org and then have your own personal cheese race. I assure you that it works. Or if you want something totally random you can head over to Whorange and read about the upcoming trends in home decor. I think the new Polar Bear will be Moose...you heard it here first.

Wii Dishwashing Champion

I'm quite new to the Wii...but plan to get real good this summer!

Must see...

Many thanks to Ryan - for sending me this link...oh man...this has made my day!

If you haven't seen The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters...go now...rent it...and love it.

What time is it?

At school we're working on learning how to read a clock and tell time. And to practice that, we have these play clocks with gears and everything. Imagine my delight when I pulled out these clocks today...

If it's a Judy, it has to be good.

JUDY, Bar the door!

I need a countdown to November...

Going bananas...

What the what?

Folks, my political views are mine and I won't burden you with them here. I will burden you with all my OTHER views, but not politics. So - a fun blog I've been enjoying is: Things Younger Than John McCain - and folks it is sort of staggering. And funny...

A few of my personal favorite things that are younger than John McCain:

Velcro

Cheerios

The State of Alaska

The Polio Vaccine

Mount Rushmore

So chew on that...

Two in one night...I know, right!?

Take the Quiz here!

A tat for Art...

Dear Art,
I promised you a one for one posting...so here it is. Life has been super busy and when not busy - life has been about recharging batteries. I've gotten into a rhythm now and will be fully heading back to posting this week...eventually.

I do love chatting with my Crockpot and his Missus. You make me laugh and feel warm and snuggly. I'm not sure how life is going to unfold in the coming months - but I'm going to work really hard to visit that Garage of Wonders you have on Collister.

Love -
Miss Five
c/o Judy's Parlor.

In case I have a desk anytime soon...

I saw this great set of "Desktop Dodgeball" over at Uncommon Goods...and I surely do want one. Don't you? Who do you most relate to? The kid covering his "business" or the girl covering her face?

SO EXCITED...

Tonight is the live online book discussion for The Bright Side of Disaster. Sk*rt is hosting the discussion and I sure am excited to be part of it...

I really enjoyed the book - and even more importantly - I loved the binding. It'll be coming out in paperback very shortly - but if you can - get yourself a hardback, because this book is so well bound and it lays flat on a table without the pages flipping! For this fact, alone, you should get this book. But you'll also be glad for the story - funny and thoughtful.

And - off I go to chat via the Interwebs...

Getting my head together...

As promised - I'm back now that I can string more than two thoughts together...and this is what I've been inspired by today...
Image via Savoring the Details

More to come when my brain can again multi-task...

But tonight - my mother and I had a delightful exchange...and it went like this:

Mom: Well, if I didn't know better, I could have sworn it was her sister.

Me: Do you know better?

Mom: No...I don't!!

(I fall apart laughing. SCENE)

Make me crazy...

This bookshelf would make me crazy...

In fact...I think I'm getting hives just looking at it...

For Seth...

Do they have a "lefty" bracelet?

I think this is lovely and creative. And I just hope they have a left-handed scissor bracelet...

Don't come crying to me...

So - all of you parents of little kids - you just thank your lucky stars. Because a 55 year old having a temper tantrum is WAY worse than your kid fitting out in the grocery store. I'm not kidding.

In case you're wondering, she's upset about her pedometer. It doesn't work, apparently. But really - I was laughing too hard to get the details. What you've just seen is the last minute of a four minute experience.

Such a nice evening...

Tonight - Dad mowed the lawn...He's good at mowing lawns...

That lantern stand is really stuck in there, huh?

Our grass was way tall. It's not now.

After Mark got his chores done, we ate dinner and watched The Bee Movie. Then we all played Bingo. And none of us won anything. But not to worry - it's on EVERY NIGHT this week. Sweet.

Oh hold me: Bingo is Back!!

Good news! The Game Show Network is premiering Bingo America tonight. Head over and print your bingo cards so that you can play along at home!! Oh, and make sure you have the Game Show Network. Maybe you should reverse those steps.

I've printed mine!

Can anyone tell me...

...what "orlon" and "dynel" are?! I feel like I'm on the Carousel of Progress...

Image via Roadsidepictures' Flickr account

ALMOST "Cracked Out"

And I don't even DRINK coffee!

I want this room...

And I don't care if there is a giant mirror opposite the bed...

Via Desire to Inspire

Start book club...CHECK.

Last night was the first official meeting of the Northwest Book Club (NWBC) and I will say that it was a RIP ROARING SUCCESS!! The discussion was lively and insightful (since everyone had read the whole book) and the food was just suh-good! In case you'd missed it, we read Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. Everyone was asked to bring food on based on the theme of: "food we love or food with franks." As you can see folks did a great job of covering all the bases.

Kourtney reveals her from scratch hot dog cookies

She designed and built them herself. And they tasted good, too!

No book club is complete without Mr. Boston - thanks, Craigs!

Kourtney and Debbie...before we really get going

Josh, Petie, Kourtney, Eric, and Debbie - and thank you Eric, for trying to keep your hands to yourself.

A cheese fondue and a chocolate fondue - and you could dip breads and crackers and apples and bananas and Joe-Joes. Debbie brought lil smokies in bar-b-que sauce - and there were no smokies left at the end of the night. Seriously - so much good food and such great company. Don't you want to join us?! Of course you do! Feel free to send me an e-mail if you'd like to join the NWBC...

April NWBC

Easter

This year Easter sure was great. The children I work with in Primary sang the opening hymn - and I was very proud to be part of that. They were so bright and happy and rejoicing - perfect for an Easter service.

After church we had some naps and then prepared our contributions for a lovely Easter dinner with friends. The dinner was delish and then after sharing a spiritual Easter message, we played Charades and had some sock sumo wrestling and finished up the evening with Two Truths and a Lie. It certainly wasn't easy to come up with lies with your family sitting there - but I do think we learned a lot of really cool things about our friends.I love the yellows of Spring!

Meat Cereals

This cracked me up...I just wonder what they would do with Special K?

Sub gems...

Last Wednesday
Brad: "Wow! You're my best friend!"

Me: "REALLY?!"

Brad: "No."


Last Thursday
Brad: "In my dream there was a vampire trying to get me - and it was YOU! But it was old."

Me: "I'm not old?"

Brad: "No. Just a vampire."

Poetry night...

I found this really great poetry idea as done by Austin Kleon - blackout poetry. It should seem pretty obvious what you do...but what you do is choose an article from the newspaper - and just select words from the article to make a poem.

Three things I like about this...
1. Sometimes making poems is hard...and this really simplifies the process. Could be a fun get together activity...I'm just sayin'.

2. Recycling newspapers is SO hot right now. Go green or go home...or something...

3. Most importantly: this project requires Sharpies.

Some really great wallpapers can be found here

Corteo

Oh my word - so overdue is this post. Letting three weeks pass after seeing such a mind-blowing show is just rude. Rude.I was so fortunate to see Cirque de Soliel's new touring show Corteo. And I loved it. LUH-HOVED it. Amazing and beautiful acrobatics and gymnastics and juggling. Lots of traditional "circus" acts - with a lovely storyline and stunning music. The music is so great and very Cirque without being TOO funky...you know what I mean?

My favorite part was when Valentina (a little person) was floated around in this contraption:
The old man and Valentina did some funny bits - but then she was floated out over the audience and it was lovely and delightful and awe-inspiring. So many times I realized I was sitting there like a cod fish, with my mouth hanging open...but seriously. That's what this show did to me. My friend Shannon invited me to go and we had AMAZING seats. So close to the stage but with enough room to look back and see the big picture and stare at the technical elements. Thank you, Shannon.

Top Chef...

I'm quite delighted that Top Chef is back...and Chicago seems like a great place to be holding it. The first week it was good to see the whiny mopey girl gone first. Seriously - what was her deal?! The best was the fact that she said the deal breaker words for ANY reality competition show: "I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to win." And when she said that I said to my folks - she will be GONE. That compounded with her SERIOUSLY lame personality had her gone. NICE. Sadly, then the next week they lost Rachel Dratch's younger sister...but this week I was actually more sad to see Eric go - since he was good TV. But really - he was never super great - and more often found that his cooking in the competitions was just blah. So I'm glad he's back in his world doing his cooking. And I hope this means that Spike will then stop borrowing that stupid grey hat.

For Kourtney

Can you tell?

So - clearly, my time at the world's most boring job ended...and I'm back to subbing full time. And I have worked every day this week...which means I'm not sitting in front of a computer all day, trying to think of things to share. Instead my days are filled - and with funny things that are said and exciting things that happen.

This week has been crazy busy - and I will have plenty to post about - once I get the time.

Look forward to hearing about:
- Steaks the size of your head - and other dramas
- Cirque du Soleil
- Cold soup and good friends
- A battle of the books
- Being the minder of two teen aged folks
- Adventures in many different classrooms

But since I'm about to slip into a coma - I'll leave you with this gem from today:

Today in the Lunchroom, while sitting at the first grader's table:

Boy One: (shaking a hot dog) I'M EATING THIS WIENER!!
Boy Two: (to Boy One, shaking his head) That's unappropriate.

It was awesome. And so was this week. And yes, that kid DID eat that wiener.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEEDER!

Today is my aunt Deeder's birthday - she's awesome and funny and clever and modest and talented and has a wicked smile. She has eyes that listen and are respectful and clear and can cut through to the heart of the matter. She works hard and has many skills and interests. She helped me not fear bees. She makes me laugh, a lot. I love her.

Happy Birthday, Deeder!! I love you!