Juggling Life

Wordy Wednesday And Things You Asked For . . .

It wouldn't be summer with a boy from Brazil.  You're welcome, SB. 

Minnesota Matron, Hen, and Green Girl from Wisconsin have all posted the contents of their fridge. Since I adore an Open House post, I'll play along.

See those 2 gallons of milk? There's 4 more behind them. The 1/2 gallon of O.J.? 3 more behind that. What does my fridge say about me? Perhaps it's saying "Girl, maybe you should get a cow and a couple of laying hens!"

Or perhaps it says, "You mean there's actually a family who runs through the Costco size on a weekly basis? I mean besides Kalynne's."

It definitely says that while I learned a lot from "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," I haven't actually put it into play yet.

When I posted the picture I was very annoyed by the out of alignment photo buttons on the front of the freezer. As part of my personal, 12-step borderline OCD treatment I posted the picture anyway. Then I went and fixed them.

What does my freezer say? Most everything is in the outside freezer. This is basically a repository for  ice cream, bagels, and smoothie fixings.

Also, you may notice we have no ice maker. It's not that we couldn't afford the refrigerator/freezer that has one . . . it's that we searched high and low for one that didn't have one. You see, we had a very bad experience with a malfunctioning ice maker about 18 years ago. You've probably heard a similar story--vacation, loose fitting, floor replaced . . . Our insurance agent told us the ice maker is the most common cause of household flooding. You don't have to tell us twice!

Since more than one person has expressed interest, I give you . . .

Jenn's Multiple Orgasm Chocolate Chip Cake

1 package (18.25 oz.) yellow cake mix

1 package (3.4 oz.) instant vanilla pudding mix

1 cup milk

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

5 tablespoons grated German sweet chocolate, divided

2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar

In mixing bowl, combine cake and pudding mixes, milk, oil, and eggs. Beat on low speed until moistened. Beat on medium for 2 minutes. Stir in chocolate chips and 3 tablespoons grated chocolate. Pour into greased and floured 10 inch fluted tube (Bundt) pan.

Bake at 350 for 55-65 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Combine confectioner's sugar and remaining grated chocolate; sprinkle over cake.

Enjoy!

A Hint from Heloise and Some Earring Lust

The other day I got a comment from a new person; as I am wont to do, I popped over to her site. I was struck by total lust. You see, I'm a sucker for a dangly, jingly earring. Maybe it's left over from the 80's; maybe it's because I'm pretty conservative in dress and jewelry otherwise. Whatever the reason, I do love my earrings. I loved these

  and these and these .

The thing about dangly earrings is that they can be hard to store. Luckily I read a handy hint in the Heloise column years ago. Do tell, you say?  Store your earrings on a pillar candle. Both attractive and practical (a little bit like me, I'm thinking!).

The ones on top? $3.00 at a little shop in Portland, Oregon. I love a bargain as much as I love my earrings!

A Picture, a Winner, and a Couple of Awards

A Picture . . .

 

Why is this a Wordless Wednesday photo? Because paying 700 plus dollars for this outfit left me speechless!

A Winner . . .

The Winner (chosen by Random Integer Generator) of A Summer Affair is PhD in Yogurtry. She was number 2. What makes this funny is that she was number 1, but popped back to clarify something, so was also number 2. E-mail me your info and I'll get the book in the mail.

The Awards .  .  .

I bet Grandy at Functional Shmunctional thinks I forgot  about this, but no. I've just been waiting for the right day.

 

And the lovely Suz at Busy Bee gave me this award, which is sweeping through the blogosphere. The Arte & Pico award is fun because you can visit the orignial site for the backstory--of course it helps if you speak Spanish.

 

Thanks to these lovely bloggers for their kindness and encouragement. As per tradition, I am forwarding these awards.

For the first award I'm going to use the adjectives on the award to pick the recipients. I know .  . . how clever am I?!

Informative: PhD in Yogurtry  for this very informational post.

Humorous: My good friend and fellow mother-tyrant Suburban Correspondent, who makes me laugh (maniacally) every day.

Unique: Kalynne Pudner. I'm pretty sure having 9 kids and a PhD in Philosophy fits the bill for unique.

Edgy: Who else has Everybody Can Bite Me Fridays? It has to be Suzy at Hollywood: Where Hot Comes To Die.

Bold: I'd say living Next Door 2 My Ex (or your ex as the case may be) is pretty bold!

For the Arte y Pico award, I'm going with those whose art inspires and impresses me.

Janet at Fond of Snape for her photography.

Melanie at BeanPaste for her photography.

The Smitten Image for her photography. (I think I might have a thing for photography!).

ChattyCraftyCook for her amazing job on the Weekly Word Challenge.

Gary at Potter's Blog for his incredible pottery. I don't own any. Yet.

Ok Award Winners, go forth and spread the love!

Mosaic Meme

Jennifer H. at Thursday Drive told me to do this, so I did. (There was the fact that I loved hers, too). We even ended up with a matching picture--It's that whole every other girl in a 15 year time span being named Jennifer thing! Can you guess what my favorite color is?

1. ~Ocean Playground~, 2. Mid-Week Treat #5, 3. MMHS., 4. Cobalt-blue ocean, 5. 4978-John Cusack, 6. Dom Perignon, 7. extraordinary symbols, 8. fondue, 9. Excelsior, 10. Latest Family Portrait, 11. Gliding George, 12. juggling life

Here’s how it works . . .

• Answer each of the questions below.
• Surf over to Flickr (set up an account if you don’t have one–it’s quick and easy) and type your answers (one at a time) into the search bar.
• From the choice of pictures shown only on the front page, click on the one that moves you.
• Once the page with your picture opens, copy the URL.
• Surf over to the Mosaic Maker, set up your mosaic, and paste your URLs.
• Click “Create!”

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you attend?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. Where would you go on your dream vacation?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. Choose one word to describe you?
12. Your Flickr name? (I had to substitute for this one, since Flickr didn’t recognize my account name).

A Few Of My Favorite Things

You know how it's so nice to exchange your daily ensemble of capris, t's and flip-flops for something a little more elegant? These are my dress-up staples.

 

My MIL gave these to me for my wedding. I absolutely, unequivocally loooove them. I will give my future daughters-in-law beautiful, classic earrings for their wedding days. (If my sons decide to get married, no pressure and yes I'm reasonably sure at this point that all my kids are heterosexual although it would have been okay if they weren't).

This pearl and jet necklace can be worn long, wrapped twice for a shorter necklace or wrapped three times for a bracelet. Very versatile.

Cream and black peep toe pumps. Sometimes one must sacrifice comfort for the sake of a rockin' shoe. These heels are about as high as I can safely go (I know, I'm a wimp); I managed to climb the steep stairs at Cox Arena at San Diego State twice in these.

My last favorite thing? Yoga pants, oversize sweatshirt, and Karen Neuberger tempurpedic flip-flop slippers for after the dress-up event. Oh yeah!

Jacaranda

This is my very favorite tree--the Jacaranda. These beautiful purple flowers forming a lacy pattern against the blue sky lift my heart every year.

How Could I Have Forgotten?

I knew when I wrote yesterday's post I was forgetting a win.  A package on the doorstep jogged my memory tonight--of course it could have been there for several days--the front door is not our preferred course of entry/exit.

Trish at This is Trish's Blog has a Cafepress shop where you can get cool blogger stuff--like this t-shirt I won. Social Butterfly (inspired by Cheri) picked the saying.

 

SB's face isn't in the picture because I actually dragged her out out of bed to try  it on and take the photo. Bad mom but good sport.

Regret/Pure

 I don't REGRET that when I redecorated my kitchen 9 years ago, I chose cabinet drawer pulls of PURE whimsy.

 

 

 

I'm having serious technical difficulties, so I apologize for whatever you see, or don't see. 

I REGRET that this blogging problem PURELY sucks! 

 

 

 

 

Seven/Earth

For this week's Weekly Word Challenge, I give you Seven things I love about my chosen corner of the Earth.

First off, there's my house itself. It started out at 1100 square feet--we've more than doubled the size through the painless (hahahahhahaha) process of two major remodels. Okay, so it wasn't painless. In fact, it was oh my gosh, I thought my husband and I were going to kill each other pretty painful. But it is as close to exactly what I want as you can get without starting from scratch.

Of course, you're always welcome at Casa Juggling Life.

Yes, I do actually have a white picket fence!

The trunk of this Kumquat tree is actually in my neighbor's yard, but the rest of the tree is on our side and everyone in the neighborhood shares in the bounty.

Even now, with the youngest being 13, these two swings get a workout from the kids in the summer. The tree the tire swing hangs from is about 70 feet tall. The pepper tree in the background (with the swing designed and built by Social Butterfly and her friend a few years ago--you stand up and swing out over the canyon) was completely barren after the Cedar fire, but came back bigger and more beautiful than ever. That's one of our Beagles, Buddy, patrolling the fence line.

This oh-so-fragrant Star Jasmine covers the fence in the side yard--just a few feet from the windows in the great room. It fills the house with a wonderful scent during the summer when all the windows are open. I wish I had smell-o-vision capability!

 

This the view from my bedroom window. I don't know much about Feng Shui, but I just have a feeling that waking up to this view is good Feng Shui. The birds in the springtime are another story!

Three/Fire

I am totally a wee bit frustrated because I have been unable to locate (on any of 3 computers, the external hard drive, or on the back-up cd-roms) the pictures from when we came this close to losing our house in the Cedar Fire. Instead, I'm stealing from this guy.

For today's Weekly Word Challenge I give you Three pictures of the Fire that almost consumed our home in October of 2003. I will tell the whole story one day, but just know that were it not for the bravery of my husband, my brother-in-law, and two neighbors, in conjunction with the support of the fire department, we would definitely have lost our house that day.

Our pictures look just like this, but they were taken by my husband from the roof of our house, while he had a hose in his other hand.