A Post without photos, is just a so-so post

A very large time span has transpired since my last post.  Now I'm back from vacation and ready to share photos and Lo & Behold they've revamped Blogger and I can't figure out how to download my photos.  Ugh!!  The frustration of it all and I was so diligent and had all my pictures uploaded to Shutterfly in record time.  I was so proud of myself I ran the disk that came with my camera, because the camera was giving me issues dumping the pictures onto the computer and I solved that problem and now this new one has cropped up.

Please be patient I promise to keep trying to figure it out.

 

Elves are so Mischievous

Remember this post from last year?  When on a yearly excursion to Bronners, in Frankenmuth I purchased the Elf on a Shelf for each of my daughter's families.  They were all thrilled to adopt an elf, but one of my grandchildren was very skeptical at first.  Michael, the eldest of the bunch couldn't understand why someone would purchase something to spy on him.  It took him quite a while to warm up to the idea.

Kelpo Sammy Whitnum's family has posted on all his mischief on Face Book and I'm not sure if I can link up to that naughty little guy.   He has been up to some pretty questionable mischief with the Barbie dolls and he's also been into the syrup (and you wondered what kept those elves going night and day).

Relf has ended up in some predicaments of his own making, like the old Pheasant under glass trick.  You can read about him here.

Fiddle Faddle, who likes to be called Fiddle for short hasn't been published, but I here he's active and entertaining the three year old at his house as well.

And the fourth elf has the youngest kids to keep track of and I think his job is the easiest. He's laying low and taking advantage of the situation, but I do believe in years to come his job will be much more difficult keeping up with the girls in the Roberts family.

I've also been seeing what Mipsy has been up to this year on one of the blog I follow.  It's fun.  Some people like to go see Christmas lights, they love the crowded malls, traipsing out in the snow to sing carols, me I'll sit by my tree filled with only bird ornaments and white Christmas lights and go elf watching.  Where is the world is the most mischievous elf?

Toasty Pumpkin Waffles

This is a recipe that I tried this past weekend when my daughter, Ashley and her family came to celebrate an early Christmas with us.  I wanted breakfast to be special and it was, this recipe was amazing.

Toasty Pumpkin Waffles with Maple Cranberry Butter

1 cup flour
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg beaten
1 1/4 cups milk
2/3 cup pumpkin
4 1/2 tsp butter, melted
1/3 cup pecans

Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt.  Whisk egg, milk, pumpkin and butter: stir in dry ingredients until blended.  Fold in nuts.  Bake in preheated waffle iron until golden brown.

Maple Cranberry Butter

1/2 cup cranberries
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup butter

Meanwhile in small saucepan, combine cranberries and syrup.  Cook over medium heat until berries pop, about 10 minutes.  Transfer to mixing bowl and cool slightly.  Beat in butter until blended.  Serve over waffles.
Yield 4 servings. 

I doubled the waffle recipe, but not the butter and still had plenty to go around.  If you do not make the special butter to go on the waffles I would increase the brown sugar and add some spices to the waffles.

Very yummy and may just become a traditional Christmas holiday recipe.

Ugh! Not Again

I attempted to post this morning and the results were not good.  I had trouble down loading Christmas pictures of Daniela, and then when I put the card back in the camera is said the card wasn't formatted and there were no pictures.  I had to put everything away before something worse happened.....like me losing my temper and smashing something.   Hoping to post something soon, anything just to post.  I can't believe my blog entries have crept further and further apart.  It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's that there's never enough computer time.  I dropped one family off my schedule and then the other two picked up extra hours, so I'm still super busy.       

Flying Grammie has been Tripping Again

In September, I took a trip to New Mexico.
In November, I went to North Carolina for a long weekend.

I'm thankful that I can afford to fly a few times a year to see
my adult children and my grand kids. 
I look forward to these trips and take tons of
pictures while I'm there.
I cherish the memories.

Sydney at the Natural Science Museum

Griffing Sawyer

Grammie & Griffin petting & brushing the goats.

One of the tigers

I also went Christmas shopping and of course had to let
the grand kids open one while I was still there to
enjoy watching them play with their new gifts.
 

He could barely see over the bars, but that didn't stop him.
 

Itty baby, Lil Rosie is in the stroller.

It was a very short trip, just Friday evening to Monday morning, but l-o-n-g overdue and when Grammie has to see them, she just has to bite the bullet and go see them.

Who Woulda Thunk?

Excuse my improper English.  But really, who woulda thunk 20 years ago that I would now be eating those little seeds that I once spread on a Chia Pet?   Not me.

Yes, I will admit it I bought this product, once or maybe it was twice.  Didn't you?  You soaked the crock figure to get it nice and wet and then spread the Chia seeds on it.  After a few days the sheep's coat began to grow.

Well now I'm eating them Chia seeds. Last week Dr. Oz aired a program on miracles and I've tried two of them this week. If you want to know more about what follows, go to www.doctoroz.com

Miracle Five:  Coconut Oil. It increases your metabolism.  Use 2 Tbsp a day.  I already had the coconut oil, I just didn't know exactly what I was suppose to do with it.  He gave suggestions and explained how only half the coconut is stored as fat, the other half is burned away. Folks, ALL of butter is stored as FAT.

Miracle Four:  Chia Seeds  They keep you full longer, thus helps you lose weight.  Just tried them this morning, I added it to my oatmeal.

Also I tried asking myself before I ate meals and snacks, how I could make any changes in what I was eating, so that it would show up as a weight loss on the scales. A few of the little changes I made were: Ordered 1/2 a salad at Wendy's, put back a third of my handful of walnuts I intended to put on my oatmeal, skipped the Parmesan cheese on my popcorn.

Whether it was the coconut oil or the talking to myself I'm not quite sure, (probably a little of both), but I lost 3.2 pounds this week and I haven't lost like that since I started weight watchers over a year ago at least. I was so happy tonight when I stepped on the scales. Hopefully, next week I have similar results.  I don't think the Chia seeds figured into the equation because I had only tried them once, but will try to get more in my diet this week and see if they are of any help.

Chia seeds are high in calcium, omega fatty acids and antioxidants.  I told my husband that they've been around forever, the Aztec's used to eat them.
His comment was "And you know what happened to the Aztecs don't you?"

Chia seeds are beneficial, because of the dietary fiber and protein they provide as well.  You can put them in salads, stir fries, smoothies and your oatmeal.  If you've tried them, please give me any ideas that you may have for adding them to my diet.  Ch - Ch- Ch - Chia.

Wishing I was back at the Dunes

It's turned cold back here in Michigan and it's getting
harder and harder to get out of bed to greet the day.
I can't help but wish......
I was still in New Mexico, enjoying the 80's.

Us girls heading to the top of the dunes

I said I wanted to try it once, just to say I did it.

I fell off the disc half way down.

Rowyn wanted to drag her own sled.

A strip down to get rid of the sand before you leave is a must.

 

The tackle to catch said runaway naked girl

The two person redress

Good Bye Sand Dunes...Good Bye 80's....