No, You Are Awesome!

If you are a blogger that has a policy of not accepting awards then you are missing out! I'm awful about passing them on but I LOVE getting them!


First off, I want to than Janel at Dandelion Dayz for this wonderful friendship award. And if you have a minute, you must read what Janel's husband did to their daughter's door after she had slammed it one too many times!

I also want to thank the fabulous Michelle for this fabulous award! I think Michelle has one of the best blog names in the blogosphere: There Must Be More To Life Than Dishes And Laundry. Isn't that great?!

Next I want to thank Jamey at Walking By Faith for these 3 awards. Jamey holds a very special place in my little bloggy heart because she is a NASCAR fan like me and even got to drive one of the driver intro trucks around a lap at Sonoma!

This isn't an award but I want to mention it anyway because today it IS all about me! Jay and Deb have put together a thing where bloggers write a tribute to something or somebody every Tuesday. And Catherine from Evolving Mommy wrote a tribute to me! And then I blubbered like a baby to my husband and he mentioned how it was a lovely post but he's only cried one time in his entire adult life when his grandpa died and I asked him how many times did he think that I've cried. Well, seeing as how I get weepy at Onstar commercials, he didn't even want to do the math for fear that his brain would explode. What I'm trying to say is that I'm so grateful for that tribute that I'm going to stumble every single recipe that Catherine posts on her blog. It's the least I can do! Thank you Catherine!

Goodbye John Updike

My boys are 6 and 4--they are growing up too fast. On one hand, it's a joy to see them grow and learn and experience new things but on the other hand, the older they get, the closer they get to learning the hard stuff in life. The world can be cold and kids can be cruel. Big pup refuses to take chocolate pudding to school for his lunch now because somebody said he has a chocolate mustache. When he told me that I instantly started asking questions: "Who said that? Did it make you sad? What did you say?" Turns out, he's not really bothered by it, he just doesn't want to take it to school anymore. No big deal. At least for him. And I guess I'm overreacting but I can't help it, like any mother, I want to protect them as much as possible. Because, unfortunately, they can't stay innocent forever.

Check out Saying Goodbye to Very Young Children by John Updike, the Pulitzer Prize winning American author, who died last week at age 76.

Triple Chocolate Trifle

Look what I made for the Super Bowl festivities this past Sunday. It's a Triple Chocolate Trifle! And I will be making it for Valentines Day, and for the Daytona 500 coming up, and again for my birthday in March, and let's see, what else? I need more excuses to make this trifle! And I promise that next time I'll share more of it with my 4 year old. Earlier this week he kept asking, "Where's that thing we ate at the Super Bowl party?" And he wasn't talking about the spinach cheese dip either. So now I feel guilty and the only way to assuage my guilt is to make more. Yeah. That's it.

Triple Chocolate Trifle

1 pkg oreo cookies
3 TBS butter
1 large box of instant chocolate pudding
3 cups milk
1 box brownie mix (plus ingredients needed for mix)
16 oz whipped topping
cherries
trifle bowl--see what I used? It's actually a big candle holder that I bought to put Sangria in:)

Scrape the filling off of the cookies and put into a food processor to make crumbs. Mix half the crumbs with the melted butter and press down into trifle bowl.

Stir the pudding mix into the milk and after it's whisked together, stir in 8 ounces of the whipped topping. Add half of this mixture to the oreo crust.

Then add half of the brownies, broken into bite size pieces.

Then add a layer of 4 ounces of whipped topping, then the rest of the oreo crumbs, followed by the rest of the pudding, then brownies, then the rest of the whipped topping. Garnish with cherries.

Wordless Wednesday: Is This A Smart Idea?

Brought To You By The Letter A

You know, I've stopped twittering because I just wasn't sure if anyone out there really wanted to know all of the minute details of my life. Like this little detail right here:

I was hoping to get caught up on Arrested Dev today. I mowed the backyard instead.
9:09 PM Oct 10th, 2008 from web

Isn't that interesting? I chose to mow the yard instead of watching TV. Fascinating.

Well, I've decided to subject you all to even more useless information about myself. More specifically, stuff I like that starts with the letter A. Many thanks to LeAnn for assigning me this awesome letter. You can check out her D-list here (she's a Pepper too!)

1. Actually--Big pup has picked this word up and has been saying it a lot lately. It's such a big word, it sounds so cute coming from him.

2. Alligators--sniff, sniff, I smell a post about alligators coming up soon! I like 'em.

3. Arkansas--Go Hogs!

4. Amy Tan--When is she coming out with a new novel? I need something to erase Saving Fish from Drowning from my memory.

5. ATV--I like to go four-wheeling through the trails in national forests. I do not like to rock-crawl.

6. Apples with cheddar cheese--Mmmmm.

7. Autumn--I love the cooler temps and the beginning of the holiday season, starting with Halloween.

8. Ave Maria--We had this sung at our wedding. I wish I had a cd of everyone's version of this song. I like Celine Dion's while WD likes Aaron Neville's rendition.

9. Awards--I know that some bloggers aren't into awards but I always love it when you guys give me one. It means a lot to me!

10. Alithelazydog.com--'nuff said.

Generic Super Bowl Recap

Did you see Bruce Springsteen do the windmill arm move playing the guitar? Did you see him swing his guitar up over his head several times? Did you see how the pyrotechnics were in sync with the music? Did you see their little skit where a ref throws a flag at them for not leaving the field? Did you see how he was specifically playing just for little ol' me? How cool was that?

When WD and I go on trips I have to wait until he falls asleep until I can put my Springsteen cd in the cd player. He doesn't appreciate the Boss like I do.

So anyway...the game...um...well, when it started it was anyone's game to win. It was clear that the winner would be the team that stepped up and made the right plays. The team trailing at the half needed to make some big halftime adjustments and play the way that got them there. Really, it was their game to lose. But the other team gave 110 percent and God was on their side. Congratulations Super Bowl Champions!

Colbert On Poetry

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Elizabeth Alexander

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For last weeks Poetry Friday edition I posted Elizabeth Alexander's inaugural poem Praise Song for the Day. It got mixed reviews. You guys were much nicer in the comments than some of the stuff I've been reading around the web. "Poetry died on January 20, 2009" and "she sounded like the GPS in my car and about as interesting." Yikes! She made an appearance on The Colbert Report where she explained a little more about her poem and why it wasn't so robust.

And I think if Stephen Colbert had taught my Intro to Modern Poetry class in college, I wouldn't have fallen asleep in class so much!