Balloons~Oh Happy Day!

Bacon Wrapped water chestnuts

I make these a lot. We have them for Christmas Eve, New Years Eve, I make them as an appetizer when we invite friends for dinner, and I also make them when said friends just pop over to play cards. We all love them so much!

Bacon wrapped water chestnuts

Drain 2 cans of whole water chestnuts

I cut a slice of bacon into thirds, 1 slice will wrap 3 water chestnuts (unless they are really big ones) secure with a toothpick

Use a baking sheet that has an edge on it (because of the bacon grease) spray it with non stick cooking spray

Bake in hot oven (400*) for 20-25 minutes

Then transfer to a casserole dish that you could serve then in-if you want to- (so that they sit down in the sauce better). If you decide to leave them on the baking sheet, drain off the bacon grease before adding the sauce.

Sauce: 1 cup BBQ sauce, 2 Tablespoons soy sauce, 1 cup brown sugar...mix and spoon over the chestnuts.

Bake another 10 min or so.

After they are cooked, they can also be kept warm in a crockpot, that works wonderf

I Just Won 2 Swag Bucks on www.swagbucks.com

I Just Won 2 Swag Bucks on www.swagbucks.com

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I Just Won 1 Swag Buck on www.swagbucks.com

I Just Won 1 Swag Buck on www.swagbucks.com

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Combing the field

Baseball video #2

Lincoln Saltdogs game

Between innings, they always had some super fun stuff going on..I got a few videos!

Rainy weather & Wal Mart whining....

I overslept! Not that I really HAD to get up, it is my day off. But I have "stuff" I want to get done. I had a rough night sleeping..first I had trouble getting to sleep..wide awake at 1:30 a.m. THEN thunderstorms woke me up at some point. Our bedroom is in the basement of our house, we have the windows closed and the central air turned on, cannot usually hear a thing. So if those storms woke me up..must have been strong storms! I checked my email..got watches/warnings alerts in there in the middle of the night. So, anyway, I got up about an 2 hours later than I would have liked to. It is thundering right now too. I think the storms are supposed to clear out of here by noon. I guess there is no need to worry about outside housepainting today..it is coming right along, but still a lot to do.

And I notice the maid has not yet been into to clean the house, or do the laundry, empty the dishwasher etc etc. *sigh* why do I always have to do it?

On a much funner note (for me anyway)..I finished knitting my very 1st afghan! A great sense of satisfaction. I am one of those people that have 2 or 3 craft projects started and nothing finished most of the time..LOL Y'all know I have been whipping out kitted scarves..those are so easy to get finished. I think that is why I like making them. But an afghan? We are talking 8 skeins of yarn total...I knitted with 2 at a time, so it is thick and soft. I just have to tuck some ends in and wash it (covered with Tippy's white fur). This 1st one is for our Son, I was making it for his B-day in October, but now have decided to make all 3 kids afghans as Christmas gifts, so his is done. 2 more to go. And if all goes well, we have some dear friends that we exchange Christmas gifts with, I would love to make each of them an afghan too, but we will see.

We have a regular Wal Mart here, rumors about it becoming a Super Center, but I have been hearing that for about 4 years. They were open 24/7 but I was out there Monday and they have a note on the door that they are now open 7 a.m.-11p.m.

Anyway, I went out to get yarn for the next afghan...they are doing away with our yarn/fabric dept! I am NOT a happy camper and I made sure they knew it. The nearest place for me to get these items will be an hour drive. And if I have to drive that far to get yarn & fabric..what other shopping will I be doing while I am there?? Hmmm? So they will be losing a lot of my business at our local Wal Mart.

I do not think this is a good time to do away with that dept. I know our store was one of the few that still carried yarn & fabric. With the economy in the toilet I really really think people are going back to crafting & making homemade gifts in an effort to save money and give something more "personal" Do you feel this way? This past Christmas, I knitted scarves, sewed aprons and made apple butter as gifts. I saved a ton of money! We spent less than 1/2 of what we usually do on Christmas. And it gave me such a good feeling to make gifts! And I truly think the recipients appreciated the time/effort I put in.

Ok, I better get off this darn computer and get something accomplished...cause I really want to get start on another afghan.

JustABuck? You BetCha!

I like to search out, test, and report on sites where we can all make just a bit of extra cash or score some gift cards in these trying times. That is actually one of the main reasons I decided to start a blog. Then I got side tracked by other things going on (like life-lol). It probably would have been a most excellent idea to start this on a cold snowy day, but, oh well, it is July 2009 & here I am!
So I think the first site I am going to talk about is JustABuck (sharedwealth.org) I just recently joined this program for (YES) just-a-buck..what have I go to lose? So I just don't buy a lottery ticket that week. Here is the info from their site:

At Just A Buck you can make $96,079.90 just by referring 7 people!

How would you like to turn $1 into $96,079.90? No, this isn't some kind of game of chance. In fact, you can actually make up to a total of $96,079.90 for a lifetime membership fee of Just A Buck-that's right, just $1 -with nothing else to pay ever! Let's face it, we have -at one time or another- spent a dollar on the Lotto or a scratch-off ticket just for the chance to win big money, why not spend Just A Buck to take advantage of the opportunity to turn it into $96,079.90! You can make up to $96,079.90!!! We created the Just A Buck Program for those of you that are either skeptical or just plain broke could try your hand at an internet business that is easy to run all for Just A Buck! Then, once you see how easy it is to make money in this program with only $1, you can proceed with confidence to create a monthly residual income with the any one or our other programs.

I think I am off to a pretty good start, I got my 7 people in about 2 weeks and one of them has now gotten a couple of referrals.
Just-A-Buck...why not?
If you would like to try it:

http://www.justabuck.sharedwealth.org/?r=NettyB

You sign up under me and then just get 7 people to sign up under YOU..and since it is Just-A-Buck, that part is easy!

I Just Won 1 Swag Buck on www.swagbucks.com

I Just Won 1 Swag Buck on www.swagbucks.com

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Have you ever tried dumpr? It is a very cool website where you can alter your pictures online, then save to your desktop and add them to other sites.

http://www.dumpr.net/

I took a picture of a rose:



And changed it to this:



And this:



That is a bit of a sampling of what you can do with Dumpr...Fun Fun Fun!

BZZAgent

I am new to BZZ Agent. It is a word-of-mouth networking site. I get to try new products (sent to me free) and then write up a review about said products.

Top 5 Reasons to Join BzzAgent

1. It's free to join, with no obligation to participate (though that is the fun part)
2. Discover new products and services first
3. Help spread the word about your favorite brands
4. Always have something to talk about with friends
5. Join a community of 500,000 people who help influence some of the biggest companies in the world.

I just got invited to do my 1st Bzz Campaign for AVEENO Nourish+Hair Care.
I will receive the product for testing sometime on June...should be interesting!