Laundry, Trees, Yeast, and Conference...

I guess you could say this is one of those "a little bit of everything" posts. I'll try to make it short but sweet (did someone say chocolate?)... :)

1. I actually won a blog contest, can I tell you how excited I am? I don't win stuff, so this was especially thrilling...it made it all the better that it was from my sweet friend Lisa, who blogs about chocolate all the time (love that woman!).

Now, you're probably thinking I won chocolate,...I didn't. I won a cleaning product, yup, work, work and more work, LOL. Lisa held a drawing and the winner won a box of Purex 3 in 1 Laundry dealy boppers. You pop the sheet in the washer and then in the dryer; it contains detergent, softener and anti-static. I've been using them since I got the package and they smell great, clothes are soft, fluffy and static-free (oh yeah, and clean!) - very nice product! :)

But do you REALLY want to know why I was so excited that I won one of Lisa's contests? Well, I just KNEW she would send me some chocolate in my package,....and guess what? SHE DID - Woo Hoo!!! Did I already say I love her? :)

2. Hubby and I were lazing around in bed the other morning, chit-chatting and whispering sweet nuthin's to eachother, when we heard a series of clunking sounds on the roof. I made a joke about it being a bit too early for Santa's sleigh and we chocked it up to being a couple of REALLY big squabbling squirrells. Well, when we walked out of the room and looked out the back sliders, this is what we saw.......a huge branch had snapped off of our pecan tree...apparantly heavy with pecans (come on squirrells, get to work!)...we were lucky it didn't smash our roof, or rip down our power line which adds such a lovely aesthetic to our backyard (yuck!).

3. I spent a long time making bread the other day...I do it all the old fashioned way, by hand. For some UNKNOWN reason, I used a pan I never use (dark metal - HELLO, what was I thinking???) and baked my buns for 3 minutes too long...after 4 rises and several hours, I burnt the buns - I wanted to cry, didn't, but wanted to. HOWEVER, that didn't stop me from making up a batch of starter that evening and doing it all over again the next day. Look at the difference between using the correct pan (baking stone) and 12 minutes vs. 15 minutes!! Oh my! The taste and texture were out of tis world! :) It wasn't all a loss though, I was able to slice off the burnt bottoms, cube and freeze the "well-done" buns for recipes that call for crumbs.

4. Oh, looky there, isn't she just the cutest little dog in the entire world? Nothing much to say about her, just had to show off her little cute self today.

5. As most of you know, Kim's computer is down and out and she is driving all over town to write blog posts, lol. This was the day I burnt the buns, they came over to drop off one of their computers for my Hubby (AKA Dr. Mike) to fix. We all enjoyed a burnt bun with butter - they were actually quite tasty without their bottoms, lol. Here she is with her darling boys! :)

6. Last but most certainly not least...I will be outta here for a few days. Hubby and I are going to a Marriage Conference at the Coconut Point Hyatt Resort in Bonita Springs, FL. I'm looking forward to the conference itself, but also just being at the resort, there will be some free time to kayak, splash in the pool, dine out, so it'll be like a little "mini-getaway" for us. Kind of a pre-celebration of our 10th anniversary (which is coming up in just one week!)

Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this long post!

Have a wonderful Jesus filled weekend!