100th Post!

Nine months after I started this adventure I am finally at my 100th post! It's been an evolving journey. I started with a lot of recipes and then began incorporating other parts of my life, such as our family, our pets and our house. I will say that I have a ton of food pictures that I just have to write up the recipes and so I will be posting lots of those soon.

In true blogger fashion, I am excited to be giving away a gift, made by yours truly.

Matt and I are self-professed wine-o's. So, I take our empty bottles to a local pottery studio, Art Unlimited, and have my friend Anne flatten the bottles for me, to which I embellish them with wire and beads, making a nice cheese and cracker tray. Above are some samples that I have done.

To one lucky reader, I will be giving away one of these cheese trays. Unlike other giveaways, I'm not looking for you to post a link to my blog in yours. I'd just like to hear from you, whether you are a steady reader or not. What do you like about this blog? What would you like to see more of? Say hello! And if you're not a follower, consider joining, but no pressure from me :-)

I'll keep the giveaway open until Sunday afternoon sometime. I'll be busy this weekend, glued to the TV for the start of the college football season. But I'll announce the winner on Sunday, via the random.org's integer generator.

Hope to hear from all of you soon!

P.S. On a side note, I think Athena misses Pandora. Last night at around 4:30 in the morning, I heard her meowing constantly and pawing at our bedroom door. So I let her in and put her on the bed, where she ended up sleeping all night. She is such a sweetie. Love her.

Pandora

It is with a sad heart that I have to share that one of our two cats passed away on Tuesday. I adopted Little Miss Pandora from the Capital Area Humane Society on Valentine's Day in 2002. They didn't know her age, but figured she was 4-5 years old. When I took her to the vet, they guessed she was about 9 years old. So we can guess that she was between 12-17 years old when she died.

She was a small, persian-looking kitty with the silkiest medium length fur. She only weighed about 7 pounds. She had this meow that some referred to as a dying cow sound, but I thought it was so cute... except at 3 o'clock in the morning. Over time, she lost all of her teeth to gingivitis. However, she continued to eat hard food by lapping it into her mouth with her tongue and swallowing it whole. She also became deaf. The only way I knew that she was deaf was because we could run the vacuum right by her while she was sleeping and it didn't wake her up.

She was such a sweetheart and we are going to miss her very much. Here are some pictures of her throughout her life with us.

We can't forget this incident...

Me with all three of my babies.

One of my favorites...

Featured on the DIY Show Off!

Roeshel over at the fab DIY Show Off featured our bathroom remodel on her blog today. Be sure to check it out! Her site provides so much inspiration! I am working on a dresser right now that i can't wait to submit to her!

Cheeseburger in Caseville Mudbath

For the first time, Cheeseburger in Caseville hosted a mudbath for kids. My cousins couldn't resist getting in on the action.

Here's Rowyn, testing out the mud...

Here she is, after getting acclimated to the mud...

Really getting into it...

Kynson couldn't wait to get into the mudbath...

He made a mohawk with mud and his hair...

Gangstas!!!

Cheeseburger in Caseville Parade

Last Wednesday, we headed to Michigan's "thumb" to Caseville for the 11th Annual Cheeseburger in Caseville festival. This post is one of many to come recapping this event that is a "do not miss" in our book!

Ozzy was tired out before we even got there. Here he is, sleeping on the middle console because he's such a little guy.

They estimated that there were around 70,000 people at the parade... in a town normally populated by around 800 people.


Some radio announcer said that this is the 5th largest parade in the state of Michigan.

The infamous Cheeseburger Bus...

Michigan's lieutenant governor and 2010 gubernatorial candidate for the democratic party, Johh Cherry...

U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow...

Tim Rujan, republican running for governor...

I don't know who this is, but I'm pretty sure he is a Michigan Representative...

Britney Spears... just kidding. It's a little obvious from the sign, no? I didn't get a picture of her, though.

My grandparents and cousin were in the parade for Thumb United Hospice Service. Here's my papa...



Here's my bama...

Here's my cousin, Tom...

Much more to come in the upcmong posts!! P.S. Only 4 more until my 100th post!