I made my own purses! :)

When my cousins, Regina & Pam, were here, we had a lot of fun, laughed a lot, ate a bunch of good food, went to every craft store we could find in Greensboro and to Walmart so many times I lost count, and just had a wonderful, wonderful time!!!!

Regina bought me a springform pan, which I've wanted for a long time, and she made a cheesecake which we all loved. We loved it so much, in fact, that she made us a different one the next day, and then, the next thing you know, she made us one more the following day- so we got to try different flavors and compare. My kids LOVED it because I've only once or twice made cheesecakes since I didn't really have a good pan for it. It was like a cheesecake of the day club. :)

Pam taught us how to make bags/baskets and got me sort of out of my creative slump- or on the road back to being creative. After making one while Pam was here, and one after she went home, I got braver and have tried to make the bag with handles. I did it, and it turned out pretty good, so I tried again and have made myself my very own teacher purse/bag. :) So cool!!!!

Here they are:

I know you're going to think it's silly, but I keep looking at them thinking, "Hey, I did that! I actually made my own purse! Who'd of thunk it?!?" :)

I love the colors of this one! Blues are my favorite colors, and these prints just jumped out at me at Walmart! Then I found the lining fabric at JoAnne's another day & I was so happy with how well it went with the quilted part!

And now, my very own teacher bag. I am sooooo excited!!!!! I can carry this with me to my work retreat this weekend. When I get uptight, bored, frustrated, or whatever else, I can look at my purse and think happy thoughts. :) hahahahahahaha

Now that I think about it though, Pam & Regina did all that, and I didn't do anything but eat, laugh, and learn. I always was a deadbeat! :) I definitely owe them something for sure. :)

Not that they will see this, but Regina Baldwin & Pam Brown, I LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

Rebekah :)

My Guys

Last night Rob had gone out for a bike ride and when he came back in, he was clearly in distress, but was having trouble telling us what was going on- he was obviously being attacked/bitten by something but we couldn't see what was going on. He was just standing in our kitchen, twitching and saying, "Oh!" Robert & I were trying to figure out what was going when finally Rob made it to the bathroom and the dog started tangling with a wasp/bee in the kitchen that followed Rob into the house and was chasing him into the bathroom. Rob got his clothes off and there were two more still on him, stinging him. Robert ran and got him Benadryl, and Rob is okay, but he has been hurting from the stings. He says he got stung four times, but I think he had more on his back. So thankful to God he is okay!!!!

Robert has had a horrible case of poison crud (I don't know if it's ivy, oak, sumac or something else- he's done this before and is VERY allergic to something out there). He is starting to heal from that, but is still really, really broken out all over his legs, stomach... Then Sunday while working he thought he got into more and came home breaking out in new places and was miserable. He showed me, but it looked different, and I wasn't sure. Yesterday he showed me again, and it was clearly spreading, but it was really odd- his hands have developed thick callouses from his work and whatever this is has spread under the callouses and not on top of his skin. He woke me up early this morning in great pain from this and asked me to pray. After we prayed, I looked at him closely, and whatever this is has spread on tops & bottoms of his hands and arms up to his elbows and he has it on his legs (around/on top of the poison crud he already has). I recommended he go to Primecare and be there when they open so he could get seen before he had to work today and maybe make sure he is self-treating it correctly. He called me later, and he definitely has poison crud but the new stuff is chemical burns from industrial cleaners he was using at work. Poor guy!!! They gave him steroids and some other drug to take.

I teased Matthew to look out. It clearly is not a good time for the Thomas men in our house. :)

Today Barbara & I went to Kristen's house and hung out with Kristen & Erin (gals I used to work with who have moved on to other schools). Kristen has the SWEETEST little two year old girl, Elizabeth. She was such a ham- she counted to ten, followed by "Here I come!" She sang songs for us, and was HYSTERICAL when she rolled her eyes at her Mom's request- best eye-roller I've ever seen! We laughed and cut up and shared "war stories" about school. I am always nervous when I get together with people (even my family for some weird reason), but once we got there I was perfectly at ease and fine and had a nice time. I forgot how they just take me for who I am and are okay with this Rebekah.

I came home and fixed a new recipe for supper. It was good- Gazpacho Salad- it was cooked cheese tortellini laid on a bed of lettuce, topped with chopped tomatoes, cucumber & red onion, drizzled with a homemade vinaigrette and topped with croutons. It was done in no time too! Plus more sweet watermelon, and Robert brought home cookies & milk. :) I've done some crafting and am going to call it a night now.

Random Photos

These are nothing big, but just some photos I took this summer and in my laziness, never posted.

Rob & I have renamed these two. Meet Unstoppable(formerly known as Barbara Rose) and Unmoveable (also known as Matthew). :) These two were being silly. He was sitting on the loveseat and she walked up and said, "Move!" So he laid down (he moved), so she tried to sit on him and it became this game. The poor dog was confused and excited at the same time and jumped up to be in the middle of whatever it was. :) They ended laughing and both refusing to give in. Funny young people!!! My poor loveseat has not been the same since.

The goldfinches love our sunflower patch. Rob was drying these heads to collect the seeds for next summer, but this guy (and his mate not pictured) was having a feast! They come back every day to eat in our garden. The female bird is quite brave; she will hang upside down, tail feathers in the air, to get to some of the more challenging seeds/flowers. :)

This beetle comes around a lot too. We keep seeing him, and I finally caught him with my camera. :)

Summer veggies sauteed up in a tiny bit of olive oil with garlic- yummy!

This huge sunflower is probably now my favorite. It is bigger than even the mammoths but has TONS of flowers and has been blooming for weeks now. :)

Meet our oldest son, Robert. He's a goofball. Here's a little story. He works long hours with a contractor. He always comes home hungry, especially on days he doesn't get to eat lunch or get a break. So he came home, made himself three hamburgers, and carried them all into the living room like this in one hand. He was just carrying them in one hand talking away (like he always does- yeah, he's like me). :) Then he starts giggling and says, "I have an idea."

This was his idea. He actually tried to fit it all in. That picture is too blurry to post from my laughing so hard too.

Here he was dying laughing. He can really crack himself up- and us too. I love my kids!!!

And then there's Matthew again. This is his idea of a "small bowl" of ice cream. :) If you come to our house and we have ice cream, you definitely want to be in front of him. :)

Cooking Chicken- exciting stuff I know

Okay, I know I'm silly. Who else posts pictures of bags of chopped, cooked chicken & pitchers of chicken broth? :) Me- I'm weird, I know.

I promise I had a reason. :) See, we've been trying to be healthier, and I just wonder about all the stuff we use to preserve our foods, so when I can I am trying to avoid processed, precooked, packaged/canned food. I am NOT a health-nut, but am just trying to be more conscious about what we eat. Plus, I am hoping to stretch out our food dollars. I never buy canned chicken; when a recipe calls for it, I cook up my own chicken. But I usually only buy boneless/skinless chicken breasts, and that is expensive to use. I thought I'd try to do this in a more economical way. So today I hit the 5 for $20 that Save-a-Lot does and got five big packages of chicken legs and thighs, came home and filled my stock pot and cooked it all up. It took two rounds of cooking to get it all cooked. I got it all de-boned (Samson LOVED getting some bones!!!) and chopped up. I even used Robert's mini food processor and made a nice bowl of shredded chicken for Rob to make his yummy chicken salad. I have three BIG bags of chopped chicken ready to use, plus over a gallon of strained broth. Matthew helped me work on straining the fat out. I'm going to freeze that up in small portions too.

It was a lot of work, but I think it will save us money and hopefully be healthier- no salt, no preservatives, no chemicals, no corn syrup (Barbara was stunned today as we shopped at how many items have that in it). Matthew and Rob were standing there waiting for me to shred up the chicken tonight, so it must have smelled good. :)

Summer, Happy Trails to You

Happy first day of August! This is my last week of vacation. I'm NOT ready to go back. :( Oh well. :) Such is life.

I have no big plans for this week, just to hang out with the family, work on some things I've started, read, watch movies/Netflix. I have to pay some bills and get groceries in for the family too since I'll be leaving Sunday for a "retreat" for work. I get to see an old work friend and her little girl tomorrow; can't wait to see them! Oh, how I MISS working with Kristen!!!!

I've been putting old recipes online since that's what I've used a lot this past year. It's taking a long time, but I think it will be worth the time and will help me a lot. Yesterday I put together the menu for August and even got each week's grocery list put together! Woohoo, having the grocery list done already will definitely help me a lot as the craziness kicks in soon.

This summer has been a different one for me, but it was what I needed for sure after a most stressful school year and grad school. I have never been such a bum or relaxed so much, and oh how nice it felt! I did next to no school work either, which is just not normal at all for me!!! I'm going to have a hard time getting back into my normal life after five weeks off.

Well, I guess that's it for today. Riveting stuff I write here, huh? :) hahahahaha