Mar. Misc.

Friends, Terri and Sarah and I try to get together for our birthdays which are spread out nicely: Feb., June and Oct. At the time of mine this year, Terri was sick so we celebrated yesterday. Terri loves to do teas and is so good at making fancy little foods and the presentation. She is always collecting serving pieces so has lots of nice things. Her scones are well known around here! Thanks Terri & Sarah - it was really nice!

Today I had an appointment north in Emmetsburg. The water was almost across the highway near the river. This is from all of the snow melting north of us in Minnesota. They had a lot this winter.










This building and truck are normally just by a field but right now it looks like it's lakefront property.











I brought back ruffled pansies from Indiana but so far our weather has not warmed up so they are kind of droopy. They need a little sunshine & warmth! This little tricycle is going to go in the flower bed in front of our porch later.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to be helping in the kitchen at our church. The Pastor's wife used to work in catering so she is in charge of the meal for the Women's Conf. that is Sat. that I'll be going to. I hope I remember to take pictures. She does a great job. So tomorrow is some chopping and baking for the Sat. lunch.

Our Buick should be delivered some time in the afternoon!

Big Shot Machine Special

This is a great time to get the Big Shot if you have been thinking about it ! With buying it during Sale-A-Bration, it really gives you lots of bonuses (see below)! I use it for most of my cards now and so do many others! It makes putting a nice card or scrapbook page together so fast, easy & fun!

Big Shot Special, available only through tomorrow, March 30, 2011.

Buy the Big Shot Machine ($99.95) and any other Big Shot Accessories or Dies that total $50.05 or more. Your 10% shipping & state tax will be added to your product total, but your minimum due will be $165 ($150 + $15= $165 + tax).

Besides the machine and the other products you choose,

you will also receive the following:

One (1) Textured Impressions Embossing Folder of your choice- from me--

value $7.95
3 Sale-A-Bration products of your choice---value $35.85 to $44.85
Unlimited answers to your Big Shot questions by me---value, priceless

You will receive one (1) Level 1 Exclusive Hostess Set and $15 FREE product of your choice.

Orders for this Big Shot Special cannot be place online via my website, only directly through me.

Special available from Cindy Kemna, Ind. Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, only. (click on my web site above right for my contact info.)

Christmas in March??

This shows you what the cake balls look like inside. (see last post)

This past week was a different one. After P.E.O. here Tues. night, we went vehicle shopping Wed. We decided on a Buick Enclave and hope to pick it up tomorrow. They didn't have the one we wanted on the lot so had to trade with another dealership and get it here.

Fri. the new tractor was delivered to the shop at Tim's. It was brought down from Mankato, Minn. on a trailer. I finally went up today to see it and take pictures.


They're thinking about getting a bigger grain cart and if so, Pam will be driving this in the Fall! I think she'll like it! She's been in a John Deere 8300. It seems really comfortable with all of the controls close. It's a power shift - just push buttons to shift. It even has an "instructor's seat" - or seat for a passenger. Nice!

Bill & Tim have been changing all the fluids (engine oil, antifreeze, hydraulic oil, transmission oil) and other general maintenance. It'll be used for working ground this spring mostly by Carl while Bill is planting with the 8300 and Tim will be spraying behind the planter, and Tim or I will be hauling
seed to wherever needed with the seed tender.

I babysat Diane's girls on Fri. and got an early call Sat. to do it again until noon. Camry has changed quite a bit since I had last seen her. She's eating some real food like green beans and macaroni & cheese and sitting up a lot and crawling with her arms. I want to hold her as much as I can before she wants to be on the move all the time!


Sat. night we went to Sum Hing with Kyle & Danielle & kids. Got to see their beautiful new house again now that they're settled and also their new vehicle, a Chevy Traverse. I'm not a dog lover (or cat lover) but ended up being friends with his German Shorthair hunting dog. She sat nicely right by me for a while.

Preparations for P.E.O. Meeting

I had fun planning and getting ready for our P.E.O. meeting here last night. At my Stampin' Up! downline meeting in Indiana, one of the demonstrators mentioned making cake balls. Cake balls? Hadn't heard of them. When she told me what they were, I thought they'd be a perfect addition to the plate for P.E.O.!

You start by making a box cake mix and bake in a 9 x 13. I thought Red Velvet would be pretty and good. Then when cool, just crumble the cake into a mixing bowl. Add about 3/4 of a can of icing. (will probably need to mix with your clean hands) Form into small balls. Freeze on parchment or waxed paper. Dip in white chocolate or almond bark. Then decorate. I used some pastel sprinkles.



I love the Hallmark paper muffin cups I found when in Indiana. (picture below) They're eggs. They had a couple of other really pretty designs too. I made one of mom's favorite desserts in them, Cherry Delight.




There were 8 of us at the meeting and ended up all squeezing around the table.

Bill and I are not coffee drinkers but think the pot of coffee was drinkable and the tea tasted good. I used PG Tips tea.

P.E.O. is a group that works to help women. There are scholarship programs that we apply for for area women. There is also a program called Iowa Projects. We can apply for money from P.E.O. to help area women with other needs. Since I've been a member, a house has been painted, furnishings given to another woman, a surprise 50th birthday was given for her, flowers planted for her, special glasses paid for for another, a washer & dryer moved up to the main level and a porch arranged for and paid for. There has been lots of help with medical bills. I'm having a hard time explaining all that this group does but P.E.O. does make a difference in women's lives.

Right now, we are waiting to hear if a Pocahontas senior will receive the $2,500 STAR Scholarship we helped her apply for. We should know soon.

At most meetings, a member gives a program and it can be about anything. A recent one was was about quilts with members all bringing their favorite quilt. We had a Christmas trivia one. Last year I demonstrated how to easily make your own greeting cards with rubber stamps. (our group sends lots of cards!) This year, I'll give my program in June and plan to do it on crocheted doilies since I have and use several that Grandma Randall made and watched her make many over the years.

Besides helping others, our P.E.O. group is a close group of women who also support each other.

Misc.

These crocuses bloomed the day mom got home from her knee surgery last year on about March 19th. So they're a little later this year - just starting to bloom.

These aren't very good pictures, but we have a puppet ministry at our church. The kids love them but so do the adults. Their message this Sunday was "Go Tell the World". As part of their program, six guys from church were dressed up and doing the YMCA song but with different words. There was an Indian, a cowboy, a construction worker and Glenn & Amy's friend was in it with his State Trooper uniform on. The puppets travel and perform at other churches, nursing homes and in competitions. The church is always extra packed when the puppets are there.

I'm busy today and tomorrow getting ready for a meeting here at our house of the P.E.O. group I'm in. It's tomorrow night. I've planted those ruffled pansies I brought back from Indiana to have at the front door. Bill says the pansies are gonna die. He thinks it will still get too cold for them here.

Getting started on the refreshments this afternoon. The ladies here call it "lunch" but it's just dessert, coffee and/or tea.

Indiana Misc.

I'm heading home today. Think the weather is supposed to be good all day. It's a 600 mile, 10 hour trip. I usually only make 2-3 quick stops on the way to Indiana but more on the way home for some reason. Diane suggested getting books on CD to listen to so I did that last time and this time. That REALLY helps! It'll be nice to hear the rest of the book I started on the way here!


We saw some new, ruffled pansies that were so pretty at the antiques store the other day and the owner said she got them at Salsbery Brothers which is a landscaping business next to mom's subdivision. These regular pansies are planted at their business and also some hanging baskets of them are along 146th Street. (I'm bringing home a few of the ruffled ones for one small pot)

Thursday we had brunch at The Original Pancake House. There is a new one just down the street from Mom's. This is my favorite breakfast out place. I get the blueberry waffle.


One day this week, we saw "this". This guy was out by a main road in front of the business Liberty Tax Service. I asked if I could take his picture. He had a nice day for doing this but said he's been out in zero degree weather with wind.

Just a reminder that any time you see something underlined in the blog post, that means you can click on those words and you'll be taken to the web site. Then click on your back arrow (top left) and you'll come back to the blog. Also, you can click on any picture to make it full screen size.

Nice Lunch in Noblesville

Wednesday I had an appointment with the Honda salesman. He will be 80 this year and was very nice!!! Unfortunately, it looks like I won't be driving a Honda much longer. I was just not excited about the new Pilot. It seems bigger, more boxy and they've made the interior/dash very modern looking and not real user friendly. Just not impressed. So now we will trade near us in Iowa. Looking at the Chev. Traverse or Buick Enclave. If any of you know any pros and/or cons for either, please comment!

Mom & I had a very nice lunch at The Ruby Pear tea parlor in Noblesville. We've been wanting to try it for a long time.
Our tea consisted of cinnamon orange tea, a cucumber cream cheese tea sandwich, pecan chicken salad sandwich, Fat Rascal vanilla and chocolate cookies, white chocolate cashew scone, a cranberry scone, lemon curd and strawberry spread for the scones and chocolate dipped strawberries. All very good and filling!

There was a gift shop with tea related things for sale, pretty soaps, jewelry and some antiques.



As we were leaving, we found the antiques shop in a little cottage behind the big house so checked it out too. I might've found a couple of bargains!

Blu Moon Cafe

Today we headed out to do several things. I had a Big Shot petal cone die to return to one of my downline on the west side of Carmel.

We went to test drive an SUV at a different dealership today (REALLY didn't like the salesman yesterday so didn't even ask to drive one there). Today's salesman was MUCH nicer although not as knowledgeable. This is not fun! Driving the new vehicle was fun though! Tomorrow I have an appointment with the Honda dealer. We have a Pilot now.

We tried out the Blu Moon Cafe for lunch. It's in the old but revamped part of town. It was very good. I had a half BLT panini with homemade potato salad, and Mom had a chicken/spinach wrap. They had desserts in their case but we didn't have one since we still had another cupcake from yesterday at home. We would definitely go back to the Blu Moon!











This last picture is of a fairly new, and I think, unusual Carmel water tower. There are offices below the part that holds the water! Those are windows! Have you seen others like this? I don't think I could work there!

Fun Day

I had my Stampin' Up! downline meeting on Sat., went to my old church Sun. morning and then did the stamp class for my Indiana customers from 2:00-6:00. So Mon. morning we were lazy and I entered orders. Then we headed out for some fun.

From the pictures here, it looks like today was all about food but it really wasn't quite alllll food!

First on the list was stopping at the Buick/GMC dealership. After talking with a salesman for too long and getting more confused, our next stop was at Gigi's Cupcakes. Cupcakes are so popular now that this is a chain store! Many brides nowadays have cupcakes instead of wedding cakes. All of these first cupcakes with the 4" of icing were there. Mom and I split a Choc. Salted Caramel one which was our lunch. They are cute to look at but wow, too much icing!

I have a P.E.O. meeting at our house next Tues. and will be providing the refreshments so I was searching for a fancy chocolate or any other ideas for that. I'll have a main dessert and then want to have a couple of other little things on the plate. I knew there was a chocolatier here and a Sweet Shop that has homemade chocolates and different things.

We went by Penzeys Spices, a spice store that we had both heard about before I had moved to Iowa but neither of us had been there so I got turned around and back to it so we could check it out. Very interesting! They have any spice you could ever want but that's about all they had - a whole store of just spices! And at reasonable prices.

Next stop was the Sweet Shop where I did find something perfect for my dessert plates. Next was Trader Joe's. Found a couple of fat free salad dressings that are supposed to be good. Their Ezekial bread is popular and their soups among other things like their cheeses, hummus and yogurt.

A woman at Mom's church had said that she must go to The Flying Cupcake in the Broad Ripple area so we also checked that out! It was very busy in the middle of the afternoon. We brought 2 kinds of cupcakes home to try from there (last cupcake picture with the cherry on top - it's Black Forest). Tonight we split a Red Velvet one (no picture). Better than Gigi's.




















The last 3 pictures are of our dinners at Mangia! Italian Restaurant. A friend of Mom's recommended it. It was a nice, relaxing, clean place with fireplace and good service.

Talked with Bill last night about the new vehicle options. Heading out today to drive one and stop and talk to the Honda people. My salesman there has been in the hospital.