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Life Lessons from Sandra Bullock
Introducing my beautiful daughter, Arielle Rausin. One actress I’ve always admired for not only her versatility but her spunk is Sandra Bullock. I’ve grown up watching her movies, and whenever its chick flick night with mom, she’s our go to girl. Over the years I learned a lot from her films. Miss Congeniality taught me to never enter a beauty pageant unless I’m ready to accept a bomb triggering tiara. The Proposal taught me that if you deem someone your fake fiancée in order to avoid deportation, you will, in fact, fall in love with him. The Blind Side taught me that if you welcome a large, homeless boy into your…
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Hummingbird Beach Cake
Getting stuck in Jo-Ann Fabrics during a storm has its benefits. Arielle and I explored the baking aisles and found a mold for chocolate shells. Soon she had her cake all planned. Introducing The Hummingbird Cake. Arielle remembered making it years ago. I had no such recollection but she she told me it was delicious and she was right. We made the cream cheese icing first. Oh, it’s really good! Go ahead and try not to lick the bowl. It can’t be done. Ingredients: 1 (8 oz.) package Cream Cheese 1/2 Cup Butter (softened) 1 (16 oz.) sifted Powdered Sugar 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract Use a mixer and cream the…
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Olives! The World’s Greatest Olives!
This recipe came from The Food 52 Cookbook. I say the olives are the world’s greatest. They call the olives: Olive all ‘ Ascolana Ingredients: 1 tsp. Mustard Seeds 1 tsp. Rosemary 1 Clove Garlic 1/4 tsp. Red pepper flakes 1/2 cup Goat Cheese (room temp.) 1 large jar of Green Olives Small bowl of flour Small bowl with one large egg (beaten) Small bowl with 50/50 Panko Crumbs and Parmesan Mix together the garlic, mustard seeds, rosemary and red pepper flakes. Add the cheese. Refrigerate the mixture for twenty minutes. Then stuff the olives. We tried stuffing a few mushrooms too. Okay, not “we”, Eric stuffed the mushrooms. I took…
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Buddy
May 23rd I was on Facebook and a picture caught my eye. A dog. A very big dog named Buddy and the caption read: The calmest and most well-behaved dog I have ever worked with at the shelter. Our friend Eric Wilson of Square Dog Photography had posted the picture. Buddy – Bloodhound, Mastiff mix I think it was the word calm along with the adorable giant face that stirred something inside me. Instantly, I felt as though he belonged with us. I’m not sure why. I didn’t want another pet. I shared the picture of him on my Facebook wall and told everyone he needed a home… before I took…
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Our Vacation with Debby (Tropical Storm Debby)
Sometimes life doesn’t go quite as expected. We had planned to celebrate a friend’s birthday with four lovely days on Ft. Myers beach. In our minds every day would be as beautiful as the picture above. (That’s Roses,Spain.) When we arrived Saturday evening it was raining. When we woke up Sunday morning… it was raining. By Sunday evening… it was still raining. Even Mr. Gull was annoyed. Monday morning I had a glimmer of hope. Although the sun was nowhere in sight the rain had ceased. I went for a walk along the beach. The wind grew strong and water crept further and further up the shore. I ran for cover. I was…
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The sun will come out tomorrow (maybe)
I’m off to the beach for a few days and it looks like it’s going to rain every day we are there… but that’s okay. I’m just as happy carrying an umbrella and snapping pictures. My next post title could be: Things to do on Ft. Myers Beach in the Rain. Do you know the pressure of packing for a trip? Well, I take it to a whole ‘notha level. In my mind our entire house has to be spotless when I leave. It drives my family crazy! I only notice the dirt on top of the dryer after I have my suitcase packed. Silly. YJnGRuidOXI This sketch makes me laugh. I love…
