Dec 17, 2008

What do the 12 Days of Christmas Have to do with Christmas?

This was passed on to me, but I found it interesting enough to share. Hope you enjoy and have a Merry Christmas!

What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out of the pear tree have to do with Christmas?

Here is the Answer: From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.


The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus
Christ.

Two turtle doves were the Old and New
Testaments.

Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.

The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark,
Luke & John.

The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five
books of the Old Testament.

The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.

Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy
Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution,
Leadership, and Mercy.

The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.

Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit: Love,
Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness,
and Self Control.

The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.

The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful
disciples.

The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of
belief in the Apostles' Creed.


I set up a couple of 4x6 images to put in frames during Christmas and I have uploaded the jpg of two of them. One is the 12 Days of Christmas lyrics and the other is one of my FAVORITE Christmas songs, O Holy Night. Feel free to download, print and use as you wish. I have them in frames on the mantle.



Dec 8, 2008

Cinnamon Roll How-To

I found an amazing recipe for cinnamon rolls and after some fine-tuning, and a little altering, I am sharing my most favorite recipe for cinnamon rolls! What makes these so amazing? Well, read on and you will learn the secrets!

Click here to see the recipe then read on for step by step instructions.

First you start be making the dough. Simply get a box of Pillsbury's Hot Roll mix and make the recipe on the side of the box for cinnamon rolls, and yes, knead the dough 60 times.







While the dough is resting, at least 5 min., start making the caramel. You will need to melt 1/3 cup butter, 1/2 cup dark drown sugar and 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream (I used Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla). Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer for 2 min. then pour into a 9x13 pan.










Set the pan aside and begin making the rolls. First you need to punch down the dough and then roll it out. If you want to make 12 large rolls, just roll the dough out into a rectangle. For more, smaller rolls, I divide the dough into fourths and roll it out.





Next, spread 1 stick of unsalted butter evenly on your dough and follow with cinnamon sprinkled evenly. Then distribute 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar evenly on the dough and top with chopped pecans, if you so desire!






Now it's time to turn these into rolls! Start on one of the long ends and roll it up, making a long snake roll. Then you'll need to cut the dough into pieces.









Once all the dough has been cut into pieces, place them in the pan on the caramel. After all the rolls are in the pan, you'll need to cover them and let them rise for 45 min.










This is what they'll look like after rising.







Place them in the oven at 350 degrees and cook for 20-25 min. If the tops start browning too quickly cover the pan with aluminum foil. And after all that hard work, this is what you get.








You can make the icing while the rolls are rising or cooling, just don't let them get too cool, otherwise the icing won't spread well.

Make the icing, or double the icing recipe for really gooey rolls!

Beat together-
1 oz. cream cheese - softened
1/4 cup butter - softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 t vanilla
1 1/2 t milk


Spread and enjoy, just be careful not to enjoy the whole pan at once!





Dec 4, 2008

What's your Visual DNA?

My aunt sent me a link to youniverse where you can see your visual Personality, among other things. I always enjoying seeing if they work and really get me right. You don't have to sign up, log in or anything, just pick your favorite images in each group of 15 and you're done.

So here's my personality:
I'm a "Sofisticat;

You're romantic in your outlook with a bit of a taste for the exotic. You love
feeling the seabreeze in your hair, sun on your skin... You always take the
first dip. When it comes to art, you appreciate flair and precision. Highbrow
and in the know, you've got an eye for fine detail. As for music, it's the
soundtrack to your world. You're up to speed with downloading, and your mp3 is
always close by. Music helps you focus and concentrate. You probably find it
hard to ever switch it off.


What's yours?

Dec 2, 2008

Online Advent Calendar

Check out this Advent Calendar from Littlefield. Just a fun little site to check throughout December. Each day you can open a new door until Dec. 25th! They've even locked the doors so you can't cheat and open them all at once (trust me, I tried).

Nov 24, 2008

Tulsa's 1st Winterfest!!!

For those of you looking for a fun new holiday tradition, check out this link! Rockefeller Center in TULSA!? What!?

On a very special note, Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Nov 14, 2008

Guitar Here World Tour!!!

It's HERE!!!!


Well, part of it. Eric went to WalMart last night where they had the game and new slide guitar for cheapo (didn't include drums and mic)!! He snached it right up and surprised me when he came home with it because I thought we had decided to wait to get it...apparently it was too good a deal to pass up. So now I need to invest in the drums and mic, although I might wait on the mic! For those of you that are curious about the slide guitar, it's GREAT! I can't wait to have a GHWT party so we can rock it out! And what's really cool is the fact that you can have a 3 guitar band so my GH2 and GH3 guitars won't go to waste! I'll post a pic of my rocker chick later but here's the new guitar!


Also, as a side note, since I'm learning to play the real guitar I hadn't been playing GH much lately so as to have more time to practice. The other day I pulled the game out because I was getting withdrawls and needed a little positive feedback. You see, the actual guitar is much harder to pick up (duh) but I gained rock star status almost instantly on GH3! So I needed to feel like a rocker again and hear the crowd roar! j/k Here's the amazing thing. I hadn't played GH for at least 3 weeks but was able to beat 2 new songs that I've NEVER beat before. It seems my acoustic guitar skills are helping out my video game skills! Who would've thought!

Guitar Hero World Tour Guitar Art - 178/365


Nov 13, 2008

Eric Update

For those of you that are curious what the damage looked like after Eric's surgery, click here. I know some of you are a little queasy so I didn't post the pic. It's really not that bad. The picture was taken 4 days after the surgery and looks great now. He's healing well and up and moving. After about a year and a half of Eric living in pain, he is finally pain-free! To proove how good he's doing, I posted a pic of his amazing dinner he cooked the other night, Lemon-Thyme Chicken with new potatoes.



Eric's Lemon-Thyme Chicken - 171/365














Unite! 2008

For those of you that don't know, I work at the Tulsa Area United Way. This past Tuesday we had the final campaign celebration and announced the total amount raised. With a goal of $23,934,339, the Tulsa Area exceeded it and raised $24,001,223! The event was held at Expo Square's Central Park Hall. Tulsa's own, Zink Park kicked off the night and came back for the post party. I decided to share some of the photos from the event that show a little bit of what I do around here. I designed the event brand which was carried out on all the materials including the invitation, table cards, programs and event signage.

2008 Unite! - 173/365

Unite Kicks Off!

$24,001,223 Raised!

Oct 30, 2008

Living in Fear and a Prayer Request

The title pretty much sums it up. Ever since the camel cricket incident I have been living in fear in my own house. Just last night I went to pick up my shoes off the floor and a "camel cricket" caught my eye. I dropped the shoes and took a few steps back, this time watching the cricket to make sure I would see where it would jump. However, it didn't move. I got a little closer only to find that my camel cricket was a dust bunny. Whew. I can breathe again. But seriously folks, this is the way my life's been. Everything little and dark on the floor has become a camel cricket. So if anyone out there knows how to get rid of them - without having to smash them (cause I will not willingly get close to one to smash it), please let me know.

On a different note, and I probably should have started with this one first, but too late, Eric will be going into surgery tomorrow for his back. Please keep him and his doctors in your prayers.

Oct 24, 2008

Camel Cricket Phobia



So, I have done some research but have found nothing on an actual phobia of camel crickets. I think there has to be one out there. It seems there are names for phobias of apparently anything and everything but the fear of camel crickets. I guess I should let you know why I am so interested in finding out the name of this phobia.

It all started the other night when Eric was gone hunting. I had cleaned up a bit and decided to try to make a dent in the mountain of our laundry pile. I pulled the basket from the dark, cool cedar closet to my brightly lit room. I dumped out the whole basket of clothes onto the floor so I could separate all the colors. I knelt down and grabbed a couple of shirts to fling to the "dark" pile when all of a sudden, a GIANT camel cricket jumped up to attack me. I don't mean to be overly dramatic, but seriously, the thing jumped right at me.

I know realize that I was home alone and there wasn't anyone to hear my screams, but that didn't stop me this particular night. The cricket jumped at me, I screamed at first in shock and then let out many screams of fright once I realized what jumped at me. I ran out of my bedroom, with clothes in hand and ran to the dining room. I couldn't tell where the cricket landed so my worst fear was that it was somewhere ON me. I threw the clothes on the ground and ran through the house screaming, shaking my head and convulsing my body in an attempt to shake the cricket off me and scare it away with my little school girls screams.

Once I realized the cricket wasn't on me a new fear set in...it was still in my bedroom. I immediately ran to the room, grabbed the door knob and flung the door shut. I then ran, screaming to the living room where I decided to wait until Eric got home so he could find it and kill it. I finally calmed down and decided I'd practice my guitar so I wouldn't be thinking of the monster cricket that might be in my bed now. Eric finally got home and I told him the enitre graphic story and led him to the room where this beast was locked up...only the door had somehow come open. I'm not putting it past the cricket to have somehow managed to get it open. So Eric's response was, "Well, how am I supposed to get it now? It could be anywhere." I guess if he had been home to witness the terrifying event, he might have chosen his words a little more wisely. We then went on a journey to find the hiding camel cricket. I say we, I mainly just followed behind making sure the thing was found. So after checking every little crevice in the bedroom, we came up empty.

I still fear the camel cricket is lurking in the house somewhere and have been living in fear the last few nights worrying every time I pick something up that the cricket will be back and might actually give me a heart attack next time!

All that to say there must be an actual phobia for these things. Now, when I was doing my research I did find out that the camel cricket can't actually hurt you as they have no teeth, fangs, poisionous anything, but I think they could literally scare someone to death. It seems they have very poor eyesight becuase they like living in cool, damp, dark places. You know, like basements, crawlspaces, etc. Anyway, since they have poor eyesight they jump directly at whatever is approaching in an effort to scare it away. Their defense mechanism works.

The photo at the top was not taken by me, I grabbed the link from this guy! (also posted about the phobia!)



Oct 10, 2008

Rockin' Docs 2008

This was the second year for our Rockin' Docs event at the Tulsa Area United Way. Rockin' Docs is a fundraiser event to raise awareness in the health care industry. Several bands, all having at least one physician in their group, compete in a battle of the bands format with the winning bands recieving a donation to the agency they volunteer for. This year there were 6 bands, ranging from Christian Rock to Klezmer! It was a great event and we had a good turn-out, doesn't hurt that the concert is held at Tulsa's own historic Cain's ballroom! So here are some pics from the evening, hope to see you there next year! Check out Daniel's pics here.

Rockin' Docs Tshirts

Unusual Suspects

Cain's Ballroom Dancing

Oct 7, 2008

Birthday Fun!

This past weekend was my birthday, and let me just say it was quite eventful! I figure if your birthday lands on the weekend, you get to celebrate all weekend, if it's during the week you get that day! So I got a weekend of celebrating...well, kind of.

Eric and I went up to the Tulsa Rose Garden and walked around and got some really cool pictures of some beautiful roses. The roses there are in bloom on into Oct. so it was a great weekend to go! Visit my flickr set to see some of the flowers.

After the roses we went over to my sister's to babysit her 3 boys because they had a high school reunion to go to! Ashley and the boys had made me birthday cupcakes with sprinkles, decorations and the whole bit!! We ate dinner, played and then the weekend got a little crazy! After about an hour into babysitting Eric got violently ill! He was outside involuntarily ridding his stomach of all toxins, leaving me inside with the boys. Corbett, the oldest, decided he needed to go outside and help Eric, becuase he "had thrown up before, you know." About that time, it was time to feed the youngest, Everett, only he wasn't too happy for some reason. I was trying to figure out why he was upset (which is more difficult if you've never had kids!) when the middle child, Hudson, hurt his toe! At this point Eric's outside puking, Everett's crying for reasons I'm not quite sure and Hudson's crying because of his hurt toe!!!

I felt like crying at this point. I decided to try to put Everett down in his bed so I could get the other 2 boys' teeth brushed and on to bed because their bedtime was here and going fast! Turns out, Everett was just tired! As soon as his little body was in his crib he was out! Thank you!

I was then able to get the other ones brushed, changed and stories read. Finally, a moment to breathe. The boys really were great and I loved being there and hanging out with them. Maybe next time my husband will help a little and not be so sick! Ashley was worried that I'd never want kids after that, not true, just not three at the same time!

On to Sunday. I'll make this brief. Eric and I got paid for the use of one of our wedding pics to be used in an ad campaign in NY. They wanted to extend the license another 3 months so we got paid again!!! We decided to use the money and get me a guitar! Yep, I now have a Taylor acoustic/electric guitar. Watch out world, here I come!



A New Bloom











My New Taylor! - 137/365



Oct 3, 2008

The Bottom Line

The Bottom Line - 125/365

Tulsa State Fair

Just a reminder, the Tulsa State Fair is almost over. I know, it's sad, but you still have tonight, Sat. and Sun. to go and celebrate. I haven't been yet, though I plan on going tomorrow as pre-birthday celebration! You know they schedule the fair around my birthday right!?

Any way, I hear the world's smallest woman and snake lady are quite the draw...and for only 50 cents, who wouldn't want to check it out!

Sep 29, 2008

Trip to Snyder

Eric and I went down to Snyder, Ok to pick up my guitar and meet the rest of his family. On the way to Lawton we passed through the Wichita Mountain Preserve. It's really pretty cool to see mountains in Oklahoma, granted they aren't very large. We stopped and ate lunch at an old, abandoned cobblestone house. Eric's grandma had make some awesome chicken sandwiches just for the occasion! We saw some deer, a bison and other wildlife and then we loaded up and hit the road.

We made it to Snyder and met the whole Newton clan! I still have to wait on my guitar, though I did get to take home one Great Uncle Johnny's practice guitars. He gave me some quick lessons on basic chords and then it was off to explore.

We went down to see his cousin's land and stopped to fish. Eric caught a pretty good bass, some perch, crappie and a snake. I, on the other hand, captured the days events to share with you so hope you enjoy!








Yipes! A Snake.

Sep 14, 2008

The Good Ol' Days

One of my friends found this site and I thought I'd share. Below are yearbook photos from the good ol' days! Enjoy!