Kellogg Company Voluntarily Recalls Select Packages of Kellogg's® Corn Pops®, Kellogg's® Honey Smacks®, Kellogg's® Froot Loops® and Kellogg's® Apple Jacks®

Kellogg Company Voluntarily Recalls Select Packages of Kellogg's® Corn Pops®, Kellogg's® Honey Smacks®, Kellogg's® Froot Loops® and Kellogg's® Apple Jacks®

That feeling...

You are at the beach...you wake up and hear the sound of the waves...you go outside to feel the warm salty air and the see the sun just beginning to rise...and if you are a coffee drinker you sit down on your balcony and enjoy that first cup of coffee as you look at God's creation unfolding before you. Do you  know that feeling?

It's simple, yet the most breathtaking, extraordinary thing you have ever experienced. 

I got a taste of that feeling this morning....

From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the LORD is to be praised. 

Psalm 113:3 

Is it really that simple?

Boiling an egg...that's simple, isn't it?? Well apparently not for me. I am not sure what my problem is, but I can NEVER seem to get the egg to the right point. Almost always underdone, but occasionally way overdone.

Life is not that simpler either, is it? Take this blog for instance. It would seem that it would be easy to sit down and type out a few thoughts from my head...at least every few days, but no....it has been nearly 6 months since I posted! It's not that I don't think about it, I do, I really do. It's just that it is not as simple as it seems to actually take the time to do it. Or is it? I make the time for other things that I have interest in...so maybe that is it...maybe I lost interest for awhile...maybe I needed the break. Maybe it was just the fact that I was consumed with building and moving into a new house so everything took the backseat for awhile, even myself I think.  But it is time for me to take a hold of the wheel again and start steering this vehicle called "life" in the right direction again.  That direction towards "simple" that I wanted when I started this blog.  My how things have changed since then!  So whatever it WAS and whatever it IS I am back and hope you will enjoy reading my thoughts again. :)

But that still leaves the problem with egg...

Wow....

Has it really been that long? October???

I must get back to blogging...it truly is therapy.


I promise....I will be back soon!

As good as Cheesecake Factory!

My husband has gotten into baking. He used to be the one to grill and cook, and some spices, etc. Now he is into cheesecakes! He made some mini cheesecakes for a church dinner last week, but because they were "mini" they didn't have nearly the flavor that the regular size one does. It is delish!

It is a simple and easy recipe to follow so I wanted to share it with you.

2 8 oz. Philadelphia Cream Cheese Blocks
3/4 cup Sugar
2 tsp Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp Vanilla
3 Eggs
9" Graham Cracker Crust (or you can make a homemade one, which he did)

Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla. Mix until well blended.

Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing well afer each one.

Pour into crust. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes or until center is only a little bit jiggly. Our oven in the apartment doesnt cook well so it takes us a little longer.

Chill immediately.


This is a fairly inexpensive way for us to have as good as Cheesecake Factory cheesecake!!

Freebies on Friday

Looking for some great freebies on this Friday???

Check out all the great freebies that Fun and Frugal has posted here. 

My favorite is the $2.00 off any Huggies Diaper Product!!  Here is the link for it.  You are allowed to print two of them (use your back button), but I bet the print limit will be reached quickly so hurry up and print them if you think you will need them!

Happy Grandparents Day!

Hope all of you grandparents enjoy an extra special day today!

Do You Remember Where You Were?

I was at a Women's Bible Study on the morning of 9/11/01. It started at 9:00 est, so we had really just gotten started and someone came in to tell our teacher what was happening. Immediately we went into prayer and then they were broadcasting it over the big screens in the sanctuary, so we went in to see what was going on. Mari Cate was just 2 years old, so she was in the nursery and Conner was at 1/2 day Kindergarten. I can remember all I was thinking was I want to get my babies with me and make sure that they are safe. However, I did go home and let Conner stay at school with much hesistancy. I remember it was a gorgeous day with a bright blue sky as I drove to pick him up at noon and felt so much better to have him with me. I also remember looking in the skies and wondering if I would see any military planes flying over, which we did sometimes during the next few days. It was an eerie feeling. Frank was still working for the police department then, so he was pretty much on standby 24 hours/day over the next few days. I couldn't wait for him to get home either though. Funny how you can remember vivid details about some events that happen in your life and nothing about others. Do you remember where you were or what you were doing?

Remember to say a prayer for those families that lost loved ones during the tragedy and remember to thank God for the men and women who risked their lives to help the others.

(Originally posted 9/11/08)

Homemade Cheesy Chicken Noodle Soup

This is wonderful recipe, especially once it starts getting cooler.  I guess some of you are in places where that is already happening.  Actually I guess it is starting to get cooler here too...we're down to the lower 80's now...I am really ready for 60's and 70's though...those are about my favorite temperatures of all!

So I do my recipe by heart and everything may not be exacts, but it is not something you can mess up too badly I don't think : ).

1 lb. chicken boiled and cut up into small pieces (I used boneless skinless breasts most of the time...just makes it easier and less time consuming)

Stock from the boiled chicken (if you don't have enough just add a can of chicken broth or if you don't have any use 2 cans of chicken broth)

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup

1 cup of Milk

1 small package of Mexican Velveeta cut up in to small pieces for melting (this can be omitted for regular chicken noodle soup)

1 package of medium or large egg noodles

Boil chicken and save broth for the liquid.  I season my chicken while it is cooking with seasoned salt and pepper (you can do this to your liking).  Put the chicken aside to cool, cutting into small pieces after cooled.  In the broth, add your cream of chicken soup and milk and cut up Velveeta.  After this has blended well, add your noodles and cook until noodles are done.  Add you chicken and continue heating on low.

I usually cook this on the stove instead of the crock pot.  However, I do move it to my crock pot when I am taking it somewhere usually.  Haven't tried cooking it in the crock pot with the noodles having to cook, so if anyone tries, let me know the outcome!!  Enjoy!

Freebie of the Day

You know me...I love anything FREE!  So here's an offer for you.

Click HERE to get a free sample of Betty Crocker potatoes!

Jumping OFF the Bandwagon

Friends and Family, I have made a big decision. I have decided to make this blog for my "simple living" (if there is such a thing) posts and start another private blog to write about my family and our adventures. I have been contemplating this for some time. It is very hard for me to justify my words to my children when I tell them, don't give out private information about you and our family anywhere on the internet (unless we instruct them to) when I am posting pictures and information everyday (or close to it) about their private lives. I don't mind sharing with you, my family and friends, this information because most of you already know it, but in the back of my mind there is this thought that there is a crazy person lurking around out there and he might show up at one of their schools! (Being married to a cop for almost 20 years begins to wear off on you!) Most of the time I try not to give out any information about friends without getting permission first, but I know that there is that rare occasion that I do or that someone is a photo that I didn't get permission from, so I want to render that. If I have a blog that is private, then, only the people that I "approve" will be able to access it.

I want to be able to share pictures with my family and friends, especially those that don't live near us (you know who you are ~smile~), so that they can see us and my children, see what we are into, how they are growing, I just don't care for every Tom, Dick, and Harry to know about it.

When I told Frank of my decision, he said "Finally!" He had never mentioned his concern to me, but it showed when he answered that. I will be deleting posts that have pictures/personal information regarding my family on this blog (Toward A Simpler Life). I will still be posting to this blog, but it will be more like my food pictures and other random pictures/information. I hope I can still keep it going well, since so much of my blog is related to my family. We shall see...

For those of you who wish to continue reading about our family, I am quickly working on the other blog to get it up and running. The name of the blog is "Life--Our Great Adventure", the link to it is here. Obviously, this will be unaccessable unless you are approved to view it. If you will email me at kellys3angels@hotmail.com, I will be happy to add you to the list of approvals. I believe all you will have to do after I approve you, will be to type in your email address when it prompts you, you can even save your settings on your computer, so that you don't have to type it in I think. I will be happy to assist anyone that needs help getting to the new blog, so that you can continue to follow our adventures as a family.

Thank you for your understanding regarding this. Like I said, I have been thinking for a while, about what to do and how to do it, so this decision didn't come lightly, I have to look out for the safety of my children, my family.

Random Cuteness for your Wednesday Viewing

At Build-A-Bear for Mari Cate's party (pictures to follow) playing on the computers. Last time we went in there he "locked" them up!! Oops!

He found this little car for a Build-A-Bear and decided he wanted to ride in it...haha!!
He finally got all the way in it, then looked at us and waved bye!!

A Flock of Seagulls

Does anyone remember that group? That is what Frank said Hayden's hair looks like after he woke up this afternoon. He has had wild hair since he was born...poor thing! Look how big he looks laying across Frank! I really need to weigh and measure him to really see how big he is!! I know he weighs nearly 30 lbs...which is way bigger than Conner and Mari Cate were at this age! But he is not fat...at all, but he sure is cute, isn't he?? Remember to click on the collage for bigger pictures.

We found a treasure!

At America's Thrift Store!! We found 13 Build-A-Bears for under $12.00!!!! Mari Cate collects Build-A-Bears, so this was truly a treasure to her! It is just hard to pass them up when they are that cheap (normally they run $10 and up a piece at the store!) I am sure that you can see by the picture that some of them are identical...well she has two friends that also collect them, so now they have triplets! Cute, huh? And just so you know that we aren't just hogging all of them, she is also sharing a few of the others with her two friends also. Who wouldn't want to share such a great find??? (hmmmm...well, I won't go into that!)

Do Re Me Fa Soooooo...She made it!!

Yes, Mari Cate made the Lee University Children's Chorale. She went for an audition last night and was selected to be in their children's choir! We are so happy for her and proud of her for auditioning! For those of you who know her, you know that her self-confidence is a little on the short side and that it takes a lot to convince her to do something like this although she has a beautiful voice and sings at church and is in the choir at school, which she also had to audition for. I will be excited to post about what this choir will be doing in the future!! Who knows this could an "in" for a scholarship to Lee University at some point...now wouldn't that be nice??!!

I forgot to tell you about this....

Well, I might have told you but I don't think I shared the details. Not even sure if you want the details...but can't leave this "fun" events in our life out, you know!

While we were living with my parents, Conner would frequently go way out in the woods behind their house to a creek that runs back there, Mouse Creek...just the name makes me not want to go back there. But anyway, this particular day he and his friend were back there and they were "cutting down tree limbs", so they say. Well, Conner has a pretty big knife, but he has always been careful with it. And as active as he as always been, motorcycles and all, he has never had a broken bone or major injury really, until that day.

Around 6:00 that evening, while my mother was holding a sleeping Hayden, Conner burst into the back door and yanked his pants down mumbling words that were incoherent to my mother. He proceeds to run to the bathroom and call for me saying he has STABBED himself. So I run into the bathroom. You just have to know Conner to know that he kind of goes into panic mode when something like this does happen to him. He actually had not stabbed himself, rather SLICED himself down his thigh. It was not bleeding, which I thought might not be a good thing. Frank was not home at the time, but was on his way. When I looked at it, I immediately figured that he would need stitches and immediately Conner began insisting that he was NOT going to get stitches...like he thinks he has a real say so in this matter. HA!

So anyway, when Frank got there he agreed with me (although we didn't let Conner know at the time). He didn't even want to go to the doctor, but we convinced him otherwise. Of course it was Sunday, so there was not a doctor's office open, so it would have to be the Emergency Room, UGH!! Now, one of my good friends, Susanne, works in the Emergency Room, and I knew she would take good care of him, but I didn't know for sure if she was working and I for sure didn't know how long we would have to wait before we could get seen! Then I remember a place my friend Shawna told me about in Chattanooga, called PM Pediatrics. They are open in the evenings and weekends for urgent care for children. It is much like going into a doctors office but they can do the stitches and x-rays and stuff like that and you don't have to sit with all those people and WAIT and WAIT and WAIT in the Emergency Room and even better, it doesn't cost an Emergency Room visit on our insurance only a specialist vist fee!! So if you are in the Cleveland/Chattanooga area and don't know about PM Pediatrics, you really should check them out in advance, for your emergency needs!! If you live somewhere else, you might want to check to see if you area has anything similar. This is such a great concept....who wants to sit in a yucky Emergency room, especially with a baby or child????

So you know me and pictures....had to get some.....but at least I didn't take any in the middle of the crisis!! ; )

In the room waiting for the doctor to come stitch him up

Battle Scars ...And I will add that they have healed up VERY nicely!!

Random Cuteness for Monday Morning

Just some random cuteness for you to enjoy and start your week off with. : )

Max the Squirrel

This is Max. He is our friend. ; )

Hayden can say his name, so that is why he is Max.

Max eats all the bird food.

And leaves a mess.

Then runs away.

BYE MAX!

First and Last

(as always, click on picture for a bigger version)

This is the first day of school and the last year of Elementary School for Mari Cate and the last year of Middle School for Conner. My oh my, where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday that I was taking each of them to their first day of Kindergarten! Time flies my friend, so enjoy it and take the time to reflect on the blessing that God has given you through your children. There are days that I wonder if they are really blessing, but deep down I always know they are. There are days that they drive me crazy, but there are also many days that I look at them and see what a wonderful young man and young woman they are becoming. When Hayden starts Kindergarten, Conner will be starting his Senior Year in High School and Mari Cate will be starting her first year of High School....WOW! Now that will be interesting!

Edited to add: I wrote this post on Wednesday of last week and intended to get it posted by Thursday morning...little did I know that I was going to wake up Thursday morning with a NASTY stomach virus. So I spent most of Thursday AND Friday laying around (and going to the bathroom! Yuck!!) Saturday morning I was hosting a baby shower for my friends, Brittany and Nando and I knew I had to get better. I just want to say "Thank You Lord" for allowing me wake up Saturday feeling like a new person, as if I had never been sick at all. I was able to prepare for and host a pretty good shower, with the help of my good friends Brandi and Katie, if I do say so myself!

So no longer is he just a cookie monster...

he's a cake monster too!!

The Evidence

Look closely--see the cake on his chin?

And then flirting with me to make sure he doesn't get in trouble... ; )

And you know he didn't...