I think it was taller than me!    What was bathing in that tub – Sasquatch?

We went to the zoo over the weekend and one of my favorite moments was when the very powerful Spectacled Bear come over and posed for pictures.  He was awesome!  It was like he knew we were all waiting for him and he was going to make an unforgettable appearance.

National Geographic claims the Spectacled Bears are intensely shy, but he was far from it!  He actually LOVED the attention and was eating it up.  Check him out!

Its been some time since I participated in Wordless Wednesday so I thought I would sick back, relax, and join in this week’s excitement.

Take a peek at how playing with your food can be highly entertaining and end up as a work of art.  The photos below are a few of my favorites that were displayed at  fabulously 40 .

I wish the article named the artists who  created the eye boggling fun!  The artists deserve recognition for their delectable masterpieces.

You can view more of the food art at fabulously40.com

As many of you already know Karissa is no longer with us.  She was a very talented woman and will be missed immensely.  I enjoyed her knowledge, dedication, and passion about living a “green and clean life.”  I am completely at a loss for words and can’t believe this has happened…

Fallen Leaves

Leaves that blow from autumn trees

Prepare the way for winter freeze

To chart the paths of moving time

A cycle plays out nature’s rhyme

Though sometimes leaves do fall in spring

The sound’s an unfamiliar ring

New from buds the leaves they form

They grow amidst the sun so warm

So why do some release their bounds?

And tumble gently towards the ground

To disconnect from what they know

And sacrifice the chance to grow

Only god can know these things

And why he calls for leaves in spring

Perhaps leaves choose to ride the wind

To find some place to start again

My little Inspector Gadget!  He later decided to pick all the dead leaves out of the pine tree.

My son upset at the thought of eating the vegetables!

Welcome to this week’s edition of Aloha Friday.

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link below. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

My question is:

Have you started your back to school shopping?

I have not bought a single item yet for my daughter.  The school district here is not planning on sending out the supply list until ONE week before school starts.  I am so upset, because I have no idea what she is going to need for the upcoming year and I am missing all the great sales!  Money is tight around here and I feel they (teachers) are being very inconsiderate by waiting until the last week to notify parents of the requirements.

Furthermore,  my daughter doesn’t even know who her teacher is for school and is fretting.  I feel awful for her.  She is going to be attending middle school so its rather a BIG move for her and she now has added worries.  I feel so bad

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Happy Thousand Words Thursday!

Pictures were taken by my daughter Kylie who loves the beauty of nature and the giant fur-ball that is stuck to her bed.

The attack!

It’s time to repost our list.
If you want to join, follow these simple steps.

~Copy and paste this blog post into a new blog post on your site.

~Go to  SitedandBlogged and leave a comment with a full link address to direct her to your post.
~Your link will then be added to the list.

When the list ends in late June, come back and update your list with all of the members. We are atttempting to limit this list to 100 blog links.

SitedandBlogged

http://www.ilikeitfrantic.net/2009/06/technorati-list.html http://theredheadriter.blogspot.com/2009/06/technorati-list.html http://yesiknowwhatcausesthat.blogspot.com/2009/06/technorati-list.html

http://aaensons-lifewithatoddler.blogspot.com/2009/06/technorati-list.html

http://psychicmamaindigochild.blogspot.com/2009/06/sited-and-blogged-technorati-list.html

http://www.josieswindow.info

There are several well known stars tweeting their random thoughts on Twitter.  I follow a few and some of them actually follow back!  I have to be careful to make sure the tweets are not coming from impostors and I often wonder who is really behind the keyboard.  A few days ago my daughter requested for me to check if Robert Pattinson, from Twilight, was a tweeter.  Sure enough he was and had over 170,000 followers.  Today I went to check his updates and received the message “Sorry, the account you were headed to has been suspended due to strange activity. Mosey along now, nothing to see here.” UT Ohh!

Here are a few Stars I enjoy following and seem to be legit.

Ryan Seacrest http://twitter.com/RyanSeacrest

Ashton Kutcher http://twitter.com/aplusk

William Shatner http://twitter.com/WilliamShatner

Ellen DeGeneres http://twitter.com/TheEllenShow

John Mayer  http://twitter.com/johncmayer

Demi Moore http://twitter.com/mrskutcher

Dave Matthews http://twitter.com/DaveJMatthews

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger http://twitter.com/Schwarzenegger

President Barack Obama http://twitter.com/BarackObama

Kathy Ireland http://twitter.com/kathyireland

Oprah http://twitter.com/Oprah

John Fogerty http://twitter.com/John_Fogerty

Anderson Cooper http://twitter.com/andersoncooper

There are tons more celebrities on Twitter but those are the few I follow.  My question this week is…

Do you follow any Stars on Twitter?

This picture of Hubby was taken 18 years ago.  I replaced the background with something more suitable since the mess he was cleaning was about the size of a football field!  He was confined to his dorm room (military) by his ranking superior until he could once again make his space tidy and livable.  17 years ago he retired his toilet brush and vacuum and shortly after hired married a maid me. Due to his severe cuteness the maid I have been cleaning his mess for the last past 17 years!

It’s fascinating how smells can trigger  memories of events that happened several years ago.   Smells can even bring on emotions that are important in friendships, love, and food.

When I was a little girl my dad (carpenter before minister) would sometimes bring me along with him to his work site where he would be building a beautiful home and I would watch him create something marvelous from a pile of construction materials.  He would try to get me involved and interested in what he was doing by asking me to do small tasks to help him.   He handed me a tiny jar of wood putty and I would go around and fill the nail holes with it making sure each spot was perfect.

My dad has been sick many years with Dementia and now Parkinson’s Disease which has crippled him mentally and physically.  Honestly,  he has had the diseases so long that its hard to recall him ever being well but the smell of wood putty brings me back to the days he was strong, happy, and healthy.   I developed a love for the smell of wood putty.

I decided this week for my Top Ten Tuesday to compile a list of my favorite smells that spark memories, and emotions.

1. Wood putty

2. Fresh brewed coffee

3. Fresh baked bread

4. Play Doh

5. The smell of Fall

6. Cinnamon

7. Coconut

8. Baby Lotion

9.  Axe ( hubby smells soooo good!)

10. Pine Trees

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Wow last week went by so fast and now it’s time again for Top Ten Tuesday.  This week my list consists of the 10 people I would love to sit down with around the dinner table and  strike up random conversation.   My perfect round table would be made up of…

1. Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) -Tesla was an inventor and mechanical, electrical engineer.   Due to his sometimes bizarre claims about technological developments he was ostracized and labeled as a mad scientist.

2. Claude Monet (1840-1926)- Monet was the founder of French impressionist painting.   The majority of his paintings are of water or nature.  One of his most famous paintings is named the “Water Lilies.”

3. Wolfgang Amadues Mozart (1756-1791)- Mozart was the influential composer of the Classical Era.  He composed over six hundred musical pieces.  He died at age 35 from kidney failure and was buried in a poor man’s grave.

4. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)-Gandhi known as the “Great Soul” was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India and Indian independence movement.  He lived very modestly and ate a simple vegetarian diet.

5. Michel de Nostredame (1503-1566)-Better recognized as the Latinized name Nostradamus.  Known for his prophetic works and his book Les Propheties.

6. Harry Houdini (1874-1926)- Born as Ehrich Weiss, was a brilliant magician, stunt performer, skeptic and investigator of spiritualists.  He died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix on Halloween 1926 at the age of 52.

7. Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos (1967-present)-Criss Angel the star and creator of A&E’s Network show Mindfreak .  He is a very popular magician, illusionist, stunt performer, musician, actor, and escapologist.

8. Steven Victor Tallarico (1948-present)-Steven Tyler the lead singer of the rock group Aerosmith.

9. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)- Poe was an American short story writer, poet, and editor.  His poem “The Raven” is widely known and recognized in the national literature.

10. Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593)-Giuseppe was an amazing Italian painter who was best known for his portraits made entirely of fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books.

Some of his works…

What is there about the first haircut that makes your heart sink?  I really didn’t want to cut his hair but the cookie critic begged asked me to so I gave in agreed and cut all Aiden’s long curly locks off.  Sniff Sniff.  My baby is growing up so fast!

I love memes. They take the pressure off my foggy brain so I don’t go cross-eyed thinking about a blog topic. Wait, you too? WE’RE TWINS!

Well then, why not take a break and play Top Ten Tuesday? Grab my button, choose your Top Ten topic (or use mine!), post it on your blog, and link up below!

Happy Tuesday relaxing!

Stop on over to It’s a Beauty Filled Life, grab her Top Ten Tuesday button and play along!

I am going to stay with Jennifer’s topic this week and list the top ten places I would like to visit.

1.   Edinburgh, Scotland (picture above is Edinburgh’s castle)

2.  Queenstown, New Zealand

3.  Delphi, Greece

4.  Dublin, Ireland

5.  Venice, Italy

6.  Florence, Italy

7.  The Swiss Alps, Switzerland

8.  Honolulu, Hawaii

9.  Haarlem, The Netherlands

10.  Maui

All these places would be a DREAM to visit! I would settle to get the cookie critic off the couch and go to the museum or zoo! Anything away from the TV!

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In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link below. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new friends.

I love magazines!  I keep them organized and save almost ever copy.  I have found a few places online that you can get free subscriptions to some very popular mags.  The websites are…

http://www.rewardsgold.com

http://www.freebizmag.com

http://www.startsampling.com

http://www.valuemags.com

http://www.mercurymagazines.com

Those are just a few places to search.   Make sure to check often since they have new offers and they go quickly.  I even got a free 12 month subscription to my favorite magazine Martha Stewart “Living”.

My question this week is…

What is your favorite magazine?

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I am really behind on posting  because it has taken me the last few days to migrate from blogger to my own domain.  I thought it was going to be a quick easy process…ahh noooooo! LOL!

I was tagged by Together We Save a few days ago to list six unimportant things that make me happy.

Here we go…

1.  My cup of coffee is the most essential happy juice to get me smiling.  If I don’t have it I get a HUGE headache and slug around the whole day.

2. The Internet would have to be next on my list.  If  for some reason I can’t connect …it’s like a small tragedy in my house and I pout like a spoiled child.

3.  I have to have my cell phone handy.  It is web enabled and makes me very happy when I am away from home. ( I am a tech junkie)

4.  Nature, the sky, trees, flowers, garden….I could go on but I am sure you get the idea.

5.  My sons play gate.  If I did not have it I would be pulling my hair out and probably insane.

6.  My blue Snuggie.  Yes its a blanket with sleeves but it’s amazingly comfy!

The rules are that I must tag six blogs to play along.

My choices are…

1. But Mommy

2. sweetsue

3. One Anxious Mommy

4. A Day With Jake

5. Four Guys and a Gal

6. Shabby Chicks

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link below. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

photo courtesy of Flickr by Jere-me

“If you’re out in the middle of a field and someone sneezes that’s one thing. If you’re in a closed aircraft or a closed container or closed car or closed classroom it’s a different thing.

Do you think the Vice President had a point? Are you avoiding public transportation, keeping your children home from school, canceling vacation plans, or staying out of the stores?