I'm back

I've been gone this weekend up in Seattle. My uncle's baby was being blessed and it was an occasion not to miss. I had a great time with my family. I think my face and diaphragm need a rest from all of the smiling and laughing though.

We went to the zoo, got sopping wet and froze, but I did see some really cool stuff there. We only saw about 25% of the zoo before we packed it in. I'll show the pictures tomorrow.

I got to hold my new baby cousin lots and lots. It just reaffirmed the fact that I want my own really badly and I am going to have one...soon I hope. :)

I don't have a bunch of pictures to show. One reason being, my camera eats batteries like tic-tacs and when you're having so much fun, you forget to take pictures of it all.

I am so glad that I got to have a mini vacation. I needed it so badly. I feel a whole lot better than I did last week. So, hopefully that means I'll be better about posting and commenting on my blog buddies posts.

I do have one question though. I saw this last week and I am really stunned. Maybe it went unnoticed to you, but I was in awe.

WHY?

Ho Hum

Is anyone else finding it hard to care for Idol this year? For me, there is only one person that I am mildly interested in. The guy that looks like Robert Downy Jr.'s love child. Danny something.

See! I can't even be bothered to remember last names. When I see the contestants on stage, it's like, "Oh look it's tattooed arm girl that can't sing really well, but because she's really pretty and charming they like her." or "The dorky Indian kid, who sings well, but chooses really bad songs for the most part." Then there is the short frog faced girl that thinks she is the most awesome thing ever. I know it's good to be confident, but acting like you've got the gig in the bag will land you where you don't wanna ever be. In the Blake Lewis and Michael Johns category that's where! Cashing in their expiring 'hey I was on Idol, let me in your club' tokens all over L.A.
This season isn't the worst at least. That was season three. Where we got this gem. Oh ya, she's doing really great. What was the last thing she had on the radio? Ya, I know she did Broadway, but I think that bone's been chewed up and gone.

Not that the runner up would have been any better. Geesh.

I'm sure that this season is going to be similar. With similar endings for the hopefuls on it. It will not produce anything or anyone great. So, this leaves me with feelings of 'what else is on tonight?'.

Am I alone on this?

Friday! Come and get your love.

The Box's'O'Awesome are ready to ship on Monday! I need to get the winners addresses. Please email me at jhdecoursey@gmail.com. I hope you guys will be happy with them.

Now for something really cool. I think the girl that does these, is so talented!!!








































This is her bento art. All edible and all hand crafted for her boyfriend's lunch. Who is "her" you might ask? She is Anna the Red. She has her own blog that has many more bentos and they come with instructions so you can make your own.

Have a great weekend!

On a more serious note...well, kinda.

So, here are the things we did yesterday. I haven't done a picture post in a while and I do have some good pictures from yesterday.

A recap first. The girls came home from school very ready to start our festivities. Abbey made the soda bread all by her self. We use a honest to goodness traditional recipe for it. It only contains 4 ingredients. Flour, milk, baking soda, and salt. It turned out a bit denser than usual, but it was her first try and she will improve. She also made the shortbread.

For dinner we had Irish stew {beef stew} it would have been more traditional if we used lamb. We had green beans, green soda bread, and green kool-aid {traditional Brinkerhoff flavor}. We talked to the girls about why we celebrate St. Patrick's Day even though we aren't even a smidgen Irish. The reason being, this country was literally built and run by Irish immigrants {among other ethnicities}. They were the working force that kept this county moving and growing, not an easy job. Most always a thankless job. So we remember and celebrate them on that day. That's how we observe St. Patrick's Day.

After dinner we watched Darby O'Gill and the Little People. ; } Then we had strawberry shortcake with whipped GREEN. {thanks Mike}

Here are some of the pictures. I didn't get any from dinner, the batteries died and I couldn't find the big pack we just bought.











































Hope you enjoyed. I wish I had a better variety to pick from.

In case you were curious, that is a cat with a haircut. He usually has long fluffy fur, but he had so many snarls we had to shave him. You also get a little glimpse of their food time trick. They beg for their food.

Have a nice day! :)

Top of the Marnin to Ya!

It's Saint Patrick's Day! {doing a little jig} I have absolutely NO Irish blood in my veins, but that doesn't ever stop me from celebrating this holiday! The girls are all dressed in green down to their socks and hair accessories. I am going to be wearing my green sweater. Jeff better find something green, he'll regret it if he doesn't...{pinch pinch}

Tonight we'll have a "traditional" Irish dinner of Irish stew and soda bread. I know that the jello will be green as will the lemon-lime koolaid. We are going to have strawberry shortcake for dessert. I'm not quite sure what part of that will be made green though. There is only two options, the shortcake or the whipped cream. One or both will be the emerald tone.

Basically the only point of reference that I had to go on for knowledge of the Irish culture would be this guy.

Or this movie.

Americanized parodies were all I had. That's OK. I love them. I'm sure today will be filled with sayings like "Don't steal me pot'o'gold!" or "Blarney" or "Don't be makin me wack you with me Shelaleigh stick!". Ya, pretty much the my's will become me's. There will be bad accents thrown around all day today. I will love every minute of it of course.

I leave you with a little clip of one of my favorite childhood movies. I know I'll be singing this ALL day too! Sorry about the quality, but it's short. :)

And the winner is.......................................................

I would like to thank everyone that entered. I am really amazed at how popular this giveaway was. I am definitely going to do the box of awesome again. The thing I didn't count on, was how hard it was going to be to pick a winner. I really wish I could give something to everyone, I really do!

Last night, Jeff compiled all the names onto a spreadsheet and tallied up all of your votes. {Limit being up to five of course} He then assigned random numbers to each person, the more you entered the more numbers you were assigned. Then we used a random number generator to pick the winner. So without further delay, the winner of the BOX'O'AWESOME is....

LKP!!!!

WAIT DON'T GO YET!
Because it was so hard for me to pick just ONE winner I have two runner ups that get a mini BOX'O'AWESOME.

Melanee
and
leannwoo!!!!

Just for the tenacity and hilarious contributions, I am going to award the commenter that commented the most. The funny thing is there was a tie. With 14 entries each.

Mike
and
Lisa!!!
You will receive something yummy from the kitchen of Heidi.

If you didn't win this time, I hope you had fun playing. I hope you will come back and be my blog friend. I am going to do another contest next month too. It might be the box of awesome, or something else. This giveaway has been really fun for me and it's taken my mind off of stupid everyday crap that I'm tired of dealing with. : ) So just a big thank you.

On a side note, I have no idea why blogger is making the lettering so big. If someone could tell me why, that would be great.

2 days left to enter.

Jeff is taking his test today. If he passes {I know he will} he will be certified and almost ready to sell. Yay! :)

I was a little worried about looking for a picture of the number two. I thought the chances of something poo related would be represented. I was surprised that nothing did.

I'm having a good and relaxing weekend. Hope you are too.