Something new.....

"WORDLESS WEDNESDAY"

Congratulations Pvt. First Class Conner!

As I have posted before, Conner is part of the Young Marines program. He started the program last January and went through a rigorous 13 week boot camp every Saturday from 7:45-2:00. The bootcamp included physical fitness training and tests, written tests, verbal tests on rank structure, the Pledge of Allegience, the National Anthem, the Young Marines Obligation and Creed, etc. He had to complete these things and more to graduate from the bootcamp. After graduating bootcamp, he earned the rank of "Private". Then their unit kind of "died" for lack of a better word. Their unit commander moved to Texas and they had to find a new commander. Well, their new commander, Sgt. Taylor is VERY GUNGHO!! He came in telling us he wanted to get the promotions done that were due and really get the unit "motivated" (this is a word the Young Marines hear from Sgt. Taylor VERY often!!) Well, he has done just that! This past week he did make those promotions with more to come. Just so you have an idea of what is required to earn Private First Class, they are listed below. I am very proud of Conner and his accomplishment!!

This is a picture of the chevrons he earned and now gets to proudly wear on his uniform.

PFC Requirements
Required time in previous grade:
Graduate from bootcamp

Citizenship:
Memorize Pledge of Allegiance to flag
Memorize Young Marine Obligation
Know U.S. President and Vice President

Leadership:
Show willingness to accept responsibility
Military courtesy
Understand billets

Physical Fitness:
Pass PFT with score of 200

School:

Be attentive polite and obedient

Home and Outside Activities:

Respect parents and elders at all times.

Use 'sir' or 'ma'am.'

Personal Habits:
Have clean body and teeth.

Hair and fingernails clean and neatly trimmed.

Close order drill:
Be able to execute all facing movements and column movements.

Other subjects:
Pass standardized PFC exam for age group with 70% or better.

Exam will include questions identified in this study guide.

The Young Marines program is open to boys and girls ages 8-18 (I think). If you think your child might benefit or be interested in joining or you know someone who might be interested in joining the Young Marines, please be sure to visit this website http://www.youngmarines.com/unitlocator.htm to find a unit located in your area. Registrations are going on now for the next bootcamp.

And More Apples...........

Well, I am still trying new recipes with all the apples we got, so I wanted to share another one with you. This one is a Golden Delicious Apple Bundt Cake, which I got from SouthernFood.about.com

INGREDIENTS:
3 Golden Delicious apples (about 1 pound), peeled, diced
1 cup pecan pieces (optional)
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 large eggs
2/3 cup safflower oil or Canola
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup applesauce
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

PREPARATION:
Heat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt cake pan or spray thoroughly with a flour and oil baking spray.

Core apples and dice in 1/4-inch dice. Put diced apples in a bowl with pecan pieces, 1/2 cup of sugar, and the cinnamon. Stir to blend; set aside.

In a large a mixing bowl, stir or whisk the eggs with oil, sugar, applesauce, and vanilla. In another bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly beat dry ingredients into the oil and applesauce mixture until well blended. Stir in the diced apple mixture. Spoon into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden pick inserted in center comes out with a few crumbs clinging. Cool in pan on a rack for 15 minutes. If necessary, carefully loosen sides with a spatula. Put the rack over the pan and carefully invert. Cool completely.

Slide the cooled cake onto a serving plate, or to be safe, place the baking pan over the cake again, flip with the rack, then cover with a serving plate and invert again.

I added a Caramel Sauce and it made it just oh so yummy!! If I could only figure out how to make these non-fattening!! : )

Here is the recipe for the Caramel Sauce which I got off of Martha Stewart's website.

Ingredients:
Makes enough for 1 cake
1 cup light-brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Directions:
Combine ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until thickened to desired consistency.

Let me know if you try this recipe and I hope you enjoy it!

It's apple pickin' time!

One of our favorite things to in the Fall is to go to the Apple Valley Orchard here in Cleveland. Of course they have lots of different kinds of apples, homemade apple goodies, apple cider and THE BEST apple cider frozen slushy!!

Well, thinking I might be on bed rest by this point, I thought I would miss out on going to the orchard, but hooray, we got to go today. Unfortunately, the orchard lost most of their apples this year due to our crazy weather this year. I really feel sorry for them because this is a pretty big business. Anyway, they are bringing apples in from Virginia, Michigan, and New York they told me, but they probably won't have some of our favorites varieties.

We did get some Golden Delicious and another mix that I can't remember the name of (I think it was "Stay" something--blame it on pregnancy brain!) So anyway, tonight the kids are going to make some caramel apples and I made some apple bread and thought I would share a pic and the recipe since I hadn't done that in a long time!!

Apple Bread

3 cups All-Purpose Flour

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

3 large eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 cups diced apples

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans; set aside.

2. In medium bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt; set aside.

3. In mixing bowl, beat the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla together, mixing well. Stir in flour mixture until just mixed. Fold in apples and walnuts and spoon into the prepared loaf pans.

4. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until tested done when wooden pick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in the pans before removing to cool on wire racks.

If desired you can add a glaze once the bread has been transferred to the wire racks:

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

3-4 Tbsp. Milk

Mix together and drizzle over both loaves. Enjoy!!

Our First BIG Purchase

First, let me say, I am sorry it has been awhile since I posted. All I can say is...just life and its normal busyness!

Well, we went to a special "registry" night at Babies R Us last week. I know it is a little early to register, but I thought if I end up having to go on bedrest, I would like to have this done. I also wanted the free stuff (hehehe!!)

A few weeks before we had been there to purchase a present for a friend who had just had a baby and saw a stroller/travel system (stoller and infant car seat combo) that we reeeeaaaalllllyyyy liked! It is a Chicco Cortina Travel System in the Discovery Pattern. They had one on display away from the others, so we asked the price on it (hoping that maybe it was marked down since it was a display or something), but it wasn't. So over these last couple of weeks we have been researching Consumer Reports to see what is rated the best, worst, and so on. (I believe being older we are checking things out a lot more closely than we did before---but I don't really know why).

So anyway, the stroller was marked down when we went in to register. Of course it was the only one at that price so we couldn't register for it. So anyway, Frank told his Mom about it the next day and we got an early Christmas present!! And they even got an extra 10% off of that day!! So we are thrilled!!

Happy 8th Birthday Mari Cate!

Happy Birthday to You,

Happy Birthday to You,

Happy Birthday my Sweet Princess,

Happy Birthday to You!

Birthday Money--woo hoo!!

A new Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana CD!

The theme was High School Musical--one of Mari Cate faves!

Getting ready to blow out the candles

We had Mari Cate's birthday at a local pizza parlor (Rafael's) this year. This was much easier on me, so that I didn't have to major house cleaning! : ) She loves Disney's High School Musical (both of them), so that is the theme that she wanted. My parents, Frank's parents, his sister and her family, some friends from church and our next door neighbors were all there to help celebrate. We had a really good time and Mari Cate got lots of goodies!! We celebrated her birthday on Sunday evening, but her actual birthday was on Monday, so I took cupcakes to school for her class and then surprised her by checking her out of school. I almost never do anything like that, so she was really shocked! We went down to Chattanooga to meet Frank for lunch at Chick-Fil-A, then took her over to Toys-R-Us to use her gift card. I think she really enjoyed her day! Be sure to take time to make your princess or prince's day a special one (even as they get older)...time is so short, you don't want to lose out on the opportunity!

Sleep-Tight-Giveaway

Hey everyone! Check this out! http://www.adventuresinbabywearing.com/2007/09/sleep-tight-giveaway.html Stephanie at Adventures in Babywearing is a blog I check out often and she is offering a contest for a Protect-A-Bed Mattress Cover. Frank and I just bought a new mattress set (way overdue for one and I absolutely LOOOVE it!!!!), and we purchased one of these mattress covers with it. They are super nice and help you keep the warranty on your new mattress set even longer! So be sure to check out the giveaway!