A Mosaic Meme

{I saw this on my good friend Jolene's blog and thought it was fun! So -- here's some more things about me you wish I wouldn't force you to didn't know.}

Questions and Answers:

1. What is your first name? Nicole

2. What is your favorite food? Lasagna

3. Where did you go to High School?

Delta High School

4. What is your favorite dessert?

Lemon Meringue Pie

5. What is your favorite color? Cranberry

6. Who is your celebrity crush? Patrick Dempsey {sigh}

7. What is your favorite drink? Diet Coke

8. What is your dream vacation? Europe

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?

A writer

10. What is one word to describe you? Shenanigans

11. What do you love most in life? My Family

12. What is one of your hobbies? Crafting

C'mon! It's easy to play. Here's how to

make one of your own:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions

above into Flickr Search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images

into fd’s mosaic maker.

d. Save image to hard drive and post to blogger.

Batman, A PSA, and One Crazy Joker

After Relief Society on Sunday, I was talking to a couple of my girlfriends about...the lesson? No. Kids? Nuh-uh. Church stuff? Nope.

We were talking about Batman of course (our husbands would be so proud--at least until they found out we were complaining about how violent & dark the dang thing was).

On Friday, DH & I saw Batman at a Cinemark theater {which did not have assigned seating--what the? I didn't know that was even an option anymore Larry H has spoiled me rotten.}

We showed up to our 8 pm movie at seven--to get a good seat (along with about 100 other people). At about 730, a grown man {40ish} who works for Cinemark, stood in front of the movie screen and said, "I'd like to make an announcement." He then whistled to get everyone's attention.

As the crowd quieted down, he cleared his throat for his big speech. "We appreciate all of you who came early to get your seat for Batman. This is a great movie. You are going to love it. Now for my announcement--I'm sure in a few minutes many of you will need to tinkle {I promise he used that word}. Just so you know, the men's restrooms are just outside this door on the left and the women's are on the right. Enjoy the movie."

Now there was a PSA I wasn't expecting. Tinkle? Really?

The Movie

I thought it was good. I really liked it. I'll definitely buy it when it comes out on DVD {mostly because DH will want it}. It had amazing special effects--and I thought the storyline was fab (although my BFF, thought it was mostly pomp without much circumstance).

My only issue? I've already mentioned it a little bit. The violence! Man, was it ever violent! I'm not ashamed to admit I watched most of the movie with my hands over my eyes {I left little peep holes for my eyes to see--for some reason filtered violence doesn't seem so harsh.} By the end of the movie, I had grown so accustomed to the violence & bloodshed that I *almost* didn't have to shut my eyes at the man with half a face {how he avoided infection I'll never know}.

A Few Characters
The Batman:(Christian Bale)-loved him. What's not to love really? Hunk. Great acting.

The Batman's Girlfriend (Maggie Gyllenhaal): When I saw the previews for the movie, I totally thought it was Spiderman's girlfriend (Kirsten Dunst). She could definitely be Mary Jane's older sister.

The Joker-- That Heath Ledger was either one great actor or one crazy dude. He was excellent. I totally bought into his wild-eyed-craziness. And I can't get, "Why so serious?" Out of my head.

Thumbs up?
I give it a couple. I'd even watch it again--possibly with my eyes open?

The Sunday Funnies

Last week, as we passed the bowl of watermelon around the dinner table--my DH commented that he was allergic to watermelon (taking a scoop anyway--if the watermelon is good enough he will eat through the pain).

Savvy said, "I'm not allergic to anything."

Jay added, "Neither am I."

I threw into the mix, "I'm allergic to watermelon, pineapple and canteloupe." (True story--by the way).

Aussie, not to be outdone, stated, "Well, I'm allergic to Catholics."

"WHAAT?" DH and I asked.

"Catholics. I'm allergic to Catholics," he answered.

Just as we launched into the lecture that we respect all religions...yadayadayada, Austin remarked, "Well, Mom's the one who said it. She told the doctor yesterday that I'm allergic to KEFLEX."

{an antibiotic that causes him to break out in hives}

Sheesh.

Friday Gems

I read a poem the other day and

loved its message.

Here's an excerpt from it...

"House by the Side of the Road"

"I see from my house by the side of the road
By the side of the highway of life,
The men who press with the ardor of hope,
The men who are faint with the strife,
But I turn not away from their smiles and tears,

Both parts of an infinite plan--

Let me live in a house by the side of the road

And be a friend to man."

by Sam Walter Foss

{P.S. Click on this for the rest of the poem}

I Heart Good Deals

By nature, I am a cheapskate deal finder. I refuse to spend more for something if I know I can get it cheaper somewhere else. With higher gas prices and food prices, it has made it difficult to find many good deals. So, I decided to get creative with my shopping.

My sis-in-law is a professional coupon clipper--her grocery bill (for a family of 4) is around $250 a month much, much, MUCH less then what I spend. We visited her family over Memorial Day weekend--and she gave me some tips on how to shop the deals.

One of the tips was this website http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/index.php --{which I totally heart} the people who run this website are hardcore couponers. {It took me a month just to figure out what their lingo meant.}

Being the newbie that I am, I pretty much stick with the hotcouponworld "Swinging Deals" section--focusing mostly on the grocery stores. It basically matches up your coupons to what is on sale in the ads.

A couple of weeks ago, I found this deal on their website: I was able to purchase at my local Albertson's; 5 jars of planters peanuts, 3 bags of marshmallows & 2 boxes of cereal--for around $9 {after coupons}. After my purchase--the cashier handed me a receipt with $8 off my next purchase--which I used on diet coke the next time I was there.

According to my sis-in-law, the key to couponing is to buy the random deals when you can get it--so you have it for later. I would not normally by 5 jars of peanuts and 3 bags of marshmallows--but I figured I'd just stick the 5 jars of peanuts in my food storage--and call it protein. Then my nutty kids found the nuts -- and are in the process of inhaling them daily. Who knew?

I've found a couple of more deal finding websites to heart--one of them is pretty localized to the state of UT. I heart the Grocery Guru http://www.utahcityguide.com/new/guru/index.asp. This dude plans out a weeks menu according to ONE store's ad. Pretty sweet.

The other website I heart is http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/. {Just click on your home state to find what deals are in your area.}

I totally heart good deals {and I'm learning to heart couponing}.

So, what good deals have you found lately?

A Crock without Proper Ingredients: Is Just a Crock

One of the hardest things about crocking is you have to prepare it so far in advance. If I'm not thinking about dinner by at the latest noon--chances are I'm not crockin' that night.

At about noon yesterday, I looked at the clock and realized if I didn't hurry myself up I wasn't going to have the crock ready in time for dinner

On the menu for last night's dinner-- was "Crockin' (chicken) Enchiladas". Mmmm--that sounded so good to me (this recipe specifically says NOT to cook on high or it doesn't turn out--so I had to get on the move).

I started the prep work--which involved cooking and chopping up the chicken into bite sized pieces, grating the cheese, adding sauce to the chicken, etc. etc.

The time came to layer it into the crock. The bottom layer was torn up flour tortillas, next layer--chicken sauce, next layer--cheese--layering it like 4 or 5 times. Yum!

I reached into my fridge to grab the flour tortillas--and came up empty handed. How could I not have flour tortillas? I always do. I looked under everything I coulda sworn I had some expired ones under the eggs.

Finally, I realized that I was missing a key ingredient--and by the time I ran to the store to get it--dinner would not be ready in time.

Curses!

Luckily, I had some tostada shells in the pantry. So I threw my chicken and sauce into the crock and turned it on low for some good simmerin'.

When the dinner hour arrived, I grabbed my shells, and layered refried beans, shredded lettuce, chicken & sauce, cheese and topped it off with some ranch dressing (because everything tastes better with ranch).

EASY Chicken Tostadas: Crockpot Optional

(5 out of 5 Hansen's heart this recipe--although Aussie preferred just the beans, shell and cheese)

2 lbs of chicken (cooked and chopped into bite size pieces)

1 can of "Hatch's Green Chile Enchilada Sauce" (my preferred brand)

1/2 container of sour cream

1 clove of garlic

shredded cheese

Hard Tostada Shells

refried beans

lettuce

tomatoes

salsa

ranch dressing

*any other tostada toppings your family will like

Directions: Cook and chop your chicken. Add a can of Hatch's Green Chile Enchilada Sauce, 1/2 container of sour cream, & garlic. Mix together.

Serve on tostada shells, layering lettuce, cheese, chicken & sauce, and your favorite toppings.

Yum!

A Lion and A Lamb

Last night, I went to book club. Our book for the month was called "A Lion and Lamb." It was such a good book. I loved it. It was a quick and easy read, yet it had such great messages of service, love and missionary work.

It's about the LDS church in the early 1900's. The Mormon's had been driven out of Palmyra, New York years before this--but the sentiment of the New Yorkers was still anti-Mormon. So, church leaders called Willard and Rebecca Bean to be missionaries (for 5 years) and live in Joseph Smith's old house.

Well, 5 years turned into 25 years and the trials and historical events that this couple lived through was so amazing to me. When the Bean's first move to Palmyra--they are chased off with a gun. But, after 25 years, when the church finally releases them from their mission--the entire community is sad and throws a big party for them--they had become loved and valued members of the area.

As a bonus, the gal that hosted our book club had her husband stoke the fire pit in the backyard -- so we went out to our own personal grove of trees and roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. It was lots of fun sitting around the campfire--visiting, laughing--oh and the s'mores were delish. A good night was had by all.

{Next month, I host book club at my house--so I get to pick the book (I was actually supposed to tell them what it was last night--but I couldn't decide!). I'm struggling! I want to pick something light and fluffy that I would enjoy reading but the last time I did that I was the only one who liked the book (Austenland). When it was my turn the second time, I let someone else pick the book (and did not enjoy it--can't even remember the title to be quite honest). So here I am faced with the quandary of picking a book for women ages 36 (I'm the baby) to over 60 (which makes up half of our book club).

Any Suggestions? Ideas?}