I'll take that challenge

In order to make me a better scrapbooker, I am supposed to take a word....a noun...and write about it. I am supposed to use words, phrases, and even stories about this noun. I have to write for ten minutes and so my dear readers, you get to benefit from this task (yeah, you can call it that, a benefit).

Cheeseburger

yummy, juicy, "some pink", a good burger is a burger that leaves a trail of juices running down your arm, can't get enough


I have had a love affair with cheeseburgers for as long as I can remember. I have traveled far and wide in search of the "perfect burger". I have found some that claim to be "the best" but ended up tasting more like "the least". I have had very expensive burgers to cheap little "low quality" burgers.

The first burger that I ever remembering "loving" was a burger from Burger King. Now see people back when I was a child the closest BK was in Clarksville, TN. So going to Burger King was a HUGE event. We would often make a day trip to Nashville just so we could stop in Clarksville and eat a Whopper (I think we ate at another one in Nashville too). On the way to Colorado one year, I bet we stopped at every Burger King that we crossed just to again have a Whopper. When we heard that Paducah was finally getting one, it was a little hard to believe. We were so excited and actually, I remember going on my first date with John. He said where would you like to go eat? He was thinking I would pick Cracker Barrel or the Brass Lantern...NOPE, I picked Burger King. It was a brand new store and I could not get enough of those Whoppers!!!

Then there was Ruby Tuesday..... I remember that my dad and I used to seek high and low for a burger as good as a Ruby Tuesday burger (see this love runs in the family). I guess this affair stopped when the Paducah store closed and we could not get one anymore. Then I moved to Arkansas and discovered Mexican food, I did take a little break from the affair with the cheeseburger but not much. The first place we ever ate in Little Rock was a Burger King on Markham Street (we actually spent the night in the parking lot in our uhaul---we were the first customers of the day). Once while at the Arkansas State Fair, we tried this burger that was beyond belief...it was a real live "hub cab" burger. This thing was MONSTROUS!!!! We had it plain so that John could eat it, but I sure would love to try it with ketchup, lettuce, tomato, onion, mustard, and maybe bacon! For a while, I thought this was the best burger EVER!!! Of course, I have only tasted one in my whole life, so it might not be as good as I remember.

Then we moved back to Kentucky and had to begin the search all over again. I was over Burger King, we had no Ruby Tuesday...there was not much. In October 2006, John had to go to an NWA meeting, in Cleveland, Ohio. I spent the week traveling around the town and going to Cracker Barrel store that I had opened while he was in meetings. I saw this place by the mall Red Robin, Gourmet Burgers and thought, "what a strange concept" and kept driving. As the week ended we wanted to eat our last meal in Cleveland so I took him to the mall area where I had spent most of my week (be honest Michelle you were hoping for one more trip to Archiver's and you got it). John saw this Red Robin sign, we had never heard of it before (other than me seeing the sign earlier in the week), and he said: "let's go there." We entered and I ordered a Cherry Coke. WOW, it knocked your socks off good. It ranked up there with a Sonic cherry coke. Then I ordered the Bacon Guacamole burger, some pink with garlic Parmesan fries. My friends, that was the end, I had achieved the goal... I HAD FOUND THE PERFECT BURGER!!!!! It's the end of the road for you all. Thank you, good night. RR had perfected it!!! The smiling burger made me smile so big. I took the picture of the burger and had to have more. And I have, we have traveled far and wide for Red Robin, as my dad used to travel for Burger King. I have been to them in Colorado down to Tennessee. Oh somewhere I have a list, I also have a photo that has been taken in every single one that I have enjoyed a burger....plus, I even had one that I have driven by TWICE and never walked through its doors. Pier 95 Red Robin in Seattle Washington...maybe one day I shall enjoy a bacon guac in your presence.

Thanks for joining me for my love affair with the cheeseburger. May you find your true burger happiness.


I did it, Creating Keepsakes, I hope that you are happy with me...I journal-ed for over ten minutes on a random noun....the cheeseburger

Decisions

Sometimes you have to choose to do something. Sometimes it is easy and you can just snap right to it the answer. Sometimes it is something that you have longed for so it is a quick decision. Sometimes it will require "sleeping on it" Sometimes it is something you never thought that you would do...Something you never thought you could do...Something that you never thought that you would have to do. Basically, life is full of decisions.

*What will I wear today?
*What toothpaste will I use this morning?
*What will I wash first, colors or whites?
*What will I send in my child's lunch?
*Should I scrapbook or should I paint today?
*Should I call and complain about the service I received at the restaurant today?
*Should I eat chocolate or be a good girl?
*Would be the best way to handle ___________?
*When should I hire someone to _____________?
*What important things am I missing speaking to my kids about?

Uh, I could go on forever and ever. How do you make a decision? Do you jump at it? Do you pray about it? Do you "sleep on it"? Do you try to put off the decision? That is where I am today. So many decisions...how do you know what is right? How do you know if the tree is really dead? Or is it dormant? How do you know that you killed all the weevils? How do you know that you are choosing the right thing for your child? How do you know that life is about to change in ways you never thought possible but it is coming? Can you ignore it and make it go away? No, not the questions that I am facing. Can you pretend that everything is fine and just go about day to day life? No, not with the decisions on my plate. How will you know it is right? Faith!!! What? FAITH!!! Faith you say? Faith. Faith that God can handle it. Give it to him. Yes, the answer lies in the power of prayer and trust! Prayer for the truth to enter the heart and the decision will come easily. The decision will be right! Is it going to be easy? No, but then where was the guarantee that life would be easy? Where is the guarantee that the best choices might not "feel" like the best? The guarantee that you could handle this on your own? I never saw that guarantee. I know it doesn't exist, what does exist is PRAYER!! Prayer, I believe the answer lies in prayer. Thank you, I now know what must be done! I have to run I have a more important thing to do now.

Back to the future

2010 is closing fast and on its wake comes 2011. One exciting thing to look forward to is a new Presidential campaign. I dearly love this part. The politicking, the surprise candidates, the oldie but goodies, the "where did they come from?" candidate and those you knew would be back. Its one sided this time (cause Obama will be up for reelection) but I still expect fun. Huckabee is my prime choice to run, I want him to win....and behind him is a lady from Alaska...maybe a governor from Louisiana...or ME!

I look forward to the fun, to the speeches, to a good clean campaign! Be honest, fair and smart....one of you is going to get a chance to run for the job of President of the United States of America. And I hope you know just how lucky you are...

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My app choices

I am reading all these people posting about their apps, and I thought, "Hey why don't you share your app experience?" I have to say that the apps on the droidx are just on this side of wonderful.

Here are some of the ones that I love:
2011 countdown
A Farewell to Arms (movie)
Amazon
Amazon mp3
Astro file manager
Backgrounds
Barcode scanner
Bic concert lighter
Blockbuster
Blogger-droid (a fave)
Breaking Dawn countdown
Bubble popper
Cracker Barrel
Crossword light
Dish network
droid forum
gas buddy
gererala free
gesture search
facebook
IMDb
Key Ring
Kindle
Latitude
Lightning Bug
LIve TV
Maps
Millionaire
My Verizon
My Cast Weather
Navigation
News
PDA net
tip calculator
skype
star trek soundboard
stitcher
team coco
TMZ
TV.com
Twilight in Forks
Twitter
Google Voice
Word UP!!!
You Tube
Yams
Wikidroid
Google Goggles
Google Sky Map
Photoshop mobile
Trip Journal
As more apps are made, more illegal content becomes available you might want to look into an anitvirus. (A Trojan has been found in China) I use Norton and it has many very cool features.

STill look for a cool pdf reader for a few pdf documents AND for the KY digital download library to be available on the droid market, that is one thing I miss about my windows phone. I could go to the library and download books to my phone...and they were mine for 2 weeks...I miss that.

I hear that SPB mobile shell is coming out with a droidx version. I had that on my windows phone and must say it was the most perfect interface ever!!!

The gang's all here

I do believe that I have seen this movie about 50 times. It is about a guy (Andy) in the service that is engaged to a girl (Vivan) at home but meets a song girl (Edie) in a club and falls in love, but they give each other fake names (Casey and whatever that fake name that she was using was). She comes and sees him off to war. He goes to the South Pacific fights a good fight and comes home a war hero...while he is traveling home, his wealthy father decides to throw him a big party when he gets home. Problem is the club that Andy loves is closed so dear old dad has the whole club and all their entertainers stay at his house and his neighbor's house, the party will be at Andy's home. A great scene is when the remarkable Charlotte Greenwood does this dance with a dancer and displays the highest kicks I have ever seen anyone do in a musical...Her legs are SOOOOOO longs (she stood around 6 feet tall). Back to the plot, Andy's real-life girlfriend, Vivian and Edie have no idea that they have been swapping stories about their man and that their man is the same man. Meanwhile, Dorita (played by the wonderful Carmen Miranda) figures is all out and tries to stop the two girls from discovering what's up. All fails and Edie figures are out but take the high road, when Andy does come home and is all surprised about the party and Edie being there she pretends to love another. Andy is heartbroken but after the show, he convinces Edie and Vivian that it is Edie he loves.

Why am I telling you about this corny movie? Here are some reasons that this movie is worth watching:

1. The aforementioned Charlotte Greenwood scene
2. The leaving for the camp scene in which Edie calls "Casey" (she knows him) by the name of "Andy" but later when she learns "Casey" is "Andy" she is very surprised.
3. It's directed by Busby Berkley so there are FABULOUS, over the top dance numbers.
4. Carmen Miranda sings the lady in the Tootie fruity hat and it is simply perfection!!!
5. Benny Goodman sings a song about a town called "Paducah" and if you wanna you can rhyme it with bazooka.
6. And lastly, it is just a mindless entertaining movie...a weak plot, but lots of dance numbers and shows you how much Americans cheered for their country. My favorite line is "If you had a beard you would remind me of my two favorite men, Santa Claus, and Uncle Sam".

2010 a review

First of all the celebrity deaths (in no certain order)
Blake Edwards
Kathryn Grayson
Jean Simmons
Elizabeth Edwards
Don Meredith
Ted Sorel
Leslie Nielson
Jill Clayburgh
Tony Curtis
Tom Bosley
Eddie Fisher
Dennis Hopper
Gary Coleman
Art Linkletter
JD Salinger
Corey Haim
Dixie Carter
Peter Graves
Lynn Redgrave
Barbara Billingsley
Irvin Kershner
Teddy Pendergrass
Merlin Olson
Fess Parker
John Forsythe
Eddie Carroll
Lena Horne
Rue McClanahan
Jimmy Dean
George Steinbrenner
Ilene Woods
Patrica Neal
Ted Stevens
Gloria Staurt


some of the books that I read in 2010 (some of the best books):

The Pool of St Branok (Philippa Carr)
Wonderful Tonight (Patti Boyd)
The Changeling (Philippa Carr)
A Walk to Remember
The Notebook (it kind of is my grandparents death story)
The Black Swan (Philippa Carr)
A Time for Silence (Philippa Carr)
Rainwater
A Farewell to ARms (Hemingway....love this book)
Beaches (another good book)
Short life of Bree Tanner
Eclispe
Twilight
New Moon
Breaking Dawn
Travels in Alaska (John Muir)
The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
STicken (John Muir)
Abraham Lincoln vampire hunter (in print and audio book)








Wish I had kept up with the number of scrapbook pages made in 2010! It would be in the hundreds (more than 100, I would say less than 300). Maybe not, I just did 23 today.


Number of photos taken in 2010 9,438

Places visited in 2010:
Cincinnati Ohio/Great American Ballpark
St Louis MO/Busch Stadium (2 times)
Jackson TN/Red Robin
Nashville TN/Red Robin
Columbus Belmont Park
Graves County High School
Ketchikan, AK
Skagway, AK
Victoria, BC
Juneau, AK
Seattle, WA
Dallas, TX
Mineral Wells, TX
Little Rock, AR
Bowling Green, KY
Atlanta, GA
Orlando, FL
Daytona, FL
Evansville, IN
Airports in Albuquerque, NM and Des Plaines, IL
Louisville, KY
Lexington, KY
Santa Claus, IN
Lincoln's boyhood home
Cave City, KY
Memphis, TN

Big Events of 2010 (to me):
Meeting Peter Facinelli
Going to the baseball parks
Going back to Alaska (I am so enthralled by those glaciers)
5 visits to Archiver's (the most ever in one year)
Big Texas wedding
Hanging with Lauren Champion
Eating at Doe's with the hubby
Making my first ever batch of dressing and it was good!!!
Submitting scrapbook work, even if I haven't been chosen to be published yet, I have tried!
Hogsmeade!!!!!!!!!
Getting to spend more time in EPCOT (still not enough but I made it through MOST of world showcase)
Tyler Hall visit
BON JOVI
Justin Bieber (just because I got to hang out with Tammy)
Taking the kids to Mammoth Cave (their first time)
Finally having my picture made in front of the welcome to Alaska sign on the Klondike highway!
Discovering Tim HOltz's distressing products (I can't get enough)
Seeing my boy score a touchdown AND pitch an inning in baseball!
Hearing that my daughter is amazing at the flute and gets to attend those fancy district thingys
Eclipse (and taking Hannah to the midnight show)
discovery of the e-reader!!!
discovery of the audio book (yeah, I know I am behind)
the getting of the best phone ever, the Droid X (I love everything that it can do)
Having the OBOE staff to my house!!!!
Discovery of peppermint dark chocolate lindor truffles
Prima flowers!!!!!!
Lambert's with the kids!!!
Makay's bookstore, I could spend DAYS here!!!! DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

News events that I want to remember from 2010:

Big earthquakes in Haiti and Chile

Winter Olympics and Evan winning the first male gold medal in figure skating since Brian Boitono

Volcano eruption in Iceland

Record set for a painting sold at auction (a Picasso)
Favorite apps of 2010:

oh yeah I must list some of the apps that have proven to waste my time!!

Bubble Popper
Blogger-droid
Bic concert lighter
droid forum
dish network
facebook (duh)
gas buddy
Key ring
kindle
laputa
millionaire
quickoffice
ringdroid
tmz
twilight in forks
word up
crossword
team coco
IMDb
twitter

There are many things to be thankful for:

what makes it all happen....God
My son bordering on that 20/50 line
the good health of my family
food and shelter
family and friends
the ability to see (by far my favorite sense)
this is a never ending list...and for that I am grateful!

Here's to a great 2011!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Harry Potter

I finally succumbed to the power of Potter. I shall blame it on Universal Studios Florida. As I entered Hogsmeade, I fell madly in love with the castle and its turrets. The snow everywhere was lovely too. Then there were the town's streets...all lined with excited people pointing here and there. People clamoring for wands, waiting in line (long lines) for butterbeer and pumpkin juice, trying on robes and screaming with excitement over a Griffendorf. I knew what none of this was! I was lost, confused, but excited about the village. We entered a place called Honeydukes...candy as far as I could see, but the meaning was lost on me. We saw the Hogwarts Express (i knew what this was), Diagon Alley, the Dragon's challenge, tons of wands..lost on me. ( I did snap photos like crazy though.) Here we go into the castle. It was dark, damp, and spooky; just what I expect a castle to be...there are moving portraits on the wall...the meaning is lost on me. People are snapping photos like crazy of these portraits, tables, and a talking hat. The hat told us we would be chosen and we follow that choice. We were chosen at that point to enter the ride. Hermione (I knew her name) said count backward from 3 and cast a spell on us...BAM! We flew back and twisted around...WE WERE FLYING! Harry said that Hermione made us fly. Hagrid (I knew this too) asked us if we had seen a dragon and we continued to fly. We passed a scary creature with a skeleton like face, I now know its a dementor. He was very frightening! Then we met a giant spider (Aragog...but I had no clue then), and Hermione told us something then they took our picture. Oh my, there's the loose dragon....and a blonde boy starts teasing Harry about us and then Harry yells about something closing in...we "fly" straight down and save something cause the Hogwarts kids start clapping and a bearded man says we may come back anytime we wish. We took him at his word and got right back in line. We did this 5 or 6 times because it is the best ride EVER! The Flight of the Griffindorf was a family coaster, perfect for someone like me. I rode it twice. Then we saw a musical group and everyone was watching them...we headed for the butterbeer line....$30 later we had 2 butterbeer s and 1 pumpkin juice. We sat under this roof and I fell in love! In the rafters were many owls! All types of owls, barn, screech, horned, grey...oh my! They move and they pooped all over the beams! This was amazing! After experiencing this world, I had to read the books.... I have to say the books have nothing on the real-life Hogsmeade and Hogswarts! I really want to go back!

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