a day late Friend Makin' Monday - feelin' fruity!

OMG - how did I miss this???  Ugh, I haven't blogged here much lately at all!  Slackin. 

Miss Angela & I went horseback riding at my sister's this past Sunday.  It was a nice day for it!

 Jack & Captain blowing raspberries at each other.

 First...let me take a selfie!

Now onto the goods!

Friend Makin’ Mondays

If you’ve taken part in Friend Makin’ Mondays before then you are familiar with the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to read and comment on a couple of other posts.

This week’s topic is ‘Feeling Fruity’

1. What is your favorite fruit?  Aw man.  This is a tough one.  There's a bunch.  Strawberries, watermelon, cantaloupe.  If I had to pick one, probably strawberries.

2. Is there a fruit that you really really don’t like?  I don't like raspberries / blackberries.  I hate the little nasty crunchy seeds!  

3. If you could only drink one fruit juice for the rest of your life, what flavor would it be?  Orange juice.

4. Tomatoes – fruit or vegetable?  According to my WW leader - fruit.

5. How many portions of fruit do you eat a day?  2-3 usually.  sometimes more, sometimes less.

6. if you were making a smoothie what fruits would you add?  Strawberries and maybe some melon.

7. Are you allergic to any fruits?  No.  No allergies at all!

8. Do you have a favorite fruit recipe? Feel free to share the recipe with us.  I make banana bread a lot to send to events that the hubby is volunteering at.  Of course, it helps that a add some Malibu rum to it, too!  I usually grab the first easy banana bread recipe I find online, but when I moosh up the bananas, I pour in the Malibu to make it slightly soupy. Then follow the recipe.  The alcohol bakes off and leaves the lovely coconut flavor behind!

9. Do you have any fruits that are local to your area?  Apples!  There are some nice orchards around SE Michigan.  And if you go up north (the finger region of the mitten) there are vineyards.

10. What is your favorite fruit pie?  Apple

I would have written more, but I was up past midnight the past 2 nights and still having to be up at 5:30 is killer!  Need to turn in - g'night!

Friend Makin' Monday - 4th of July

I pretty much covered this on yesterday's post!  But I'll do it again since it's fun!

Friend Makin’ Mondays

If you’ve taken part in Friend Makin’ Mondays before then you are familiar with the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to read and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Welcome to another edition of Friend Makin’ Mondays. Hope you had a fun and safe 4th July weekend. I thought I would focus on 4th July and Red, White and Blue for this week’s questions.

1. Did you grill food this weekend? If so what?  We sort of cheated and went to a BBQ place on Thursday, had leftovers Friday, grilled brats on Saturday and grills ribs on Sunday.  

2. Did you go to a parade?  Yes.  The town I grew up in (where Mom still lives) puts on a huge parade and we go it every year.  The hubby & I both do radio communications for it.  It seems like work, but all I do is call when when the first and the last of the "Freedom Mile" runners pass my corner, then when the American Legion passes with the flag and random other things.  The people in staging want to make sure there isn't any major delays in the entrants. I also get to hear when the flyover happens - altho gliders aren't as exciting as seeing and hearing real military planes.  Most people miss it since gliders aren't any louder than a lawnmower!

3. Fireworks? Did you go to a display or have your own fireworks?  I like to watch them, but we don't go out of our way to find displays to watch.

4. Did you have a special 4th July outfit?  Not really.  I did give myself a special patriotic pedicure and my sister & I wore funky headbands.  I also wore red hoop earrings (I have 3 holes in each ear), with Michigan earrings on one side (the UP & lower are carved out of Petoskey stone) and blue and diamondish studs on the other. 

5. Who did you spend 4th July with?  the hubby, Mom & my brother & my sister.

6. Did you stay home for the holiday weekend or did you go away?  We stayed home for the most part.

7.What is your favorite part of 4th July holiday?  I like the parade and the 3 day weekend!  I really enjoy seeing people show their patriotism and all the flags and more days should be like that!

8. Which holiday are you most looking forward to next?  Halloween, of course!

Don’t forget to answer the questions on your blog and come back here and post a link to your post.

Have a great day

Sarah xxx

Happy End-Of-A-Long Weekend!

Sheesh, I didn't even write any patriotic, flag-waving posts this year!  And we were home, too.  Miss Angela left Thursday morning to go up to the lake with my sister while Randy & I were at work.

So Randy & I had a date night - let my just say ahead of time.....this was the WORST weekend for any sort of reasonable eating plans EVAH !!!  I did cruise into Weight Watchers to hop on the scale (stayed the same - wooohoo!) and then left right away.  I have a feeling that the meetings were pretty scarce Thursday!  Then we went to dinner at Bad Brad's BBQ.  This first step of my downfall.

OMG - chicken & waffles as our appetizer.  It was phenomenal !!!!
I ordered the 2 meat dinner, so smoked turkey & chopped brisket with mashed sweet taters & cucumber / onion salad.  The brisket & most of the salad went home with me.

Friday was the 4th - Randy & I were doing radio communications for the parade people again.  He was at the staging area, but my spot was along the parade route, happily coinciding with the corner my family has always sat at!

Some of the politicians were smart enough to hand out Popsicles and ice cream sandwiches and dog biscuits (we had Jack & Morgan with us) - too bad neither of us live in your county, so don't expect our votes, but thanks anyway!!!

Food on Friday was Tim Horton's for breakfast, an ice cream cone from the neighbor who sets up a machine in his driveway every year, lunch at a local diner and leftover Chinese food for dinner.

Saturday I went out to Laurie's to join her & her riding group on a ride around her area.  Sherry & Lucy trailered their horses to Laurie's house and we went from there.  It was a nice day for the 2 1/2 hour ride! Captain is a good old man (he's 22, a senior citizen for sure!) - he was the good example for the younger horses.  Nothing really bothers him.  The only thing that really caught his attention and made him stop was a set of old mattresses by the road.  I let him stop and look, assuring him that they may look like a crime scene, they weren't going to hurt him!  He didn't like my sneezing, either.  I think in my old age I'm becoming allergic to horse dander.  Damn!

I borrowed Sherry's extra helmet since Laurie's extra is more for the girls - so too small for my melon.  But you have to admit - it's fabulous!!   Not having a visor still gave me a headache from the sun, tho.

We did learn to start carrying some cash on these rides.  We passed 2 little girls who had a lemonade stand on the side of the road.  That sounded SO good and no one had any money!  Booo!

Laurie has 3 horses and the 3rd, Princess, is even older than Captain and has some medical issues.  So when we got back I took her for a walk down the road so she could see and do something more interesting than just being in her stall or the pasture.  She was not impressed with the scarecrow.

So, food for Saturday was McDonald's for breakfast and nothing really else til dinner.  Randy & I went and picked up some brats from the grocery store.  2 brats, baked beans and potato chips.  And I may have had a couple Chips Ahoy and Haagen Daas later on that evening.

We haven't done much today.  Scrambled eggs & bacon with toast this morning and Randy is just starting up the grill for some pork ribs.  I'm going to make some rice & heat up some corn (since I forgot to grab corn on the cob!).   He's out messing around in the garage and really?  What I have I done today?  Some laundry and hung jeans out to dry.  Read some blogs about people going to FitBloggin' (I'm thinking that would be awesome to attend!!) and not much else!

I can tell how badly I've eaten this weekend, since I feel so blah.  I knew I was eating bad & didn't do a damn thing to change it.

Tomorrow I'll be right back to tracking everything and making sure I'm getting all my fruit & veggies in, this is what I've been concentrating most on lately.  Trying to get back in the groove and back on track!

I have a BIG challenge coming up.  Miss Angela is going to a big National Dance Comp on the 15-19 in Ohio.  That means several days living in a hotel and I'll be at the mercy of hotel breakfasts & wherever we go for dinner.  I plan to take snacks and such.  And since they are planning on doing a convention type thing in the mornings and competing in the afternoons, I have no idea what we will do for lunch.  We don't even have a schedule yet.  Her small group jazz was invited to perform in the competition's opening number, but we've gotten no info on when they need to be there to learn the number, when they will be performing or even what they will be wearing!!  I hate not knowing basic info like that,  I understand they just closed registration on 6/25 but they should have had the opening number worked out already!  The Regional comp they qualified at was Mother's Day weekend, and the last of the Regional comps, so they've had time to figure that much out!!  Can you tell this is a peeve of mine?  Grr.

Anyhoooo, have a great week and I'm sure I'll be back tomorrow with FMM!

Friend Makin' Monday - Getting Lyrical

Happy Monday!  I can't believe the dance recital is over, so the dance season is slowing down a bit (we still have Nationals next month).  The recital was excellent!  Of course I am biased, but Miss Angela was spectacular in all her dances - it can't be easy doing 10 dances and multiple costume quick changes. 

Randy has swag!

I know I'm not the only one who was ticked that they started the finale dance too quick and all the older girls who were in the last dance missed about half of it.  They didn't know it was even starting! I felt sorry for one little girl who was missing her partner - it was just the 2 of them doing a part and she was out there by herself!  Luckily she is experienced doing solos, so after a quick look on each side of the stage - she went on with that section of the dance.  It looks really good for the highest level of comp girls to come running out at random during a dance!

There was an "after party" at the studio when the recital was over - they supplied pizza & snacks and it was BYOB!  I learned that Bud Light's Straw-Beer-Ritas have twice the alcohol content of regular beer - so I downed the equivalent to 4 beers in about an hour.  Needless to say - Randy drove home.  It was amazing to me that even after the craziness of the recital, those kids grabbed the CD and went into one of the studios and proceeded to dance to each other's songs!  Angel finally wandered up close to midnight and said she was ready to go home. 

It was also pretty interesting the my Ex drove in (for the 3rd year in a row) from Nebraska to see the recital and this year brought his girlfriend with him!  It was actually quite painless, we all went out to lunch Saturday and they came over to our house and visited for a couple hours afterward.  She was pretty nice.  

This week’s FMM has a slight twist to it, thanks to Tyra at Random Acts Of Snark for this idea.

If you’ve taken part in FMM before then you are familiar with the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to read and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

So only 6 questions this week, each of them you need to answer using lyrics from a song, feel free to post the you tube link to the song also.

1. What’s your life goal?  - Tim McGraw's  Live Like You Were Dying.

"And I loved deeper,
And I spoke sweeter,
And I gave forgiveness I've been denying,
And he said someday I hope you get the chance,
To live like you were dyin'.
He said I was finally the husband,
That most the time I wasn't.
And I became a friend a friend would like to have."

2. What’s your favorite food?  Jimmy Buffet's Cheeseburger in Paradise.

3. What do you like to do on weekends?  Def Leppard's Photograph.  I love going out taking pictures!

4. What do you want to do today?  Motley Crue's Home Sweet Home.  I didn't sleep well last night and really didn't want to get up for work!

5. What would you say to the man/woman of your dreams?  Gary Allan's The One.  This was our first dance and it has a lot of meaning to us. 

Second choice is a bit more risque...  Poison's I Want Action. 

6. What’s your favorite dessert?  Don McLean's American Pie - since I couldn't find any songs about cheesecake!!

Have a great week!

Friend Makin' Monday - Gettin' Sporty!

What a glorious weekend! Sunny & not too hot - wonderful! My daughter is officially a senior in high school - sniff! Went to Zumba on Saturday morning. We had a sub teacher and there were only 4 of us in the class. She broke out the bellydance scarves! I'm the only one who put one on and it really makes you want to move your hips more when you can hear the coins jingling! She claimed one of the songs had movements that were equivalent to 200 crunches! So other than a brief shopping excursion and making an appearance at a family reunion for a couple hours Sunday....we did a whole lot of nothing around the house. And it was nice!

Did I really just use like 20 exclamation points? Oh well.

Friend Makin’ Mondays

Welcome to another week of Friend Makin’ Mondays, hope you had a great weekend.

If you’ve taken part in FMM before then you are familiar with the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to read and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Friend Makin' Monday - Gettin' Sporty!

1. Are you following the World Cup? If so which team are cheering on? Not following it.

In the words of The Oatmeal......

2. What is your favorite sport to watch either on TV or in person? Hockey! It has the most action (and fights!!) and no one feels the need to pat each other's butts.

3. Which local team (regardless of sport) do you support? The Detroit Red Wings.

4. What is your favorite sport to play? I don't play any with any regularity. Volleyball & badminton are fun.

5. Were you ever in a sports team? Nope. I tried out for volleyball in high school, but since I wasn't one of the popular kids, I didn't make the team. They would have considered me if I went to every game and kept stats and stuff for them. Pfft. Cliques were more important than ability at that place.

6. Have you ever traveled a long distance to see your team play? No. But if I happened to be someplace else and I was able to get tickets when that team played the Wings...I'd be there in my red & white!

7. Do you have a favorite stadium/sports venue you have been to? Ford Field. I've never been to a Lions game, but I've been to every Monster Jam since it opened (the Silverdome before that) and my daughter has danced there at several Thanksgiving Day halftime shows.

here is it peeking out behind Comerica Park - which is also a pretty stadium. Joe Louis Arena is pretty sweet, too.

8. What is your favorite food you associate with sporting events? We normally go to Hockeytown cafe to eat before Monster Jam, so all we get at Ford Field is cotton candy & beverages.

9. Do you have a favorite sporting song? The Arrogant Worms - Me Like Hockey

10. Is there a sporting event you would like to go to in another country? Hmm. A hockey game in Canada? I know there are some rabid fans there, so it would be a lot of fun.

Now it is your turn to go answer them on your blog and don’t forget to come back here and link up in the comments and go and share the FMM love with other readers.