A Contest!

OK, I am having a block as to what to name my blog.

"Lizzybeth!" is just not doin' it for me.

So I'm going to let you folks use your brainpower

To come up with a fabulous name for it!

The judging will be done by the independent firm of JSJ Consulting.

(Jeff, Shauna & Jesse)

The prize...

a personalized 12 month calendar from OfficeMax*.

So everyone (all 6 of you viewing my blog) put on their thinking caps

and come up with a kickass name for my blog!

Just add your suggestion to the comments or email it to me at lizzybeth167@gmail.com

Contest will end next Sunday, 7/5, at 8 a.m.

and is open to anyone**!

Happy Pondering!!

*OfficeMax is not sponsoring nor endorsing this contest.

**Employees of JSJ consulting are not eligible.

Important Notice:

Just a couple of things...

1. Winner will not be chosen by JSJ Consulting as I realized if they chose Sunshine's entry it might be construed as conflict of interest or favoritism. Winner will now be chosen by the firm of A&E Consulting. (A&E is comprised of Annie & Eric, my two employees over at the copy center)

2. Only one entry per person

Potpurri of Stuff

I found this recipe for Cheese Muffins on Pioneer Women's site...

simple to make and quite tasty.

I made Paula Deen's Corn Casserole for Shauna to take to work with her on Tuesday.

My sis Jessica made it for Christmas dinner and I feel in love.

It's become a favorite of Shauna and me.

Jeff won't eat it cuz it's not brussel sprouts.

Jesse won't eat it cuz he's Jesse the Picky.

That's ok.

Just means more leftovers for the girls of the house!

On Friday, I took these...

...and made this...

...don't berate me because I used a jarred sauce, please!

I let it simmer for about 10 minutes so that

the sauce soaked into the pasta.

Add garlic bread and a green salad.

Ok, so I didn't throw together a salad...

...I forgot to get the greens at the store.

Props to my dad for this recipe!

Saturday was roof patching day at our house.

I tried to take some pics of it,

but each shot was of someone's butt.

This was a funny one...

It looks like Jesse is trying to poke Jeff in his backside with his screwdriver,

while Beaux is ready to whack Jesse with his hammer.

Bring on the rain!

Let's test this patch job out!

Rumble in the Rubies

The barriers and pylons are stacked and ready for placement in the parking corridor.

People can be seen washing their rides, polishing their chrome.

In the next few days, the roar of motorcycle engines will increase.

Vendors will be arriving with an abundance of wares.

Ranging from t-shirts to custom painted helmets,

funnel cakes to beer soaked bratwurst.

That can only mean one thing....

It's time for Rumble in the Rubies!

The Elko Motorcycle Jamboree!

My sister and her hubby (Jess & Gus) will be there as their alter ego's Spinner & Mumbles to support Snake River Brothers Motorcycle Club of which they are members. Spinner will spend some of her time bouncing in front of the Silver Dollar Saloon. She's quite good at it, despite the fact that she's only 5'4". Not afraid to tell a huge, scary lookin' biker that he can't come in unless he show's her his I.D. and stand her ground when he argues with her. I guess being a mom prepared her for that! I have to remember to take my I.D. cuz even though she knows how old I am, she will make me follow the same rules.

We will need to polish my dad's Victory, charge the battery and make a "for sale" flyer for it. Gus will ride it down & park it in front of the Dollar and with any luck, someone will gasp and say "Beautiful bike man, I gotta have it!" Ka-khing!

We will walk around the corridor, checking out the wares. Maybe the man who paints using spray paint, paper plates, tin cans and protractors will be there again. Maybe we'll get there early enough to get commemorative pins, we missed out last year. Maybe we'll go to the free concert on Saturday night...both female tribute bands that I've heard are really good. Hell's Belles (AC/DC) and Zepperella (Zeppelin). The main concert, Friday night at the fairgrounds, will be LA Guns, Great White and Molly Hatchet. That one ya gotta pay for, so no, we won't be in attendance. Maybe we'll check out the BMX exhibition. We'll definetly get ourselves a funnel cake and Jeff will indulge himself with a deep-fried Twinkie.

I'll have a photo-filled blog after it's over. Note to self - buy new rechargable batteries!

The World's Pickiest Eater

This is Jesse.

He's the son of my roomies Shauna & Jeff.

If you look in the dictionary for the

definition of "picky eater"

you will see his picture.

We bought this off the Internet a couple weeks ago after seeing the infomercial: It's the Express RediSetGo. And it came with a bunch of recipes. One of which was for personal pizzas. So yesterday I made the recipe for the pizza dough that was included.

Sure, I could have bought pre-made dough.

But I am trying to be more self-sufficient and stay away from processed, boxed foodstuff.

The recipe made 12 little balls of dough which could be stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. I thought that if Jesse liked the first one, he would be able to make himself pizza for lunch during the week this summer.

I showed him how to roll out the dough and then he built himself his pizza.

The pizza was done in 7 minutes, the crust was perfect and was really yummy.

More important was that Jesse the Picky loved it! That brings the count up to 2 items that I cook that he will eat. #1 being stuffed chicken breasts.

This is the pizza that I made for myself...

Pepperoni, zucchini, crushed red pepper, Colby jack cheese (we forgot to by mozzarella) and Parmesan cheese.

YUM!

Love in the Grocery Aisle

Once upon a time there was a container of dipping spice.

The dipping spice was lonely. All he did was sit on the shelf with

his other lonely dipping spice buddies.

On the shelf below him sat Ms. EVOO. She too, was lonely and spent her days wondering why no one took her home. "Does no one understand the goodness that will come with purchasing me?"

Well, one day two ladies were shopping and their eyes caught sight of Mr. Dip & Ms. EVOO and said "YUM!" while tossing them both in the cart next to the Twinkies and microwave popcorn.

The ladies discovered that when mixed together, they created a wonderful melange of flavor.
And then the ladies dipped a fine artisan bread chunk into the bowl and were transported to heaven!

**This was so yummy! We tried to get Jeff and Jesse to try it, but were unsuccessful. But Jeff's brother Brandon stopped by and he had a taste and it made him want to go home and make spaghetti. Did he make you spaghetti Sunshine?!?!

An Elephant in the Backyard

The most difficult aspect of my job is not dealing with difficult customers -either those who don't have a clue of what they want or are just plain cranky. It's when I have customers who come in to have memorial cards made for a funeral.

You see, I am an emotional person. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I cry at the Folger's Coffee commercials (you know the ones - where the son surprises everyone at Christmas). I bawled through pretty much all of Steel Magnolia's. Extreme Home Makeover, yep, that'll get the ol' tear ducts a'flowin too! And not just at sad movies, but I've been known to cry at comedies and action/adventure movies, too.

So when I am sitting with customers at my computer at work, designing these little cards that boil someone's life down to a couple of paragraphs, it's very hard for me to remain stoic. But I do. I see certain little glimpses into the family. The smiles as they remember a fun time, the grief at a life taken unexpectantly, sometimes the relief that their loved one is no longer in pain.

I did some cards yesterday for a family. This time it was extremely hard for me to remain emotionally detached, I felt that any moment I would start crying and racked my brain trying to figure out why. Was I thinking about TaTia, my dad's aunt who is in the hospital right now after having two strokes? Yes, she was on my mind. Was it because I'm PMS'ing? Still don't know. But when they left, I lost it and just started bawling. It only lasted a minute or two and my co-worker Annie gave me a little hug and I was fine.

When I got home last night, Shauna told me that our friend (and her sister in law) Sunshine's dad was not doing well, his organs were starting to shut down. Bill has been battling with MS for a very long time. He's been confined to a wheelchair for the last few years and pretty much home-bound. I've only met Bill once and that was when he was toolin' around the neighborhood in his electric scooter, stopping to shoot the shit with anyone he saw. My sister Jessica and I happened to be some of those people a couple of years ago (Bill & his wife Trish live a block away from my sister). He rolled up into the driveway and we introduced ourselves and just chit chatted. He told us about living in Las Vegas, working as an OSHA inspector. Then he started telling what we believed to be tall-tales. I made mental notes to ask Sunshine what was true and what was false. Did he really come home from Vegas with an elephant that he traded a truck for? That turned out to be false. But I will always laugh when I think of Bill, just because of the elephant. Jessica & I still chuckle at that one..

Bill passed away about an hour ago. He's no longer in pain. My thoughts are with Sunshine and her family. And Jessica and I will take care of the elephant.