Monday, October 10, 2011

A Visit to the Punkin' Patch!

Last week was such a horrible week for us here at the "B" household. I won't go into all the gory details, but suffice it to say that between hubby's health issues, my job hunting issues, financial issues, and just plain ole pain in the butt life in general issues, it ain't been a bed of roses around here!!! I've been so stressed out that I actually had a MAJOR meltdown on Friday. Thank God it didn't last but about an hour or so before I got myself back under control (somewhat), but I hate feeling like I have no control over anything in my life and by Friday afternoon, I'd had about all I could take!! So, hubby decided we both needed a stress free, worry free, fun filled day and on Saturday, that's what we had. We took off to an orchard located about an hour's drive from our house and we had a ball!! The weather was perfect and we just let ourselves be carefree! Here's some pictures of our adventures:

A covered wagon filled with hay started our journey to the corn maze and pumpkin patch. Fun, fun, fun!



A field full of pumpkins, as far as the eye could see!



With lots of different pumpkins in all shapes, sizes, and colors!





We got lost in a corn maze. This was so much fun and the first time either of us had been in a corn maze. I've already been scouring the area we live in to find more of these. So much fun!!



Hubby took a pic of me inside the corn maze to show just how tall the corn stalks were.



There were lots of things to do here at the orchard, including a pumpkin chunker, apple chunker (for the kids, sooo cute!), a pick your own indian corn section which I just loved, lots of goodies to eat and drink like fried pumpkin pies and some delicious apple cider. It was so much fun!!

On the way home, we drove on some back roads to enjoy the leaves and the beautiful fall day. We stopped off at an overlook on top of East River Mountain. Awesome views!!




And finally, a picture of us ~ stress free and worry free. . .well, at least for a day!



Until next time. . .

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Easy Peasy Apple Spice Cake

Today I'm sharing what has to be the easiest cake recipe I've ever tried. It has two ingredients. Yes, I said two ingredients! And it tastes great, too!

Here's what you need:



1 box spice cake mix (any brand)
1 can apple pie filling

Mix cake mix and apple pie filling together until well blended. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.



That's it!! Easy peasy and so delicious. This would also be good with some warmed caramel topping on it or served with a dollop of whipped cream or even both. Served this way would definitely not be waist line friendly but so worth it! I enjoyed a piece of it today with a cup of pumpkin spice flavored coffee. YUMMY!!!!

Until next time. . .

Sunday, October 2, 2011

A Weekend of Firsts

This weekend was a weekend of firsts! Scott and I did our first craft show. And I'm pleased to say, it went much better than I anticipated. We paid $5 to rent our table and after deducting our expenses (table fee, lunch, and amount of money we took to make change with), we came home with $148 in our pocket! Now, I know that doesn't sound like a windfall, but considering it was a very small craft fair and the weather was nasty out, I think that was pretty darn good!! Here's a pic of our table. Being a novice at this, I didn't even think about taking a cloth to put on the table and my displays weren't the best, but it got the job done.



It's funny because a lot of the stuff I was sure would fly out the door, didn't hardly sell at all and the stuff I was iffy about went like hotcakes! We did end up bringing more home than I wanted to, but that's fine because I can use some of the stuff as Christmas gifts and I plan on taking some of it to my former coworkers because they've asked me to bring some stuff to them. We also donated some items to the lady who set up at a table across from us. She sells stuff to raise money for the Cancer Society's Relay for Life and she was thrilled that we gave her some of our "treasures" (her words, not mine!).

Another first was the weather! On Saturday morning this is what we woke up to:



Can you see it??? Yep, it's SNOW!!! On October 1st!! Somebody must've made Mother Nature mad!! As far back as I can remember, we've never had snow this early in the year. I sure hope this is not indicative of the winter we are going to have this year. Oh well, not much we can do about it, I suppose, except to grin and bear it. Ugh!! Thank goodness it didn't hang around very long and didn't stick to anything for longer than a few minutes. But it stayed cold most of the day with the high temps barely reaching the mid 40's. Bbbbrrrr!!!

Scott has been suffering with horrible migraines for the past couple of months. He's always had a history of them since he was a teenager and had a brain aneurysm that he had to have surgically repaired at age 14. We went for a CT scan last week and will hopefully have some answers by Tuesday. Please keep him in your prayers. I hate to see him suffering with these awful things.

I also would appreciate prayers for me. I haven't shared this with too many people, but I have been unemployed for the past month or so. I left my old job because I hadn't had a raise in over three years, no benefits, and the 70 miles driving each day to and from work was killing us with gas prices so high. I thought I had a better opportunity with another company located much closer to our home, but after working there for about two weeks, I realized I had made a mistake in leaving the other job, bad pay and all! The job was nothing like it was advertised to be and I was so miserable and would just break down in tears each morning before work. Scott knew I was miserable and I think he was afraid I was having a nervous breakdown, so we talked it over and decided it would be best for me to quit there and look for something else. I was extremely hesitant to do that because we need both incomes just to survive, but Scott said my health and sanity are more important than a paycheck. Besides, with what we are saving in gas and him getting to work some overtime, it's almost made up my salary. So anyway, I have my first job interview on Tuesday and I'm praying that God will lead me in the direction He wants me to go.

Whew, I surely didn't mean for this to be so long winded! If you are still with me, thanks for listening to me rant!! Until next time. . .