IN THE SWEENEY HOUSE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 cup or more of chopped pickles (I use hamburger slices)

pickle juice

2 cream cheese blocks (softened)

pretzels

 

With a fork mix the cream cheese and pickles and pickle juice together.  It takes a lot of hard mixing but it is definitely worth it.  Then serve with pretzels.  I know it sounds like a weird combo bu it is always a big hit no matter where I take it. 

 

 

 

  Jesus Is The Reason

In Bethlehem, God gave to us
The source of Christmas joy;
A star shown on a miracle:
The virgin birth of a boy.

He was born both God and man,
A Savior for us all,
The way to get to our heavenly home,
If we just heed His call.

So as we shop and spend and wrap
And enjoy the Christmas season,
Let's keep in mind the sacred truth:
Jesus is the reason.

By Joanna Fuchs

Avast there Mateys!  Today is National Talk like a Pirate Day!   It's time to take up the sweet trade you landlubbers and pick your pirate name!

 

 

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Okay-here is the 3rd issue of the magazine I am in.  The fun stuff is beginning. 

 

 

Does anyone know how to delete unwanted posts on your blog?  I have some and want to get rid of them.  I have one from some wacko and then I have some selling gold.  Thanks!

I just completed these three hats.  We are having a shower here at work for two girls.  One who is having a baby boy and one who is having twin girls.  I bought this pattern book for baby hats and I have loved it because I have made many really cute gifts with it.  I actually have another friend who is getting ready to have a baby girl and I am thinking of making the flower hat again for her.  They were really cute and fun to make.

 

 

Okay-I know it has been FOREVER since I have been on here.  My makeover is going well.  I am still working out 5 days a week and my skin is looking MUCH better.  I actually kept up with working out 5 days a week during tax season.  And I have gone down several clothing sizes.  I started out at a tight 8 or sometimes a small 10 and now I am wearing sizes 2 and 3.   It is CRAZY!  I never EVER thought I would be that size again.  I sure hope that when it is all over I can keep up with it.  But it has been a really fun experience and I am really glad that I am doing it.  I finally got smart and scanned copies of the two articles from the last two issues that I was in.  So hopefully you all will be able to read!!!!!

 

 

 

 

First of all I am starting to drop weight like crazy!  This working out five days a week and now drastically changing my diet has made my stomach pretty much flat and now I am working on the butt.  And my face is going pretty good.  I have been extremely sensitive to everything.  My face is going through a lot right now.  I have been having a reaction to the Retin A in the product and it is also making my face peel like crazy.  So I currently look like I have been domestically abused and have gotten some strange stares.  My skin is in pretty sensitive shape right now.

 

But my pores are much smaller and my skin is starting to look much younger.  i love this obagi skin care system.  Now trying to afford it after the makeover might be a different story.  The skin care system costs $480 and the night eyecream is $100.  Whew.  That is a little over my budget right now.

 

 

And the biggest thing going on is that I will be in our local magazine Evansville Living.  I hear that they are doing a really big story on me.  I can't wait to see it.  I am also kind of nervous about it. 

When it comes out I will scan it and post it.   

 

Pretty much that is it for now.  I will try to keep updates going.    

 

I hadn't posted this yet, but I was selected on the Monday before Thanksgiving to have a complete makeover.  I am working out 5 days a week with a trainer and visiting a plastic surgeon's office to use a skin care product called Obagi that will renew my skin at the "cellular" level and I will visit a cosmetic dentist to have whitening and maybe have Lumineers done.  And I will get an outfit from a local boutique and have my hair, makeup and nails done.  And I will get my car detailed.  I was told by the plastic surgeon's office that my skin will look like an 18 year old when they are done with me.

 

This is for an event that I went to at the beginning of October called "Allure".  It is a local event for us and it was a night for women.  It was at our Casino Aztar pavilion and had everything from diamonds, motorcycles, skin care, ob/gyn doctors, breast health, stress relief, mini massages, hand paraffin waxes, music, wine, appetizers, chocolate fountains, photos, makeup, clothing, and I can't remember everything that was there.  It was a really super fun night and I honestly did not even realize that I had signed up for a free makeover.  I guess that whenever you sign your name and address on your general admission ticket you are entered.  I guess that they picked 10 tickets as finalists and then interviewed all of us.

 

I am what they call the Allure Spokesperson for 2008.  I will be used as an advertisement for the Allure event and for all of the sponsors that are making me over.  I have had before pictures taken.  I will also have during pictures taken while visiting the plastic surgeon's office, working out with the trainer and even while at work.  Then I will have after pictures taken and my big coming out will be at the next Allure event.  I will be featured on our local news channel and in a local magazine.

 

2008 will be the third year for the event and I am the "first" Ms. Allure.  And the event is a fundraiser that will benefit one of our local hospital's children's section.

 

It has been work so far.  The working out is making me VERY sore and the Obagi skin care is EXTREMELY drying my skin out which is not good with our low tonight of 5 degrees.   But I guess as they say, "No pain, no gain".

 

I will try to post pictures as I go along that I am taking myself.   

 

What an awesome way to be 39! (I turn 39 in August)

I have lived in the Midwest for my entire life.  Why does it seem like when I was a kid that we had these huge snows during the winter months??  I remember being snowed in on MANY occasions and we had a neighbor who would go on his snowmobile to the grocery for the entire neighborhood.  And we built snow forts, and snow men, and laid on the ground and made snow angels.  My mom would help us make snow ice cream.  We would have snowball fights and we went sledding a lot!

I remember that we would sled down this hill called "Suicide Hill".  We would play chicken to see who could get closest to the busy road that lay beneath us and sometimes we would just have to roll off our sleds and let our sleds go colliding into the traffic.  Wouldn't our parents love to hear stories like this???  My mom would probably flip if I told her that I used to do that.

 

 Last winter, it snowed one time and I think it might have been an inch.  Snow is more of a rare event for us.  We normally get more slush and mush and yuck!  Living in the Midwest during the winter months is pretty depressing!  The sun seldom shines, it always overcast and usually it is very cold and it rains.  I would love to have more sunshine in the winter months and more snowy days. 

 

I would love for my son to see more snow and get to play in more snow and have the same winter time childhood memories that I had.

 

Why doesn't it snow like it used to?  Is it actually global warming???  I have heard people say that weather goes in trends.  Trends of being warmer both in the summer and in the winter and trends of it being much colder during the summer and winter.

 

I don't know.  Whatever it is, I sure wish it would snow more. 

Hi-I am sorry I deleted my whole last entry but I keep getting some nasty posts.  I didn't really know how to delete the nasty posts so I just deleted the whole entry.  I know I haven't blogged in a while and I am not sure if any of you still read my blog but I have decided to continue to blog.

 

Well-things have been as busy as ever for us.  My missionary daughter Katy has been in Turkey now.  She was home for Christmas and then left and was in Turkey for the New Year.  It sounds like a really interesting country.  She told me that every one dresses really nice over there.  Even the construction workers wear nice sweaters, nice khakis, and nice leather shoes to work.  She said that it is really odd to see but refreshing.  She said that the women dress modestly but very European.  She loves that.  Turkey is also a country that is 99 percent muslim.  It is not against the law to be a Christian but it is culturaly (I think that is how you spell it) not acceptable. 

 

She sent me an e-mail to work yesterday stating that she got arrested.  And DON'T freak out.  Well what do you think I did?  I freaked out.  She said that she and two of her friends had gotten seperated from their guide.  Anyway-they had been passing out calendars that had an invitation on them to go to a Christian church and two police officers stopped them and tried questioning them.  Of course, they couldn't answer because they couldn't understand the turkish.  So they made them get in the police car and go to the police station.  I guess that they were unsure what to do with them because they really hadn't broken any laws.  They called in some off duty police to look at the calendars and decided to give them some baklava and let them go. Katy said that they were detained for about 45 minutes. And the reason that they were seperated from their guide is that he had gotten arrested too and he had been detained for about 2 hours.

 

Okay-I am ready for them to come home now.  She didn't deal with anything like this whenever she went to Africa. 

Grandma passed away today she passed away at 5:15 this morning of a heart attack.  She was 88 years old and completely full of spunk.  Even though she had a weak heart she had a tough as nails spirit.   I will miss her terribly as I have always thought of grandma as my other mother.

 

 

 

 

 

On May 4th of this year I posted an entry about grandma and have tried to post a trackback but I cannot get it to work.

Hey there:  it's only been two months since I have posted.  I should be grounded!!!!!  A lot has happened in those 2 months.  I started back to school (yipee!), I took my daughter Katy to Nashville to a Missionary Training School (YWAM).  I have been to Chicago, French Lick, IN, Corydon, IN, and Louisville, KY in the past two months.

 

SCHOOL:

Well-at this point  I guess I am a 38 year old freshman going back to hopefully obtain my accounting degree.  A little intimidating and pretty hard but I am doing it.  My daughter's best friend from the second grade is in my class, but what do you do?

 

KATY going to YWAM:

Katy is at Youth with a Mission in Nashville, Tennessee right now and is planning on going on another overseas missions trip like she did last year.  She is currently going through DTS (discipleship training school) and will be complete with that by the end of the year and she will be leaving the country again about January.  We still don't know where she is going.

 

CHICAGO:

We went to Chicago on a trip to see my husband's sister and brother in law and see their new house.  They bought this huge beautiful new house that sits on a golf course and the house has been vacant for a year before they moved in.  Anyway-the yard and trees and everything were pretty overgrown and we decided to go and help them get the yard cleaned up since my husband Pat does landscaping and lawncare for a living.  To make a long story short, we were working in the yard and my daughter Cindy got her hand too close to the gas powered hedge trimmers and cut her hand all the way across the top.  No broken bones, no torn ligaments, but she had 13 stitches across the top of her left hand.  She is still having a little bit of a hard time with moving her fingers but it is getting better.  It is actually much better than what it was.  We realized how lucky she was that she didn't lose any fingers.

 

FRENCH LICK, INDIANA

We went to the resort in French Lick  http://www.frenchlick.com/default_.asp for a Peter Frampton concert.  It was pretty nice.  He is still really talented but I didn't realize how old and short he was. 

French Lick is a beautiful older hotel and spa that has been completely renovated. This hotel was also known as French Lick Springs.

 

CORYDON, INDIANA

I went to Corydon for a Fiber Arts Festival.  It was pretty cool.  I have included a picture of a felted chair above in my photo album.  Also-is a picture of Rachel & BJ some of my friends that drove there and I went with them.  http://www.southernindianafiberarts.com/index.html?0.616469434712343

 

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

We drove over to Lousiville Kentucky to  go to Baer Fabrics.  We went last year for the button wall but we went this year for the fabric.  The store is three stories high and has a TON of really cool fabric, even lots of vintage fabrics.  http://www.baerfabrics.com/

 

TONITE:
I went over to my mother's to help my sister get ready for an 80's costume party that she was going to.  She was supposed to dress up as an 80's/90's rock star so we chose Madonna. She will

probaly KILL me for posting this picture but I thought she looked great!

 

 

 

 

So that is the short version of what has been happening.  Sorry it has been such a long time since I have been on.  Hope all is well with you.  If you happen to visit me please leave me a note so I know that you were here. 

Okay-I can say that San Francisco is absolutely a beautiful place to be and I am very jealous of those who are lucky enough to live there.  The only thing that took me and my daughter Cindy by surprise is the fact that it was so chilly there!  I went to the San Francisco area to visit my life long best friend Pam.  Pam was a wonderful host and tour guide. 

 

Pam took us one day into the city to see downtown, China town,  the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf and ride the trolley cars.  We spent a whole day in the city doing all of this.  It was busy, crowded, beautiful, chilly, exciting, did I mention beautiful.  We spent one day in a town called Berkley.  Berkley was a very interesting, artsy place that I fell in love with.  In Berkley we had lunch at this place called the Cheese Board.  The Cheese Board is a food cooperative and owned by all the employees.  They serve one kind of pizza only all day long.  And you never know what you are going to get until you get there.  What we had the day we were there was a VERY California style pizza.  No meat, no sauce, olive oil, garlic, red and green bell pepper, fresh corn from the cob, cilantro, feta cheese and mozerella cheese.  Oh did I mention the musicians?  There were two Jazz Musicians one playing the piano and one playing a floor bass.  All that was missing was a glass of wine.  It was really cool!

 

And then there was the view.  As you can see from the pictures listed above called Pam's view.  This is the view that Pam has from her kitchen windows, and all the windows across the back of her house.  The view was of these really beautiful golden hills that I hear turn green in the winter around Christmas time.  And Pam also has this view on her daily walks.  What a lucky girl!  The view was absolutely awesome.

 

And then there was the day at the beach.  We went to Half Moon Bay and there was an alcove there that was really outstanding!  The waves were rough and the rock ledges were beautiful.  We even got to see Seals in the water.  That was really cool for a couple of Midwesterners to get to see.  By the time we made it to the beach I had decided that I could very EASILY live in this area.  An hour to the beach, an hour to the city, what more could you want.

 

Then on my last day there I got to meet Meg!  Meg lives in the San Francisco area and she is listed on my friends list and has been my blog friend from the very beginning.  She and Pam and I went to this little English Tea Room for lunch and talked our heads off!  Meg and I figured out that we started our blogs within a few days of each other.  I think that she might have even been my very first blog friend.  You can see a picture of the two of us together above.

 

All in all it was a really great trip and I  am glad that me and my daughter Cindy flew out there to San Francisco.   

 Whew!  I feel like I haven't logged on forever!  I wanted to log on to say hi to everyone and also to post a picture of our new arrivals:

 

Summer has just been crazy for us.  We have had my daughter's friend Valarie, who lives in Connecticut, came and stayed with us for a week.  I went to District Assembly for church which was really interesting to me.  My husband, step son, and son have been on several 4 wheeling escapades.  We went to Holiday World which is a local theme park.    We have also been having a difficult time adjusting my son's medications this summer.  My son Justin has ADHD, ODD (oppositional defiant disorder), OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), anxiety, depresssion and autistic traits.  He seems to be doing better now but wow some of those medications he was on were not good. 

 

And as you can see we have baby kittens, which are now almost 4 weeks old.  We initially thought that the babies were dead.  The momma kitty is a kitty that was a stray and living in a bush across the street and I lured her to our home with food and then did not get her fixed fast enough so she got married (this is what my son Justin says).  Any way, she is a very skittish cat and during her pregnancy kept hiding in the basement crawl space.  Well sure enough, momma kitty disappeared for several days and then we smelled something terrible in the basement.  Well we had the worst thoughts ever because none of us had even seen the momma or heard babies.  So we tore apart the basement and had to have my son Justin crawl into a tiny area of our basement to try to find out what happened and all of a sudden Justin started screaming , "they're alive, they're alive!"  So with a huge sigh of relief we completed our rescue mission and pulled all three babies and momma kitty out of hiding in the crawl space and I already had a box ready for them.  So now we have two little girls and one bigger boy.  I think my son wants to keep the boy and wants to name him Garfield.

 

We never figured out what the smell was, we just figured it could have been the birth but we are so happy to have this happy ending.

 

And my daughter Cindy and I are planning a trip to California (San Francisco area) to visit my very best friend Pam.  We are super excited about it!  We are leaving here on August 1.

 

So that is what has been going on with me.  I hope that everyone else has been having a great summer.  Cara

 

I hope that all of you fathers out there in Blog Land had a great Father's Day.  Me and my kids took my hubby yesterday to some mine stripper pits and we went swimming, fishing and canoeing.  We also brought a picnic lunch so it was a really nice day.  These are the kind of things that my husband Pat really likes to do.  He actually loves to go and play in the mud.  He and the kids have a lot of mudding toys and this is what they do almost every weekend they get a chance.  Of course Pat took his 4-wheeler with us yesterday but he really didn't ride it.  It was too hot.  We mostly just stayed in the water.  One kind of funny thing happened though, everytime we would take off with the canoe the dog would follow us and swim the entire way with us.  I couldn't believe that she was doing it because we went quite far.  If she would get tired she would just swim over to the side and get on the land for a few minutes and then she came back again with us swimming while we were paddling.  She of course is a lab and LOVES the water.  I have attached a picture of her that we took while she was sitting in the bath tub while we were remodeling the bathroom.  Imagine that!  I have also attached some photos of the boys and their toys.  There is a picture of my husband Pat on his 4-wheeler, and Devon on his dirt bike.  And then a picture of Pat, Devon and Justin at a restaurant while they were on a 4-wheeling trip to Linton Kentucky.  These boys are serious about their mud!

I came home tonight with my son from Vacation Bible School and guess what happened?  Well-I got home at about 8:30 and I honestly thought that Justin and I were home alone.  I didn't know where my husband was-I thought maybe since no one else was home that he was at his buddy's house.  So Justin and I went about our business and I was wondering where Pat was.  Well-I finally decided to come upstairs for the night at about 10:00 and guess what?  He was in the bedroom the entire time.  He said that he didn't even know where we were and was beginning to wonder about us! 

 

What on earth is wrong with us?  Goofy I guess.

 

Okay for you knitters out there.  My husband bought me a new knitting book.  It is called:  Knitting The Easy Way.  I got it at Borders for only $6.00 and it is a hard cover book and spiral bound with many fun patterns.  It also has GREAT illustrations in the front of the book showing many knitting stitches, methods, cabling, etc.    The patterns include:  Throws, dishcloths, pot holders, felted Christmas stocking, pillows, purses, felted bags, wraps, baby blankets, baby sweaters, baby hats, adult ladies sweaters, scarves, mittens, felted mittens, and hats.  So for $6.00 it is a really good buy.

 

 

Sorry about being off for so long-I have been in hiding for the past week!

 

So Okay-Katy graduated, the bathroom got remodeled, our company came and went and the Graduation Party was a success!  And I uploaded pictures of the bathroom for you to see.  Our house was built in 1885 so the bathroom project was tons of fun believe me(not)!  It was hard to take decent pictures of the bathroom because it is long and narrow (and small).

 

I will upload the pictures from Katy's party once my brother and sister in law send them to me.  Her party was a huge success.  I think we had about 65 people and our meal included:

 

Smoked Pork Butts (a friend of ours made them for us)

Potato Salad (20 lbs. of my homeade potato salad)

Coleslaw

Baked Beans

Green Bean Casserole

Fruit Tray and cheese tray with fruit dip

Pretzels with Pickle Dip

Chips, drinks, etc.

 

And I have decided that when my daughter Cindy graduates in two years I am NOT having her graduation party at my house!  I just about killed myself getting ready for this party.

 

Graduation was nice, of course I cried.  And Katy sang the National Anthem with another girl.  The two of them have beautiful voices!  And of course I cried during that too.  And I ordered the graduation on DVD and got to watch the whole thing again at home and of course I cried whenever I watched it again at home.

 

Please check out my photo album to the right as I will be putting Katy's graduation pictures on it.

 

And I even went to my knitting group last week for the first time in several weeks and I am starting a new project.  The sweater I was working on, I guess I was messing up on it really badly and the lady who was helping me with it helped me rip out a majority of it and now I am just too frustrated with it to continue to work on it so I am knitting a bag.

 

Okay-gotta run-I am going to try to check out all of your spaces before I go to church this morning. 

Okay-this might be the last time I get a chance to log in for a while.  This is what is going on:

1.  My husband's grandmother-who is 104 is passing away.  Even though we are sad about this we are also relieved for her.  She has wanted

    this for sometime now.

2. My daughter Katy is graduating so we have her Acadamy Awards for her Drama on Friday night, we have Baccalaureate on Sunday night, 

    we have graduation on Monday night.  Then on Friday night we have family coming in town to stay with us and then we have Katy's

    Graduation party on Saturday May 26th and are expecting over 100 people.  (Pant, pant, pant)

3. And we have hired a contractor to come in and get our bathroom paint ready so that we can get it painted on Saturday and Sunday but

    he was supposed to come and start last night and he didn't show up.  (Pant, pant, pant)

4. And if you look over at my photo albums you should see a new album that are Katy's Senior Pictures.

5.  And Monday May 28th is me and my hubby's 13th wedding anniversary.

 

Soooo-with all of this being said.  If I don't get to talk to all of you I hope that you have a wonderful Memorial Weekend. 

 

Happy Mother's Day to all of your mothers.  I hope that you have a wonderful day!

 

My sister last night bought me a balloon, card, photo brag book and fixed me a steak dinner!  That was so sweet of her and I totally enjoyed it.  I would love to hear how all of you here in blogland got to spend your mother's day.

The most ironic thing happened.  I posted the message about Grandma last Friday.  And that Friday night my grandmother's blood pressure was 211.  So they rushed her to the Emergency Room and several tests were performed and it was found that there were more blockages in her heart.

 

So the doctors did another angioplasty(which was her 7th one) and found that she only has one functioning artery left to her heart that is now 70 percent blocked.

 

The doctors have told us that there is nothing more now that we can do for her other than medication.  Her heart is in really bad condition.

So yesterday they put a pace maker in and now have her on an experimental drug that hopefully will dramatically help her.

 

Anyway-after the very long week of her being in the hospital and in the ICU-she got to go home today.  So we were happy.  She was in really good spirits about all of it and is just tough old bird!