New Professional Photos - What do you think?

Here are five of my favourites!

Jenna

Michelle

Alicia

Julia

The Girls

Portraits of Honour

Portraits of Honour

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the head office of Kin Canada in Cambridge to see the Portraits of Honour. The mural is dedicated to the Canadian soldiers, sailors and aircrew who have lost their lives in Afghanistan. The latest count is 155 portraits and let us hope that Dave Sopha does not have to add anymore.

Dave Sopha talking about the "kids" in his mural

When our bus load of Kinsmen and Kinette's arrived at headquarters we were greeted at the door by this very friendly gentle man. It was after hours so no day staff were present. I didn't at first but soon realized that this man was the artist of the mural Dave Sopha. It was perfectly normal for him to be in the building after hours as Dave has spent every day, all day, as in 16 hours a day working on his mural since he started it in December of 2008. The mural along with Dave will shortly be taking a cross country tour of Canada.

The goal of the tour is to raise millions of dollars that will support  programs and charities that support the men and women who proudly serve in the Canadian Forces and their families. Dave is incredibly driven and feels obligated to the soldiers and families.

Donations of the many hats worn by the Canadian Forces

When I entered the room the mural is overwhelming at 50 feet across 10 feet tall and all you can spell is oil paint. I started looking at the portraits and the detail is just incredible. As Dave said you can be anywhere in the room and every eye on the mural is looking at you. It is true, I moved around and they were still all looking at me. Dave started to talk about himself and the mural and it was soon evident just how driven and dedicated this man is.

Photographs of the soldiers, sailors and aircrew that
Dave paints the portraits from

He told us about several individuals on the wall, referring to them on a first name basis telling their story. He spoke of many relationships he has acquired over the past couple years. It was evident the emotions he feels for these "kids" as he calls them as he had several of us onlookers wiping a tear from our eyes as he spoke. There is much memorabilia in the room as you can see from some of the photos. You can visit the Portraits of Honour website for more information about the mural, photos, and tour dates and locations. 

Happy Hump Day!

What is Hump Day? The middle of a work week (Wednesday); used in the context of climbing a proverbial hill to get through a tough week. 
The absolute BEST day of the week, the day of maximum hope that maybe, you might make it out of this week alive. A particularly good hump day can last you the rest of the week, and by Doomday morning (Monday) you survive by anticipating hump day. Nothing goes wrong on hump day!
Most other days can be defined by hump day. Tuesday is the day before hump day. Thursday is one day after hump day. Except Friday is TGIF Day, Saturday is Mostly Hungover day, and Sunday is PreDoom day.
Hump day has nothing to do with sex. Unless one wants it to *wink*.
So you have reached the summit and its all downhill from here! Happy Hump Day Everybody!


P.S. Just for you Greg! :-)

Having a Mental block on your Blog? Here is a bloggers suggestion.

Do you have a blog? Are you having troubling with something to write about? They say you should write on your blog on a daily basis. If you are lucky to have followers or subscribers they will look for things to read and if you don't post anything regularly your followers will be bored and leave.

Sometimes you just need a push or an idea. Try Plinky . You have answers and they have questions. It's a free site that you can sign up to and have a question sent to your email on a daily basis. Today's question is, "What are the 3 most significant historic events that have occurred in your lifetime?" Now that question could lead to quite a few paragraphs. I suppose depending on your age, *smirk*, some of us would have more to write about than others.

How to Work and Make Money from home

In the last month I have been learning quite a bit about social networking online. I have had a twitter account for quite some time but never really used it until this past week. To get noticed you have to network with people. There are a lot of programs out there to assist you with getting the exposure you are looking for when it comes to Internet business. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter can be used to get followers to your business. Whether you blog or you just need people to get to your website it certainly can be done and for free. I don't plan on making millions by any means, at this point I am enjoying the learning process. My wordpress blog is connected to my Facebook and Twitter and MSN accounts so that when I make a new post it is automatically posted to said accounts. This blogger site allows me to post to said accounts but I have to do each one at a time which I hope they will change as I personally like this blogger site a bit better. I signed up to Adsense and have the ads on this site now. In the month of March I made $10.04 from people coming to my site and clicking on the ads. I am brand new and just getting started and learning as I go along. I have been reading and trying out all the programs to understand how they work and how they can work with each other. The process has allowed me to check out some viable companies. I am currently in the process of checking out people's websites on twitter. Checking them out to see if they are things I am interested in. See who I have what in common with other people. If I like it, I send them a "tweet" letting them know, "Hey @soandso I checked out your website and liked it, look forward to more." I am in the process of networking to gain followers and to find out who I want to follow on Twitter. There are many programs to assist you with managing your Twitter account. I have tried 3 now and must say I am not happy with any of them just yet. All are free, of course they have the pro versions of each which would then have a monthly cost associated with it but for me in my learning phase I am not wanting to put any money out at this time. If I find one that I like I will definitely pass along my findings. 
Facebook has been a pretty good source to get feedback on my blog as it is comprised of my friends and family as my contacts. I have not advertised on the site, just made posts to come check out different posts I have created here. I will check out the advertising and again post my findings here.
I am still very new and have a lot to learn and from a newbie's point of view sharing what I have been able to find I hope will help others in their quests. I hope others will share with me as well.
Until we meet again

Todays Creation in the Kitchen - Banana Chocolate Pudding Pie.

Sliced Bananas lined bottom of cooked
pie shell

 Well I had some pie crust left over in the fridge from my tarts the other day and I needed to make something with it. I didn't feel like making an apple pie as apples are not in season right now and I just didn't feel like peeling all those apples.

Chocolate Pudding over the Bananas

I glanced over to the fruit basket in the kitchen and noticed the bananas. I thought banana cream pie! Well, I checked my pantry and found vanilla and chocolate pudding mixes. Vanilla or Chocolate, mmm, both are great with banana. I chose chocolate. I also noticed I had one package of whipped topping mix.

Finished Product.

I got the crust rolled out. Baked it in the pie plate. Lined the bottom with sliced banana, made the pudding, four cups of milk later, wow, and then topped it off with the whipped topping. The kids loved it and so did I, I must say. Very simple to make and oh so yummy! You could use a graham cracker crust if you like and use any instant pudding mix. Quick and easy desert.

The Best Pecan Tart Recipe

The original recipe was for Butter Tarts but I changed it as I am not a big fan of raisins.

• 2 tbls. Butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg well beaten
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 cup corn syrup (optional)
• 1 cup pecan halves or peices

I place pecan peices in tart shells so that each shell has the same amount of pecans. Mix the other ingredients together. The optional corn syrup makes them more on the runny side, so it is really your personal preference. I always use the corn syrup. Tablespoon filling into each tart. Enough to make a dozen. Bake at 425 degree oven for 10 - 12 minutes.
*Another alternative would be to use 1/2 cup chopped walnuts with 1 cup raisins instead of pecans*

Best Pecan Tarts Ever!

I made these pecan tarts yesterday. I started out by making my own crust which I have had enough experience with that it is perfect every time. It really is easy, you just have to follow the recipe exactly. I am really surprised now adays that younger people don't have a clue about short forms for Tablespoon (Tbls) and Teaspoon (tsp). They know all the lingo with the shortforms for texting which is great for their social media, but what about something that is useful when cooking in the kitchen? Oh right, these younger folks really don't do cooking in the kitchen. It has to be prepackaged and heat it up in a microwave!

I got my recipe from my mother who always had perfect crust. I thought it had secret ingredients that made it so perfect but low and behold, I bought a no name brand pound of lard and there printed right on the box, the exact same recipe!

I tried several times to make these tarts and repeated was frustrated with the results. It wasn't that they didn't taste good, it was that I could never get them out of the pan. Visually they were a mess! I finally figured out what the problem was and the fix was rather easy.

Knowledge is everything, isn't it?!

I was putting too much filling in the tarts. The shells shrink when they cook and the filling expands, hence my problem with filling overflowing and sticking to the pan. I tend to want to overdo things and always think more is better when cooking but it really isn't.

If you want one, just ask :-)

Now to go and enjoy one of these with my tea. :-)

Wonder if your content is being copied and pasted from your Blog?

I have recently come across a website http://www.tynt.com/ that keeps track of your copy and paste from your blog. There is a bit of controversy over copy writing other people which is bad, but if they keep the original post that links back to your site then its good. Tynt does this for you. When someone copies your content from your blog and pastes it into theirs it adds a link "if you want to know more or read more" which brings the reader back to your blog. A neat little trick. You have to add a bit of HTML coding into your template but trust me, I am not very knowledgeable about such things and I did it without a problem. Tynt walks you through the process. Check it out, its free. Please leave a comment if you have used it as I have only just started using it today.

My Most Quotable Movie Is....

I absolutely love quoting from movies! My oldest daughter and I quote all the time to each other. It brings back memories and times that we have shared together and also brings relevance to some situations that we find ourselves in, usually with great hilarity. I think from our last visit together we started watching our favourite movie and it is so bad now that we know every line in the movie. I won't bore you with what movie it is, unless you figured it out from the photo, or you could ask me ;-)

My Jenna is 6, she is a princess and I love her!

I love my Jenna girl and when she kept bugging me to try out her new beauty kit last night I said ok ok. Keep in mind it was a long day of prep work even with the wonderful help from my mom and daughter Alicia. The house was finally quiet and just the two of us sat at the table and went through her beauty kit one item at a time. Lip gloss, nail polish, fake nails, pony tails and clips, princess toe separator, earings, bracelet, body stickers and body glitter spray. It sounds like a lot but it probably only took about 30 minutes. I was tired but did this for my Jenna, cause that's what a mom does. It really surprised me how just 30 minutes with my daughter made her soooooo happy! She felt and looked like a princess. She was so proud of how she looked. I am very fortunate to be able to be with my children as a stay at home mom but even if I was working the one on one time, even a small amount like 30 minutes can really make a difference in your child's life. I read somewhere that children are raised on love and praise. I think we tend to forget that sometimes. 
I do feel that making time for those special moments is something that I learned from my mother. By the time I went to kindergarten I could knit, sew and crochet. All because I wanted to do what my mom did and she loved me enough to spent the time to show me how. I learned many things from my mom and I try to pass that on to my kids. 
I hope that the tradition passes to the next generation. I can see, when my daughter Alicia has the patience that she too can spend that quality time with her little sisters. Maybe when she is a mom one day that quality will really shine through. 
So getting back to today - My Jenna is 6, she is a princess and I love her!

Jenna is 6 today!

Picture collage customized with Smilebox

IPOD vs PSP NGP

The new PSP Next Generation Portable (NGP) was introduced in January and has some specs of
5-inch OLED display with four times the resolution of current-generation PSPs. It has touch pads on both the front and the rear and dual micro analog joysticks. It also has both front- and rear-facing cameras and will use a Flash-based memory card. It will also offer 3G, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Sony has not stated what the price will be as of yet. Some speculate around $400. 
I have been toying with the idea of buying some kind of handheld entertainment unit that could be shared by my 6 year old daughter and myself. Items we would be wanting would relate to age appropriate games for the 6 year old, ability to watch movies, have the battery life last long enough to be able to watch movies, camera, music and networking capabilities.
The Ipod touch has been marketed as more of a music device but does offer many features - 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display, 960-by-640-pixel resolution at 326 pixels per inch,  camera, photos, video in HD (720p), rechargeable battery life of 40 hours for music and video playback up to 7 hours both when charged fully. It offers wireless wifi and bluetooth. 350,000 games and applications offered from the App store.
The Ipod touch comes in 3 memory sizes, 8GB - $249, 32GB - $319 or 64GB flash drive - $429.
All that being said. Don't have the details for all the specs of the PSP NGP just yet and it may not be available to the public until next holiday season!? Ya, that is crazy! But anyway, getting back to my point is I would love feedback as to what everyone's opinion is on these two items and if you have any personal experience with Ipod touch or a PSP (obviously not the newest one yet). I prefer to make decisions not just based on specs but also on people's opinions of the products.
Please post a comment!
Thanks so much!

Julia Makes Me Laugh!

Are you Ready??

Make your own free ecard

Have you used Picnik?

Have fun with your photos using  Picnik. Fix photo's, crop, resize, special effects - just to name a few.  You can upload photos from your computer or from Picasa Web Albums, Flikr, Facebook, MySpace or Photobucket. 

Sunrise vs. Sunset

The sunset is by far the winner compared to sunrise. Especially at the beach when you see it falling closer and closer to the water with warm colors in the sky. The sound of the water washing up on the sand, the feel of it running over your feet with toes stuck in the sand. Watching your children write their names in the sand and taking that opportunity to take a picture. Josh and Brandon a few years ago enjoying the beach at sunset. A moment in time that I will cherish forever.

My Favourite Place to Drive

My favourite place to drive is pretty much anywhere where there is scenic open spaces. The windows and sunroof open with good tunes and sunshine. It could be the beach at sunset, a winding road through tree covered hills, the countryside, colored trees in the fall, even the cityscape at waters edge.

On Superheroes

Oh without a doubt if a superhero was going to rescue me it would have to be SuperMan! I love that he has two sides, the normal everyday guy and when needed the super hero that saves the day. I think every man that is king of his domain does this without a doubt on a daily basis. I know my husband Jim is our SuperMan in this household. When we need a superhero he has come through everytime!

Video of the View from my back door

Do you enjoy the view from your back door?

What is your idea of home when it comes to the view from your back door? I have always enjoyed the open spaces with rolling hills and lots of trees. Maybe you like your quant little peice of the pie measuring 40' x 40' in the city, if you are lucky to have that much. I on the other hand lived with my 50' x 50' back yard with nothing behind it that soon filled with a sub division over the course of 10 years. It was a sea of houses and back yards all outlined with neat and tidy wooden fences. It suited the purpose and I had my small peice of the pie. I did however long to be perched on a hill that had a view of those rolling hills with trees. Never did I ever think that would be in the cards for me because such places are generally quite expensive. 5 years ago we moved and although I can't say that the house gives me great pleasure, yet, but the view from all sides blows me away on a constant basis. No matter the season I really do enjoy the view from my back door as well as the front door and all the windows inbetween. I have a video of Jenna toboganning in the yard and as I was taking the video I obviously enjoyed watching her but the background image struck me as so beautiful. It made me feel very lucky to be able to say, that is the view from my back yard. Wow, I love it!

Did you watch the featured videos above?

Joshua has been writing and playing songs and uploading them to YouTube. Joshua is my second oldest and he is very artistic. I will post some of his artwork with his permission. Still waiting for a peice of his artwork to put on my wall...

Gorgeous

Julia is a beautiful girl!

Ready for the Weather

Brandon is way too cool!

Just being Jenna

Jenna is awesome!