The Sunday Evening Funnies

You Capture / Cute

When it comes to cute, I don't think you can get any cuter than

my grand babies

and a scraggly little bird that was sitting on my mailbox.

Natalie
Jack
Lizzy

Cuteness abounds at Beth's.

You Capture / Fall (and a little family)

I really think fall could be my favorite season.

You get gorgeous colors and beautiful sunsets.

You get spectacular full moons.

But going on my first school field trip with Natalie and Sarah to the pumpkin patch was by far my favorite fall moment yet.

Check out the captures at Beth's

Making Strides

TEAM VICKIE'S CHICKIES

Today was the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in Porter County. It was threatening rain, but the sun came out and it was a perfect afternoon for a walk. I was excited for this day. I look forward to it every year.

Today I was a member of a very special team. We are Vickie's Chickies. It's kind of a silly name, but our Vickie is no silly girl. I have known Vickie for close to 30 years and she is without a doubt, one of my very best friends. We have been through a lot together in those years. Our girls are best friends. We have spent a lot of time together in very good times and very bad times. Her breast cancer was one of those very bad times. It is because of Vickie that I have become involved with theMaking Strides walk.

With the sun shining down on us, the walk started and I was walking by Vickie's side with her husband Paul and my husband and daughter. I was so proud to be by her side.

The line went on forever. There were so many people this year. I'm pretty sure this was the biggest year yet. Pink and brown as far as the eye could see.

We passed some beautiful fall colors and the biggest spider web I have ever seen.

Before I knew it, the walk was over and it was time for the closing ceremony. This is Vickie saying thank you to all of us and proclaiming being breast cancer free for almost 7 years.

It was time for a bunco babes photo.

All too soon, it was time to say good bye.

and we all headed for home.

I am proud to say that I raised $1085. for the American Cancer Society. My total will be more than that because I have a few more pledges coming in. It is one of the things I do each year that I think is really important.

I love you Vickie and I am so proud to be your friend!

I Love Fall

I love fall.

There are bugs like this trying to get in my house to stay warm at night.

There are cute little boys in hats and vests trying to catch them.
There are beautiful colors on the leaves.

And there are bright blue crisp skies with trees losing their leaves.
There is so much color in fall.
I guess we'll save that for another post.

A Post With No Name

It has been awhile since I posted. So long that I don't even know what to call this post. It's about all kinds of things. So here goes.

Let's start with the bad. My computer crashed big time. We had to buy a new hard drive. I was happy that it only cost $60. but I was very sad that the only thing my nephew-in-law could recover from the old hard drive was one date of pictures. This means that I have lost 10's of 1000's of pictures. Might even be more than that. I have the hard copy ones in albums and the ones on my blogs and Walgreen's, but that is just the tip of the iceberg of what I had. Now I have to start over and learn how to back up my stuff. You will see below that I have started over. I just need to download a good editing program, so these are straight from the camera. Anybody have a favorite editing program, preferably free?

I also lost my quote file in Word. I love quotes and have been collecting them for years. I even had a project in mind for some of the quotes and flower pictures. Now I have to start all over. If you have a favorite quote to get me started again, please feel free to leave it in the comments. I'd really love that.

Below you will find one of my very best friends and her family. This is Vickie, Paul, Sarah and Renee at the Pink Ribbon Society Breast Cancer Survivor Tea where they unveiled their new survivor calendar. Vickie is Miss April. In 2004, Vickie was diagnosed with breast cancer. She fought like a champ and beat it. Just six months shy of her five year anniversary of being cancer free, Vickie was diagnosed with lung cancer that spread from the original cancer. She never smoked a day in her life. Today, she is once again fighting and doing well. We are walking together with friends and family in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk as Team Vickie's Chickies. If you would like to help us fight cancer, please go to this link and donate. We would be so appreciative. Thank you so much.

I have been doing the C25K beginners running program. I keep waiting to like running but I just don't. I don't see the point in putting my body through that much pain on my joints. I keep plugging along though because I would like to be able to run the whole Run the Hood 5k on October 22. I may or may not make that goal, but I am trying. I have walked 2 half marathons and more 5k's than I can count, but I have never run an entire 5k. I've run/walked a few, but never run the whole thing. Let's hope this is the first time.

I have renewed my commitment to me. Me and my heath and fitness. My fitness instructor has also become my fitness coach. She is so awesome. We meet once a week before class and she goes over my goals, struggles, eating plans and anything else that I may need to talk or ask about. It's only been a few weeks, but so far so good. I have to go to the health store today and pick up a few things she suggested. I was amazed to find out that some of the things that I thought were so healthy and good for me were not. I guess you really are never too old to learn something new. Wish me luck. We just started the new Shrinkvivor challenge over at the Sisterhood. I know that will help me too.

I've been out a little bit trying to recapture some of my pictures. There are very few flowers left, but this is always one of the last to bloom in the yard so I caught it. Isn't it pretty? I want to get out to the Dunes and take some out there. I had so many awesome ones from out there that are just gone now. Makes me so sad.

When I started blogging almost three years ago, one of the very first people to comment on a post was Sharon from Mom Generations. We clicked immediately and we have become fast friends. We have so much in common. We've both been married to the same man forever. We both have four children. We are both teachers. We are both crazy nuts about our grand kids. We both lost our dads when we were in our 20's. We both love the Cubs and Notre Dame. And....we are both beyond excited that we are probably going to finally meet in person. Sharon and her husband Barry were gifted with tickets to the Notre Dame/Boston College game played at Notre Dame this year. I live an hour from South Bend and Chicago. They are flying into Chicago a few days early. I don't know if we'll meet up there or South Bend or somewhere in between but we will meet up somewhere. This is something that is beyond exciting for me. Meeting Sharon will be like meeting family. People who don't blog may not understand that, but those of you who do will totally understand.

The first six weeks of school have gone pretty well. It's always a little hard to get back in the swing of things, but I did and it's all good now. I do so much better when I am working as far as time management goes. I just do better on a schedule. We have a really good crop of kids this year. Natalie is in three day class this year. I can't believe how fast she is growing up.

Dick left this morning on his annual fall fishing trip. He just texted to say he arrived safely. After his Florida trip accident last winter, that is always a good text to get. He'll be back next weekend. I plan on having a little fun and getting some work done before he gets back.

Tomorrow night I am going to the "Knowledge to Action" Health Fair featuring Marci and Courtney Crozier of Biggest Loser fame as the keynote speakers. I'm excited to be going with some of my fitness class friends and looking to be inspired. Who can't use that? I'm taking my camera and will report about it later.

Below are a couple pictures of the kids in the yard yesterday. I'm beginning the process of new pictures of them too. Have a great week and I'll try to be better about posting. I'll get back in the swing of things.

Betty Crocker Molasses Cookie Mix Review and Prize Giveaway

Compliments of random.org, our lucky commenter is #2 Nicki Caylor! Congratulations Nicki! Email me and we'll get everything we need to get your prize off to you. Thank you all for entering.

I am not a big baker. Our oldest daughter is our fantastic baker and unfortunately for us, she is now married and doesn't live here anymore. She brings cookies over sometimes, but not all the time like we were used to. How do we remedy this?

Enter Betty Crocker and her new Molasses Cookie mix. I made these cookies last night and they were so yummy. They had a soft and chewy texture and a great spice cookie taste. The new Betty Crocker Molasses Cookie mix combines real molasses flavor with hints of cinnamon and spice for a homemade taste that you´ll love. We sure did. Look for Betty Crocker Molasses Cookie mix in the baking aisle of grocery stores this fall.

One LUCKY Bacardi Mama reader will win a "Betty Crocker® Molasses Cookie mix"

prize pack which includes:

Betty Crocker® Molasses Cookie mix
a Betty Crocker apron
non-stick baking pan
mixing spoon

In addition to being able to enter to win this giveaway, you can download this printable coupon for $0.75 off the purchase of one (1) Betty Crocker® Molasses Cookie mix pouch today!

Here are the ways you can enter to win this awesome prize package.

Mandatory entry.....Leave a comment telling how you plan to spend the time you'll save baking with Betty Crocker Molasses Cookie mix this fall.

Other entries

1. Go to the Betty Crocker website and come back and tell me something you learned.

2. Follow Betty Crocker on Facebook and come back and leave a comment telling me you did.

3. Follow Betty Crocker on Twitter and come back and leave a comment telling me you did.

4. Follow my Bacardi Mama blog.

5. Follow me on Twitter @bacrdimama

6. Follow me on Facebook.

I will draw a winner on September 25. You will have 48 hours to respond by email or I will pick a new winner. Best of luck everyone!

The product, information and prize pack has been provided by Betty Crocker through

MyBlogSpark

You Capture / Peace

Peace is flowing at Beth's

You Capture / Ordinary Moments

Lucky for us, we lead a pretty ordinary life.

Playing in the pool with dad.

Being silly eating pizza.

Playing "this little piggie".

Getting dinner ready for friends.

Heading out for a girls night.

Putting on make up.

We have lots of ordinary moments around here.

And that is just how we like it.

Things are oretty ordinary over at Beth's too.

The Fun From The Mundane

Thursday was a long hard day. No need to bore you with the details. All you have to know is that when I got home, I wanted a drink and I didn't want to cook dinner. My wonderful hubby, obliging man that he is said lets go. We headed to our favorite bar/restaurant and I ordered the biggest tallest Bacardi and diet with lime they could make.

The last thing I did before I got home was get a manicure. I love my weekly manicure. It is the one thing I truly treat myself with. So...the waitress brings my drink and I am in heaven. I go to pick it up for that first drink and I send it flying across the table right at Dick! The glass was sweaty from the humidity and my hands were slippery from the manicure lotion and it was not a good combo. I wish I had a video of it because it had to be hysterical. I have never seen Dick move so fast. He didn't get a drop on him even though it was all over his side of the booth. Ice cubes lined up down the whole seam of the seat. The table was soaked. But I couldn't do anything but bust out laughing. I thought Dick was going to be mad, but he starts laughing too. I go tell the hostess that I need a few rags and she asks what happened. I tell her and she starts to laugh as she grabs some rags and heads back to the table with me. I keep saying that I will clean it up and she won't let me. She says this is nothing and tells us the story of when one of her kindergarten students threw up in the hood of her dress.

Everything is cleaned up and they are going to bring me a new drink. I keep wiping my hands on my pants, but they keep getting slicker. How in the world am I going to drink this drink. I told Dick I should have brought one of the kids sippy cups from home. He finally thinks of the perfect solution. Go wash my hands. How could I not have thought of that?!?! So I go to the bathroom and wash my hands and everything is good. So good that I felt confident enough to tackle the crab leg special and not lose my grip on them. We both had crab legs as a matter of fact. I'm in heaven with my drink, my crab legs and a cup of baked potato soup. All of a sudden Dick is laughing and says, "I can't take you anywhere!". I look down and I have dripped butter on my shirt. I start laughing as the hostess walks by and she sits down and laughs with us. The best part was when we got up to leave, Dick had two butter drips on his shirt.

The moral of this story....You can have a bad day. You can go out for dinner on a week night. You can get a manicure. These are all pretty normal mundane things. Sometimes though, one silly little thing can happen to start a whole chain of events that makes the day fun again.