Let me just say...

I TOTALLY love my bread machine! I've had a bread machine ever since Sam and I got married in 2003. While living in Butler we used the machine once, but since that time I never I bothered to get it out again... until this past weekend.

It was my turn to make breakfast/snacks for the church volunteers and I thought that I would try making homemade cinnamon rolls. I found a recipe that suggested the use of the dough cycle on a bread machine. Since I was baking other goodies Saturday I thought using the bread machine would save a little time. I'm SOOOO glad that I used it because the dough came out almost perfect!!! It was just the right consistency, was easy to roll (on a floured surface) and baked beautifully!



It totally beat mixing by hand, letting it rise, punching it down, letting it rise again, and worrying that something will go wrong along the way. Plus, my house is normally so cold that my yeast doughs take forever to rise.

I'm definitely going to use my bread machine more often now! If anyone has any good recipes, just send them my way!

Completely Thankful...

So often we let life just pass us by as we race for the next adventure, accolade, or accomplishment. It's important to stop and realize just how blessed we are for the many 'luxuries' we may enjoy that others do not have the opportunity to experience. Therefore, I thought it was appropriate to mention just a few things for which I am ever-so-thankful!

God - That's a given! Without the Grace of God, nothing else would appear on my list... actually I would not even be able to make a list! :)

Family - I have an awesome spouse, family, extended family, and group of friends that I will always consider as family.

Freedom - As a US citizen I have been given more freedom than I know what to do with... ultimately, it is hard for us to fully appreciate how fortunate we are when it comes to this item of thankfulness... as many of us have never experienced life without freedom.

Opportunity - I have control over what I want to pursue as a career, where I want to live, what job I want to apply for, etc. I can essentially choose my own path.... my success is directly based on the decisions I make... although that cause some stress, it is definitely something I would not want to give up.

The lighter side of Thankfulness....

Cereal and Milk - I could not live without my daily intake of cereal and milk. I seriously think that I could eat cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner and never get tired of it!!!!

Chapstick - Could you imagine living life with dry lips?

Sweatshirts/hoodies - Nothing beats wearing a hoodie on a chilly day!

Christmas Lights - How could anyone be in a bad mood after looking at Christmas lights!?!

Boca Burgers - If you have not tried these you need to! They are the best veggie/vegan burgers of all time! I'm neither a vegetarian nor a vegan, but I found these guys and fell instantly in love. I could probably eat these for every meal of the day and never get tired either!

Warm socks - What can I say? I hate it when my feet are cold!

Blogs - I LOVE to be able to 'keep-up' with my friends who I don't see very often. It just makes my day when I read about what's going on with them, something new their kids are doing, or if I'm just able to make sure things are okay. It's definitely a form of technology for which I am very thankful!

Remember when..

Remember When...

1. Add a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

The fruit (or veggie) of our labor…

I had to just quickly post something funny that happened at the end of the summer. Why, you may ask? Because it is one of those things that you just have to laugh at and chalk up as a life lesson learned.

This summer Sam and I were very excited and convinced that we would be able to grow tomatoes and peppers in a raised bed next to our carport. We bought 4 little pepper plants and 4 little tomato plants. We planted them in the bed, nourished them with some plant food and water, and waited for them to produce home grown veggies!

It turns out that turtles like to eat pepper leaves, blossoms, and stems.... and tomatoes need much more light than what our yard can provide.

But, the effort was not completely wasted. We were, after all, rewarded with our little baby tomato.

Please note that this was supposed to be a very large tomato, not a little cherry tomato!

Halloween, Mason Style

Since Sam and I live in the most 'traditional' neighborhood out of Mom & Dad and Nik & Jamie, we have hosted Halloween every year since we moved to Lakeview Heights. However, this year was the first year that both Sam and I were able to participate in the festivities. (In the past either I've had night class or he's had class.)

We made the famous Mason 'Junk' Chili, carved several pumpkins, hung orange lights outside, and stationed ourselves on the front porch with candy in hand.

Mom was in charge of passing the actual candy out, while Sam and Dad worked on trying to scare the trick-or-treaters with a fake rubber snake tied to a piece of jute. (Realizing that the jute was very visible, they later opted to tie it with thread, as we had no fishing line at our house.)

Nikki and Jamie took Ross (a.k.a. the good Anakin Skywalker), Hannah (a.k.a. the ballerina) and Ray (just Ray) out trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.

As always, it was a great night. We had 154 kids stop by the house for candy and saw a few interesting costumes. Mostly, it was just fun spending time with one another, laughing, and worrying about whether or not we were going to run out of candy!

These are the lovely Mason Family Pumpkins! :)

Thoughts on Fall…

I’ve decided that recently I’ve been rather out-of-sorts for a variety of different reasons. Although here lately I’ve felt as if the world was working against me, I thought it would be wise for me to focus on some of the things that make me ever-so-happy during this time of year!

1. I love the fall… Absolutely EVERYTHING about it is enjoyable to me. I love the crispness of the air, the falling leaves, the smell of wood smoke coming from chimneys, pumpkins sitting on porches, the need to wear coats, gloves, scarves etc. I love fall!

2. Baking is better when you bake with pumpkin! Since Fall is officially ‘pumpkin season’ I feel it is best to bake with pumpkin this time of year, rather than during the spring and summer. (The stuff still tastes just as good during other times of the year, but it almost seems out of place.) Therefore, it makes me soooooo happy when I can stock my pantry with pumpkin and bake pumpkin bread, muffins, cookies, etc. to my heart’s content. Gingerbread’s the same way…. It’s seasonal to me, which means I start baking gingerbread flavored items in September and enjoy them until spring rolls around. Fall and Winter are definitely my FAVORITE baking seasons. On that note… if you have any good fall related recipes that you recommend – send them my way! :)

3. Jeans and sweatshirts! I could live everyday of my life wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, which is the perfect attire for fall! Hooded sweatshirts with a pocket in the front are definitely my favorites! Alas, if only I could wear them to work!

4. Fall Family Time. For those of you who know the Howes family, you know that we love to spend family time together. And although we spend a lot of time together throughout the year the fall brings about some special opportunities. First of all, Mom and Dad’s birthdays are both in October (only 5 days apart), which means we get to celebrate two birthdays this time of year. Also, since Sam and I moved to Lakeview Mom and Dad have started coming to our house for Trick-or-Treat to pass out candy. This year will be great because it will be the first time since we’ve moved that Sam and I will both be there on Trick-or-Treat night, along with the rest of the family! And of course, we must mention Thanksgiving. We’ve had lots of different Thanksgiving Traditions in the past and now are creating some new ones. This is about the only holiday that we ‘rotate’ locations…which means, every 3rd year Sam and I get to host the Thanksgiving meal at our house! Since I love entertaining, I really look forward to our turn to host!

5. Sam and I FINALLY found a used Kayak to buy and I totally LOVE IT! For those of you who have never been kayaking, I would definitely recommend it. Being out on the water is so peaceful and beautiful! The upper body exercise you get from kayaking is awesome as well! We heard that some friends of ours had an Old Town Loon 160T for sale…. So we took it for a quick spin on the lake last weekend (and no – it wasn’t too cold – we did not even get our feet wet!) and fell in love! We stopped by their house that afternoon and paid for it. Ahhhh… I can’t wait till spring so we can take it out on regular trips! (This one is not specific to the season… but it just occurred this past weekend so I think that makes it okay to include:)

This is what our kayak looks like, except ours is red! :)

The things we learn the hard way!

Okay... so I totally love to bake.... but I am still pretty novice in the world of making 'decorated' cakes, which was completely evident when I worked on making a baby shower cake and 5 dozen sugar cookies this past week for my friend Christy's baby shower. Although I was worn out and a little stressed by the time the baking and decorating was over... all-in-all, it turned out to be a pretty good experience and I managed to have a little fun! :) And, most importantly... I learned A LOT... some of which was learned the hard way.

Here are the top 5 things I learned.....

5.) There's a reason I had never used shortening when making icing before (I'm a butter girl myself). It's basically the pits... Yes, it does allow you to make almost snow white icing... but for some reason I found the shortening not meshing well with my food coloring. While piping on the Giraffe's fur (see pic below) it was almost like little white specs appeared.... weird. I'm sticking to butter for now on!

4.) Dark non-stick cookie sheets burn the bottoms of your cookies! All my life I have used the darkly coated non-stick cookie sheets to bake cookies... but I can officially say that's now a thing of the past. I had a Target gift card I had been saving from my Birthday in July and decided to spend it on a set of 3 air-bake baking sheets. Ahhhhh.. no more burnt cookie bottoms! To put it in perspective... I baked the sugar cookies for 5 minutes on the dark cookies sheets and 8 1/2 minutes on the air bake.... Although it took less time on the dark... time saving was not worth the burnt bottom result.

3.) Planning actually works! I made a 'schedule' for myself so I could properly manage my time baking so many cookies and a large two layer cake. Since I work full-time, work out for an hour after work each day, attend Bible study and attend Ross's soccer games, I did not have a whole lot of time left over for baking; therefore, each night I made a check list of things I needed to accomplish. (i.e. mixing the cookie dough to let it refrigerate overnight, baking, mixing icing, icing cookies, mixing cake batter, baking the layers, assembling the cake and decorating.) It worked for the most part... at least until I ruined 2 of the 3 cake layers (see 2. and 1.). Always schedule in time to fix your mistakes!

2.) Always have the right tools at hand. As most know, when you bake a layered cake it is important to bake the layer, remove it from the pan and cool completely (top side up) on a cooling rack; therefore, as any baker would, I removed it from the pan, plopping it on a large cookie sheet and then went to flip it back over so it was sitting top side up on a cooling rack.... of course, it did not work because I did not have a cooling rack large enough. I thought that just putting two racks together would work just fine.... obviously I was wrong (and I even had a little feeling that I was wrong before I even tried.) The end result.... chunks of destroyed cake all over the kitchen table (layer number 1 destroyed). Trust your instincts... and never flip a cake onto 2 separate racks that you are trying to hold together.

(This is what the cake looked like after I picked up all of the pieces off of the table and put them in them back in the cake pan.... at least it still tasted good!)

1.) Sliding a 12 x 18 cake layer on top of another 12 x 18 cake layer is a 2 person job! Alas, the most important lesson learned. If the cake is not centered when originally slid onto the bottom layer... there's no use in trying to make it budge. After baking layer 3 (which was to be the top layer) I turned it over to let it cool and of course, a small portion of the cake stuck to the pan. I managed to 'fix' that problem but faced an even larger one when I did a very poor job of sliding the 2nd layer on top of the first... it was crooked and falling apart, which certainly was not going to work. End result: layer number 2 (the 3rd layer I baked) destroyed and in the garbage. (I did not take a picture of this phase because I really was stroking out at that point.) Always have a helper on hand to call upon if needed!

(A picture of Christy's crib quilt that I mimicked the cake after... and a picture of the final product! Along with a picture of Christy and I at the end of her baby shower.... I think the day turned out to be a success!)

Triathlon

Okay… so I’ve been a bad blogger lately. I can only blame myself, but will use my hectic work schedule at the beginning of the semester as an excuse. Hopefully, I’ll now find myself back on the track of being a regular blog updater!

TONS of things have happened since I last posted. Sam and I went on another incredible vacation to Washington State. I will honor our trip with a blog posting of its own soon. I’ve been as busy as a bee with church, baking, housecleaning/organizing, work (of course), exercising, and spending time with the family.

One of the more exciting events that occurred was Sam’s (and Jamie’s) participation in an Adventure Triathlon. (I chickened out!) The boys were required to kayak 2 miles, run 5 miles and mountain bike 15 miles. THEY DID SOOOOOOO WELL!!! They completed it MUCH faster than any of us expected! It was great to cheer them on… it also made me regret my decision to not participate myself!

I am so very proud of both Sam and Jamie, especially Sam. I know how hard he as worked to get into shape. It’s a very gutsy thing to do when you’ve never done it before… He’d never run 5 miles at one time and only kayaked for the first time the Wednesday before.

Here are some pictures of the outstanding Adventure Triathlon Athletes in action!!!

Here they during the Kayak leg of the race… notice Sam is the only one in a tandem kayak… which weighed about 80 lbs more than the single ones! He said he borrowed that one to use so he and I could go for a paddle later on that day. (Which we did and I TOTALLY loved… we are now using our Can Collecting Fund to save up for a Kayak purchase!)

I was only able to take 1 photo of them running because they finished about much earlier than I expected! I took some photos of them on the moutian bike trail... but they did not turn out so well; therefore, I just included a shot of them riding to the finish! :)

Ray's many looks..

(The startled look and then the Koala Bear Look, as Sam likes to say.)

Ahhh... being an Aunt is absolutely FABULOUS!!! While celebrating Father's Day at Mom and Dad's this past weekend I got to soak up some niece and nephew time, which I always look forward to. Ray, being a little over 4 months old now, is sooo snuggly and cute. After hamming it up for the camera a few times, he ended up falling asleep in my arms... and I loved it!

(Hamming it up, then moments later sleeping like Aunt Amanda did when she was a baby.)

A Day of Digging....

Over the past few months we discovered that the bottom portion of the addition to our house (Sam's soon-to-be workshop) was being infiltrated by unwanted water!! The individuals who built the addition did not quite get the drainage squared away properly, which has resulted in groundwater and rainwater seeping through. Therefore, Sam took it upon himself to 're-dig' the drainage trenches, while the building people paid for the backhoe (sp?). I was actually surprised at how well Sam operated it! He would have been done in one day if large tree stump had not gotten in his way and slowed him up. Anyway - while we had the digging machine Sam thought that Ross might want to come and 'help' for a little while - seeing that Ross is the typical 6-year old boy that LOVES farm and construction equipment! Ross was in full-fledged concentration mode while he dug, scooped, moved dirt and navigated the backhoe around our backyard.

Fishing Derby

Have you ever heard of a Fishing Derby?? Well - being the daughter of a Fisheries Biologist in charge of a Fishing Derby, I was able to experience one first-hand this past Saturday. Basically, kids of all ages are able to fish for free (without a license) for a few hours out of the Hatchery's stock ponds. And let me tell you - kids (and parents) came from all over to partake in the fun-filled day of fishing. Since dad was in charge, he asked if I'd be interested in taking photos for documentation purposes... which I thought would be kinda fun.

Sam and I arrived at the Hatchery around 6:30am and witnessed the families flood in (btw, some were already there when we arrived - mind you the event did not start until 8:00). Nik and Jamie brought Ross, Hannah and Ray out for the occasion as well. I had to force myself away from them because once they arrived, I found myself only taking their pictures!!! :)

All in all, it was a really fun day. Ross and Hannah both won door prizes (fishing poles and gear) and Sam and I both decided that when we have kids and they are old enough to hold a pole, that we'll take them to the Fishing Derby too.

Celebrating 5 years...

(Pictures taken while hiking at Natural Bridge)

As many of us can attest, marriage is not always easy, it's not always fun, but it can definitely be one of the best things in life. I was fortunate enough to marry Sam 5 years ago in May and have had him by my side as my best friend ever since. Before I was married I used to lay in bed at night and wonder if I already knew (was acquainted with) the man I was going to marry.... it seemed so odd to me that I might be friends with, neighbors, in class with or perhaps had just passed the man on the street without even knowing that I would be spending the rest of my life with him! Those days are long gone and that question was answered long ago and now Sam and I spend each day discovering along side one another what life has to hold for us.

My FAVORITE thing about being married is the fact that I will always have someone to share my time with. Even though we certainly do not do everything together, we know that the option is always there. Fortunately, Sam and I do have a lot of common interests, even though we are VERY different in many aspects. Since we've been married we've both discovered our soft-spot for KY State Parks! We love them!!!!!! Therefore, I thought it would be fitting to visit a couple while we took a few days to get away, relax, and celebrate our 5th year anniversary! We had a WONDERFUL time.... :)

First 5K

(After the race - notice my really red face!)

This past weekend Sam and I completed a 5K race in Maysville. It was the first 5K I actually ran and the second for Sam. (I walked in one last August.) I am happy to say that we both completed the race and met our personal goals.

Mostly, I just wanted to actually run the entire race without walking at all. My second goal was to complete the race in less than 30 minutes. I am quite pleased that I was able to accomplish both of my goals! I ran the entire time and finished in 29 minutes and 50 seconds! I know that is far from a stellar performance, but for a girl who had never ran in a race before (or even really officially trained) I thought it was an accomplishment. I do have to say that I think I might become addicted to the racing scene now. There is some sort of excitement in the air on race day - I had felt a little of it before when going to races or marathon's with my Dad... but it’s a little different when you plan to participate yourself, rather than just watch and cheer.

It was a really great day (despite the rain at the end). It was great for Sam and I to do something like that together and I really enjoyed the fact that my Dad went with me. I could tell he was excited to have another runner in the family, even if it was just for the day. It was something special for a father and daughter to share:)

Tomorrow the Wellness Center is having another 5K - and Sam and I are thinking of participating in it as well.... I think the Maysville 5K may have been the start of an entire new exercising chapter of my life, which I think I'll enjoy.

(Sam, grinning like an opossum at the start:) (Me, cruising along and ready to finish!)

Mission Accomplished!!!!

As miraculous as it may sound, my painting project has been completed!! After two coats of paint on the ceiling, two coats of primer on the walls, two coats of green paint, two coats of cream paint, the purchase, sizing and installation of chair rail (plus two coats of paint on the chair rail), and installation of new outlets/light switches, the room is 98% complete!!!!! All I have left to do is paint the closet doors, window/door trim, and baseboards!!! All I can say is Hooray!

I almost cannot believe that we were able to get so much accomplished! Mom, Dad, Nik and Sam all helped with the project - and Mom has promised to help with the trim painting too! (That's her specialty.)

Now we just need some furniture...... lol


Per Angela's request (and because it's fun) you can see the 'before' pictures above and the 'after' pictures below!!!

Tagged...

10 years ago: I was 16 and had just gotten my driver's license. I was in my junior year, which turned out to be my least enjoyable year of high school. Speech team practice and competitions took up the majority of my time.... as well as being a member of the soccer and track teams. I loved to play soccer and spend time with my friends.

5 things on my list to do today: 1) Workout at the Wellness Center 2) Fix supper 3) Watch the Biggest Loser 4) Work on my Thesis 5) Go to bed early!

5 snacks I enjoy: 1) Dry-roasted unsalted Almonds 2) Toast w/strawberry jam 3) Plain animal crackers 4) Fruit (of any kind!!) 5) Whole Wheat crackers

What would I do if I were suddenly made a billionaire? Pay-off all of our debts (house, car, student loan, etc.). Finish all of our unfinished home improvement projects! Pay-off all of my family's debts. Open a Bakery (and subsequently quit my job as a FA Counselor!) Buy property in the great state of Washington. Invest! Donate to charities and set up endowments. (Ahhhh... how different life would be! haha)

5 places I have lived: 1) Morehead, KY. 2) Lexington, KY 3) Crescent Springs, KY. 4 & 5) Who knows where life will take us next! :)

5 jobs I have had: 1) Upward Bound Tutor Counselor (MSU) 2) Residence Hall Director (MSU) 3) Data Processing Specialist (NKU) 4) Enrollment Services Specialist (MSU) 5) Financial Aid Counselor II (MSU)

3 things you don't know about me:
1) I absolutely hate talking on the phone and always have - to anyone really (friends please don't be offended:). I love to email though!
2) I love to bake/cook and (as mentioned above) would love to open my own bakery. (I am obsessed with recipes - so if you have good ones, please send them my way!)
3) I get REALLY grumpy when I'm hungry! (I think I inherited that from my Dad!)

I tag: Leslie G.

Paint!

After over 2 and a half years of living in our house and knowing that I needed to paint our back bedroom, I finally went and purchased paint for the project last night. Of course, the only reason why I ended up doing it was because we had a $20-off coupon! haha Anything to save money I suppose. In my defense, I could never conjure up enough nerve to actually choose colors - knowing that I once I bought the paint I couldn't change my mind (unless I wanted to waste money - which is a no no).

I decided that painting (or having Sam paint) the back bedroom would be a perfect 'Spring Break' project. I have also decided that I might be able to solicit some help from my mom, as she will be off as well. All I know is that I need to get the room painted - right now it has purple and pink walls and a very pink ceiling. I am actually surprised that I have been able to survive having a room that color in my house for this long! (Of course, it is not really a room that we use at this point.)

Trying to plan ahead a little, I decided on painting the bottom portion of the walls 'Lyndhurst Spring Eve' aka a shade of sage green, the top portion of the walls 'Soft Cream', and the ceiling white (which one would think would be a no-brainer - but I don't think the previous owners of our home admired white ceilings because I the house has none.) I chose the colors so that if the room were to be used as a baby's room, it could accommodate either a boy or a girl. And, until a baby arrives, it can be used as a fairly neutral guest room.

When it's finished I'll post pictures - which will hopefully be in less than a month. (Knowing me though, it end up taking a little longer! :)

New Nephew!!!

I am happy to introduce my new nephew - Jonathan 'Ray' Sparks.

Ray was born on February 7th (1 week ago today) @ 8:12pm. I am hoping that when I have babies someday that my labor goes as smoothly as Nik's. She did not have any pain until they broke her water at 6:00pm and then only pushed for about 10 minutes! She also did it without any pain meds. I am totally impressed!

I am also happy to report that both Hannah and Ross are adjusting to their new baby brother quite well. Hannah's not sure quite what to think, but Ross wants to hold Ray every minute of the day. It is very cute!

On another note, Hannah's 2nd Birthday was on Feb. 2nd and Nikki let me help her Hannah's Birthday Cake again this year. (Last year we made a strawberry shaped cake in honor of Strawberry shortcake - most say it looked more like a pink acorn. Although I kind of agree with them, in my defense, it was the first themed cake I had ever tried to make!) This year Hannah wanted a Nemo cake. Since she loves chocolate, Nik and I decided to make her a chocolate cake with a Nemo on top. The cake actually turned out really well. Hannah kept looking at it and saying "My Nemo! My Nemo!" I swear - that child is absolutely adorable. I do have to say, that even though she loved her cake... she was afraid of the candles. Why, you may ask? Because 'fire burns', of course! We kept telling her that it was okay, but I can understand how the concept of 'fire on a cake not being dangerous vs. fire anywhere being dangerous' would be hard for a 2-year old to grasp.

The Nemo Cake before it was devoured.

Hannah is waiting patiently to eat her cake.