Will Power

Cookies
by Arnold Lobel

To*d baked some cookies.

“These cookies smell very good,” said T*ad.

He ate one.

“And they taste even better,” he said.

To*d ran to Fr*g’s house.

“Fr*g, Fr*g,” cried To*d, “taste these cookies that I have made.”

Fr*g ate one of the cookies.

“These are the best cookies I have ever eaten!” said Fr*g.

Fr*g and To*d ate many cookies, one after another.

“You know To*d,” said Fr*g, with his mouth full,

“I think we should stop eating.

We will soon be sick.”

“You are right,” said To*d.

“Let us eat one last cookie, and then we will stop.”

Fr*g and To*d ate one last cookie.

There were many cookies left in the bowl.

“Fr*g,” said To*d,

“let us eat one very last cookie, and then we will stop.”

Fr*g and To*d ate one very last cookie.

We must stop eating!” cried To*d as he ate another.

“Yes,” said Fr*g, reaching for a cookie, “we need will power.”

“What is will power?” asked To*d.

“Will power is trying hard not to do something
that you really want to do,” said Fr*g.

“You mean like trying not to eat all of these cookies?” asked To*d.  “Right,” said Fr*g.

Fr*g put the cookies in a box.

“There,” he said.  “Now we will not eat any more cookies.”

“But we can open the box,” said To*d.

“That is true,” said Fr*g.

Fr*g tied some string around the box.

“There,” he said.  “Now we will not eat any more cookies”

“But we can cut the string and open the box,” said To*d.

“That is true,” said Fr*g.

Fr*g got a ladder.  He put the box up on a high shelf.

“There,” said Fr*g.  “Now we will not eat any more cookies.”

“But we can climb the ladder and take the box down from the shelf and cut the string and open the box,” said To*d.

“That is true,” said Fr*g.

Fr*g climbed the ladder and took the box down from the shelf.

He cut the string and opened the box.

Fr*g took the box outside.

He shouted in a loud voice, “HEY BIRDS, HERE ARE COOKIES!”

Birds came from everywhere.

They picked up all the cookies in their beaks and flew away.

“Now we have no more cookies to eat,” said To*d sadly.

“Not even one.”

“Yes,” said Fr*g, “but we have lots and lots of will power.”

“You may keep it all, Fr*g,” said To*d.

“I am going home now to bake a cake.”

Guess Where MissE and Mama are goin'?

We have some amazing acts & themes lined up, it's time to take it up a notch! 

AKBAR SAMI: 

DJ Akbar Sami, popularly known as the Remix King of Bollywood has mesmerized audiences across the globe in a career spanning over two decades & still going strong. His passion for the artful chemistry of mixing Rap, Jazz, Folk, Rock and contemporary music with traditional melodies have ensured that he is always the most preferred DJs in the Industry.

He has produced popular remixes like Dhagala Lagli Kala, Aapki Kashish, Jalwa & composed music for movies like Fast Forward. Sami is also an actor & recently finished shooting for a Bollywood film before coming to the US for a tour that spans 8 cities!

Don’t miss your chance to party with Bollywoods most popular celebrity DJ!

See you on the dance floor!

--
Prashant  Kakad

Singer, Choreographer, DJ

MissE has been wanting to go to one of these for MONTHS, but it is a 21 and over club.  SO, now that she is 21, we are gonna D.A.N.C.E.!!!  Well, I'll likely be too busy taking pictures of her dancing to have time to join in.  hmmmm.  However it turns out, we will be having F.U.N.!

How About THIS Awesome Camera - It Could be YOURS!

go HERE to see the family blog

OR - here is their blog entry describing the fundraiser -

Exciting new fundraiser!!!

I am so excited to announce our newest fundraiser to bring Caelyn home!  Right now, we are in the waiting game.  Our dossier is in China and we are waiting ever so patiently (not) for LOA. We would love to hear anything but all has been silent.  Good thing we have the Olympics to distract us!

Anyway, back to our fundraiser.  I had a fellow orphan loving, adoption loving friend contact me with the offer of a lifetime.  My friend, Sonia, contacted me because she had won an awesome camera from another orphan loving, adoption loving warrior,Connie.  Connie, by the way, is working on bringing home their newest treasure as well!  Anyway, Sonia was thrilled to win but she wanted to pay it forward and give the camera to someone trying to bring another one home!  Long story short, she has offered us the camera to use as a fundraiser to help raise the remaining funds needed to bring Caelyn home.  Right now, we are still needing funds for travel.  Our agency estimates that we are looking at $10,000.  That seems insurmountable to us but not for God; He called us to this journey and He will see us through.

Here is the information about the fundraiser/giveaway:

It's a Nikon D5100 16.2MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm lens. A very nice looking camera!!

Here is how the fundraiser/giveaway will work:

You may use the chip-in on the sidebar or email me for information on how to send funds directly. (The chip-in button does not work from an ipad or iphone need to use Internet explorer for it to show up)

Each $25 contribution = 1 shot

Each $50 contribution = 3 shots

Each blog post share = 1 additional shot

Each FB share = 1 additional shot

Please leave a comment or email me to let me know what you did.

Fundraiser ends August 31st and the drawing will be held that day!

These funds will all be used toward our travel expenses to China.  Here is a reminder why we are doing this....

Because she waits....

PLEASE pray!!!!

Drop to your knees NOW, please, and pray for this sweet girl and her family!!!!!

http://myreallifebyyvonne.blogspot.com/2012/08/urgent-prayer-request.html

IBoy is HOME for a quick visit!

Yup - that is him!  Hard working at his summer job and then relaxing just a little bit!  We will be so happy to have him home for good again in another month!

She Who Used to be 20

 Happy Birthday, darlin' daughter.  Yes, there are 21 candles on that 'thar cake!

I can't believe it has been 21 years since we first held you in our arms!








You are so special to us and a delight to all who know you.

We just got all 21 candles lit and the wind blew all of them out before the birthday gal could!

We got creative and succeeded!

The bathing beauties on our new craigslist find.  We found that putting a sprinkler under the tramp was so much fun!

I know for many of you, summer has been brutal, but here is the PNW - we are enjoying FINALLY having some warm weather!

Yup - perhaps the tomatoes will grow large enough to pick 'em green and let them ripen in the house!  I have been able to pick some green and yellow beans and a few beets already.  And we have been blessed with abundant crunchy green lettuce for awhile.  Yeah!

"Rhue"Berry Crisp

aka - The Abundant Garden recipe of the week.

I wish.

Well, The "rhue" (minus the e) is true - my rhubarb is doing very nicely, thank you very much.

And, well, the blue"berry" part is partly true - the girls and I went and picked them - I s'pose that counts, right?

So, to get down to the brass tacks (ouch!), everyone wanted bassert (dessert) tonight, and the mama hadn't made any!  Horrid mum, right?

So here is the secret recipe - followed exactly as I found it.  NOT!  I'll let you know what everyone thought of it later.  If I'm still alive, that is.

Oh - since we have one member that is trying so very hard to not eat gluten, I did use the gluten free baking flour.

Topping:
1/4 cup sliced almonds (I figure any nut'll do)
1/4 oats - not instant
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

oh, did I mention that I never measure anything when I bake?  do you?

3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar (I was out so I just used white - should'a put a dash of molasses in, but I forgot)
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoons butter

I also added some sunflower seeds and some shredded coconut for good measure.

Scrunch it all up real good - I just use a fork and smush it till it is all crumbly.

Filling:
2 1/2 pounds rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces - I have no idea how much I put in - I let the baking dish decide the matter
blueberries - maybe about 2 cups? (the recipe didn't call for blueberries - I just decided it sounded like a good idea!  we'll see)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Pour the rhubarb and blueberries into a large, shallow baking dish and sprinkle with the indicated sugar and flour to coat evenly.  Spread the crisp topping over entire surface.  Bake until fruit is bubbly and the top is golden brown, approximately 30-40 minutes.  Serve warm or room temperature - plain?  With ice cream?  Yogurt?

OK - I just threw (ahem, gently placed) mine into the oven - gosh, if you get busy, you can make yours and tell me how it tastes!

Beat ya!  Ours is out and we are scoopin' it up before it has a chance to cool off and thicken a little.  I actually tossed it back in the oven for another 10 minutes after the photo shoot (hee hee - sounds so official!).  Speaking of photo - this one actually looks a little disproportional - the bowl in front is rather small and the baking dish is kinda' big - the spoon that you see is a large serving spoon.

Three of us are giving it a thumbs-up, but one had something else in mind for bassert.

Let me know if you try it!

Did you know that fuschia's produce edible berries?  I didn't either, until I saw mine and looked it up.  You can make jam/jelly with them, but that's an awful lot of little tiny berries!  I picked about 30 berries, split them in half and am going to try to start more hardy fuschia's from them.  Wish me luck.  Mine is about 10-12 feet tall and about 3 feet around in just two years!  I won't count the first year that it was planted and I pruned it down to the ground, thinking that it was dead.

Who put that silly bunny in my garden?  Well, maybe the deer won't bother him - hey - maybe he'll scare'em off so my plants could grow!