Question Of The Week

Here is The Question of the Week that my friend sent all of us:

Are you very picky when you buy food(s) from the grocery store?

I have to be the pickiest person in the world when it comes to buying foods for my family. I believe that you should buy only the best , freshest , and in season foods. The the end result of a food dish is only as good as the ingredients that go into it. No amount of cooking talent or fancy spices will improve crappy food quality.

To that end I buy organic fruits and veggies whenever I can or from local farmers that I know and trust. I'm sorry but I don't see any reason for washing fruit and veggies in chlorine all for the sake of my food safety, I'll take my chances with my produce being washed with just plain water thank you very much. And who needs fresh strawberries in the middle of January that were grown in who knows what country? Local, fresh and in season are the way to go! My only exception to the fresh part is produce that I have frozen myself for use during the winter time. Yes , I may be eating strawberries in January but I bought them in June from a local farm.

I only buy milk and milk products that are rBGH free. I see no reason why we need to inject our cows with drugs just so they produce more milk. They say it's safe but who really knows what the long term effects could be. I also only buy whole milk because the vitamins in it are real & natural and not added to it like they do in skim, low fat, etc. milk. And yes, I buy and use real butter in my cooking.

I buy my meats from a butcher that buys his meat from the USA and not from some other country. Most of that is even from local farms which makes me feel good knowing I'm supporting the local guy.

Except for junk food I don't buy pre-packaged foods. I've never liked the taste of those pre-packaged foods anyway. They may be quick and easy, but many of those items can be made in the same amount of time and it not only tastes better but you also know what's in it.

No fake sugar in this house ! While I do buy it for when friends are over and they use it , I personally will never use it myself. Not even that stuff they say tastes like sugar..... it's still not real sugar no matter what they say it tastes like.

My only exceptions to these "rules" are the foods I buy from Europe. But since I know their standards are much higher then ours ( banning the use of rBGH and other drugs in their foods) I will buy from them knowing I'm getting good quality foods. Plus those foods I do buy are super high end and the hoops they have to go through to produce them have been in place for decades .

So yep I guess you could say that I'm very picky about the foods I buy.

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50 Questions

Found this over on Jens blog and figured what the heck.

1. What color is your toothbrush? Yellow & White

2. Name one person who made you smile today: B- Monkey They came home a day early from Michigan ( my Dad hurt his arm)and as soon as he got out of the truck I smiled.

3. What were you doing at 8am this morning? Sleeping

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Making spaghetti sauce.

5. What is your favorite candy bar? Anything from Europe , only a few more months and I can order some more, darn warm weather lol

6. Have you ever been to a strip club? Yep

7. What is the last thing you said aloud? Can you grab me some carrots?

8. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Espresso

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? Water

10. Do you like your wallet? It's ok

11. What was the last thing you ate? French onion soup and Cesar salad from Panera Bread YUM!!!!

12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? Nope

13. The last sporting event you watched? I don't like sports.

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? Loaded with a ton of butter or Italian pizza flavor that B Monkey makes.

15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to? Barry

16. Ever go camping? Yes, and it's not for me.

17. Do you take vitamins daily? Yep.

18. Do you go to church every Sunday? Nope.

19. Do you have a tan? Sort of.

20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza? No, I definitely would pick pizza over Chinese.

21. Do you drink your soda with a straw? Only if there's a lid with a straw hole.

22. What did your last text message say?Good sleeping wether for you then.

23. What are you doing tomorrow? Who knows.

24. What color are the underwear you're wearing? Salmon pink.

25. Look to your left, what do you see? A brick wall - I'm sitting in the sunroom so I see the outside of the house.....lol

26. What color is your watch? I have several - black, brown, silver, & gold. But I only wear them when I get dressed up.

27. What do you think of when you hear Australia? Our Honeymoon !

28. What was the last thing that you took a picture of? The storm rolling in last night.

29. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive thru? Unless I have to go in, Drive Thru

30. What is your favorite number? 5

31. Who's the last person you talked to on the phone? Daughter A telling me they were almost home.

32. Any plans today? Relaxing and normal mom stuff.

33. How many states have you lived in? Just Indiana

34. Biggest annoyance right now? The sound of the air conditioner unit running, kind of hard to relax and hear the TV with that this going.

35. Last song listened to? Not sure.

36. Can you say the alphabet backwards? Never tired.

37. Do you have a maid service clean your house? No but I'm thinking about it .

38. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time? My black 6 inch wedge heals..... love them!

39. Are you jealous of anyone? Not really .

40. Is anyone jealous of you? Maybe? If they are, I don't know about it.

41. Do you love anyone? Do I ever!

42. Do any of your friends have children? Yep they all do.

43. What do you usually do during the day? Normal mom stuff...... clean, cook, laundry..... etc, etc. etc.

44. Do you hate anyone that you know right now? Hate is a strong word but I do dislike a group of people at this point in time.

45. Do you use the word 'hello' daily? Uh...Yeah...?

46. What color is your car? My car is black and my SUV is green

47. Do you like cats? Yep.

48. Are you thinking of something right now? That I need to pee.....lol

49. Have you ever been to Six Flags? Yeah, it's been a really long time, though.

50. How did you get your worst scar? I was 5 years old and I was sitting on the front porch railing and fell, which caused part of the railing to go into my leg. When my mom looked at it she said you could see the muscle ! Off to the Dr. we went and I ended up with 7 stitches, still have the scar to this day.

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Question of The Week

In the beginning of the year my friend started sending all of us a question of the week. It's just a fun little thing for us to do on Sundays and we all look forward to them every week.

I thought I would share this weeks question with all of you. And if I can remember I will share then every week.

What is your biggest pet peeve in the kitchen, besides having to be in there in the first place?

All of my friends knew what my answer would be, since they have all received a gift from me that deals with my answer.

My biggest pet peeve in the kitchen is...... DULL KNIVES!

Nothing drives me more nuts then to be over at a friends house and asked to help them in the kitchen to only be handed a dull knife to cut something up. What is an easy task turns into a battle because I'm fighting with a dull knife.

Because of this I have ,one by one, gone out and bought them all knife sharpeners and they no longer have dull knives.

So, what's your biggest pet peeve in the kitchen?

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Photography Q & A- The Answers

Stacie had some great questions and as promised here are my answers.

I can't seem to get out of auto mode on my camera.... how long did it take for you to "master" the manual feature on yours?

I owned my camera for about 2 years ,before I even attempted to try manual. I had used all of the "creative" features on it, but the thought of going manual scared the crap out of me.

I highly recommend the book Understand Exposure by Bryan Peterson. He explains the ins and outs of exposure in a very clear, easy to understand way. Along with his explanations he gives you little exercises to try out on your own to better help you understand when your reading.

Even though I'm a lot more comfortable with using manual now, I still sometimes set my camera on Auto or P. For those "once in a lifetime" shots I almost always set my camera on Auto. Why risk missing a great shot worrying if I set it all correctly when my camera can do all the "thinking" for me.

What editing software do you prefer?

First off I want to say when editing photos ALWAYS make a copy of the photo first and do all the editing on the copy. Because once you do the editing and save it you can not got back to the original way it looked. I learned this the hard way many years ago, so trust me ALWAYS make a copy first.

I use Photoshop CS2 for all of my editing. While I would love to have CS4 I'm happy with having the older version and it works great for me.

I would like to add here that for almost all of my photos, that I edit, I use Actions to help me edit them. When editing photos it can take 5 or more steps to achieve the look I'm after, which if you edit a lot of photos the same way it can take a long time to finish processing them. So an Action is a "recording" of all the steps you take. Then all you do is press "play" and it does all the work for you. You may have to do a little tweaking along the way, but they more or less do all the work for you. I use some that I got free here and some I bought here and here.

What equipment *giggle* do you have, lenses? Extra flash thing? What kind of camera?

I use a Canon Rebel XTi , it was a Mother's Day present when the camera first came out. So I got it like 5 years ago. While I would like to upgrade to a newer one, I'm very happy with it and don't see the need for a newer SLR right now.

Lenses- I have several to choose from

The "kit lens" that came with the camera- 18-55 mm

A factory refurbished 28-90 mm

A factory refurbished 75- 300 mm

A 50 mm

My favorite and almost always on my camera- Tamron 28- 300 mm

All of my lenses all either have a UV or Polarizer filter on them. Better to scratch a filter then the lens itself..... so much cheaper to replace a filter.

I would also like to add that I also rent lenses from here once in a while. Renting them is a great way to try out a new lens your looking at before you spend the money. Plus if you have a dream lens and can't afford it, renting lets you play with it without having to come up with a ton of cash.

External Flash- Canon Speedlite 430EX

I think everyone who owns an SLR type camera should have a Speedlite, because your on board flash just doesn't have the range that a Speedlite does.

I took this photo with just my on board flash and went back the next day and took this one with my Speedlite. You can really tell the difference between the two.

For my Speedlite I also have this attachment- it's like having an entire set of studio lights without the cost or having to store them. I'm amazed at what that thing can do!

Tripods-

I have this one that I use at home mostly

This monopod that I use when I'm out of the house

And I just bought this small one for my "purse camera" but it will hold the weight of my XTi with my light weight lenses attached.

A few other odds and ends that I own-

I have several of these camera straps. I just love having a more girly camera strap

I use this Grey Card to set my White Balance

This camera bag when I want to carry all my gear and this bag when I need to travel light.

I hope that answers your questions Stacie. If you have anymore just post them here and I will answer them for you.

I've also been thinking about doing a little photography class/lesson here on my blog. If you or anyone else reading would be interested in that just let me know.

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You Capture- Week 8

For this weeks You Capture we were to capture Rustic.

While I had every intention to capture some new pictures this week, Mother Nature has yet to play nice.

This is beyond old lady!

So here are some pictures I took this past fall.

The Sugar Shack - Deep River Park

The side door to The Sugar Shack

A Closer Look

Until next week my photography blogger friends- Happy Shooting!

*Don't forget about my Auction to help Beth raise money for March of Dimes

* Enter my Spring Cleaning Contest

* There's a few days left to post your Photography Questions

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She asked

Chris has asked several questions on some of my posts so I figured I would answer them all here.

She asked if I missed The Beast or The Hub's more?

ummm.... Both LOL No really I miss The Hub's more. While I do miss seeing The Beast in the garage I'm sure with time I will get use to it not being there.

She asked how I was knocked unconscious?

I was in grade school and was getting a drink of water at the fountain. A boy rushing down the hallway ran into me and I slammed my head into the wall. I passed out for like a minute and was sent down to the nurse. I stayed down there awhile and she then sent me back down to class telling me IF I felt bad to come back down. A little while later I started feeling sick and told my teacher this, but she just told me I would be fine and that it was almost the end of the day anyway. Well she was so wrong! While we were in our reading circle I tossed my cookies all over the place. Needless to say she sent me down to the nurse and I was sent home. The mind set of the 70's LOL Now if a kids gets a splinter they are calling home to let the parents know.

She asked if I liked the movie Taken?

I did like it but felt it was a little long.

Did I miss any Chris? Got any more questions?

Oh and Chris ya see the little thing to the right over there. The thing that says BUY MY ART- Well the means I DO sell my art. Just messing with ya :0)

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Q. & A.

Chris at Coke on My Keyboard asked a few question and as promised here are the answers.

1: What is my earliest childhood memory? That would be my 4th birthday. I had just finished opening my present and like many 4 year olds I didn't want to share them with anyone. My parents sent me to their room for the rest of my party. My uncle who was just 5 years older than me and cool, snuck into their room and hung out with me.

2: What is my favorite joke? I'm not really good at telling or remembering jokes, so I don't have one.

3: How did my husband and I meet and was it love at first sight? Wow that's a really long story, and to really understand it I have to tell it all so bare with me OK.

In 1994 I was living with my parents with son M ( then 3) and daughter A ( then 1). The ( now) husband, his then wife, and daughter K , moved into the house behind my parents. We had talked a little but not much and I had watched daughter K a few times. At the time I wouldn't of called us friends. In early March of 1995 they went to visit his parents in Iowa. One night on their way home from dinner they were hit by an underage drunk driver. The accident killed his Mom & his then wife, put his Dad into a coma, and he broke his ankle which required surgery. Daughter K was 3 years old at the time so she was in a car seat, as a result she only had a few minor cuts. A few days after we found out about the accident , I was heading to Vegas for a early b-day present from my parents ( my uncle lives there) so I didn't go to the funeral but my parents did and told him where I was.

A few weeks later , the day before Easter that year, I was hiding eggs in the back yard for my kids. He was outside letting the dog out and yelled across the yard asking me how Florida was. I yelled back it wasn't Florida it was Vegas. I wandering over there to strike up a conversation, avoiding the accident/death thing since I figured by then he was tired of hearing about it. We talked a good long while. Over the next several weeks, after he would get home from work,our kids would play together and we would just hang out talking about all kinds of things. We even went out on a few kid dates but nothing we considered a real date, they were just two friends with kids going out.

In May, my Mom became really sick and had surgery for what we thought was gall stones at the time. Only to find out on surgery day, that it was pancreatic cancer and it was one of those where the Dr. said " It's only a matter of time". He stuck by me through all of that, trying to keep my mind off of it as much as possible. In July my parents, kids and I planned a trip to Florida, my Mom wanted to know that her grandkids had been to Disney. The night before we were to leave I was hanging out at his house and that's when he asked me out on our first real date, to take place when I returned. That was also the first time he kissed me. Yes folks he kissed me before our first date and it was one of those toe curling, earth standing still kind of kisses.

The Saturday after I returned we went on our date. We went up to Chicago and just sat on a bench on Navy Pier. We talked and kissed A LOT ! It started raining and after we found a place to hide from it, we found out that there was going to be fireworks, so we stayed there to watch them - all soaking wet. After that we walked back to the car and silly me wore 4 inch heals, so my feet were so sore by then. Once we got there he sat in the car rubbing my feet for over an hour.

Three days later my Mom died and he was there every step of the way again. When the ambulance came ( and there was still hope) he was there, he was there when I got the call from my Dad telling me she was gone ( my kids were sleeping so I stayed home to take care of them, didn't want them to wake up and freak out). He was there during the wake and even took the day off of work to go to the funeral with me. The night of the funeral all of my family was over and I had enough of them telling me how to deal with my Moms death and how to tell the kids. The day after she died I took them to their Dads , without telling them about grandma, so I could focus all my energy for my Dad. Anyway I was sitting outside and I saw him go across the yard to get into his pool and like said I had enough of my family, so I found my Dad told him I was going swimming and where I was going. We swam and laughed, something I really needed right then and there. Then he says to me " What would you do if I asked you to marry me?" . I told him he would find out when he did ask me. Of course at the time I was screaming YES in my mind, but I didn't let him know that.

In September we were going back up to Chicago for a dinner cruise to celebrate by 25th b-day, he was also going to ask me to marry him on the very bench we had our first date on ( yes I knew about it, he loved to tease me about it) . My ring came the last week of August and he couldn't wait another week, so that night he took me upstairs , got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I of course said yes and it couldn't of been more perfect since the day he asked me was also my Moms b-day ( he didn't know at the time) . We still went up to Chicago to celebrate my b-day and our engagement. In December of that year we were married and have been happily married for 13 years now.

For the second part of that question : Was it love at first sight? No and yes. No because the first time we saw each other he was married. And yes because we both agree that the first time we talked that Saturday before Easter, was the trigger that started us to fall in love.

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