I felt so bad! Wednesday was the first day of school and life was crazy having to transport the kids 45 miles home after school. Lunch this week was minuscule and my poor boys were ravenous by the time they got into my car that a pit stop at McD’s was in order. But it’s too late for lunch and too early for dinner–so it wasn’t great. We got home–too late to shop and to a kitchen that has been packed–All I had was a bag of salad, some cheese, some crispy noodles and some oriental dressing–so a quick Chinese Chicken Salad was born. The kids loved it–and I was relieved to find something to fill their tummies!

My husbands restaurant has had some interesting things going on lately. Due to the fact that different employees will purchase things for the company some of the managers decided to take out an account with a couple of the businesses they purchase from most often. But they didn’t tell anyone what they were doing, and they didn’t get approval from the owner of the restaurant.

Yes, the bills would have been paid as needed and on time, but it created a few heated hours when the owner (the man with the name they had used) accused them of identity theft and sat on the phone with his bank trying to get everything taken care of. In the end, they decided that they really did need the accounts but that they were taken out in the wrong way. How easy would it be to fill out a credit application with the name of your favorite business and pose as an employee with permission to use the credit? Dangerous game if you ask me!

This is where companies like life lock come in handy! They monitor your credit and back up their protection with a million dollar guarantee! For times like these, what an important investment for anyone, person or business. Did you know that identity theft tops the Federal Trade Commissions list of complaints? That is mind boggling to me. There really doesn’t seem to be a way to protect yourself without companies like this keeping their eyes open for you. Plus, it cuts down on your junk mail as well! All this for one low price!

Do you remember the post I did earlier about the Easter Brunch at the Chef’s restaurant? The one with the bunny and lamb cakes? His brunch was listed in the Top 10 Easter Brunches in the city! How cool is that? Mother’s Day isn’t that close, and they haven’t even advertised for it, and they have over 100 reservations already! Putting on a brunch is just what he’s good at…I’m glad others can see it too!

The owner of my husbands barbecue restaurant just spent a week in Texas trying out the various options for beef brisket. They had a ball. He said that the first restaurant they hit was the best brisket he’d ever had, but by the end of the week (17 restaurants later) he said that the first restaurant was the worst. I guess that explains why Texas is so well known for their brisket!

We are trying to secure our plans for our summer and after these stories, the Chef has decided that he would like to recreate the same experiment! Not that I mind, the only part of Texas I’ve been to is a night in Dallas after taking a bump on the way home! There seem to be a number of fun things to do in Texas, whether it’s visiting the River Walk in San Antonio, seeing the capitol city of Ausin, or even the Shangri La Gardens and Nature Center in Orange, Texas. You’ve got to see this place. It’s not only beautiful, but it’s also very environmentally minded. They’ve even been awarded Platinum Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. Very well deserved in deed!

I’m not quite sure where our summer will take us, but I’m pretty sure we can find brisket in Orange, Texas, and we’ll have the opportunity to see this beautiful garden for ourselves. If you would like to see this beautiful park for yourself, check out their website at www.shangrilagardens.org.

My 10 year old has just acquired a more mature palate. Every time we used to go out to dinner he would always order macaroni and cheese. Not the most healthy dish, but definitely his favorite. I’ve been pushing him the last few times we’ve been out to try to get him to choose something with a bit more protein and a few less carbs. Well, he’s officially been turned. His favorite is the Steak Asiago at the Olive Garden. He told me today (almost a month later) that he “dreams” about the dish everyday! I thought that was funny!

Over the past year or so, I’ve had an opportunity to find some fun ways to make money online. The newest one is SocialSpark! I haven’t been with them long at all. In fact, this is my first post for them and all I can say is I’m enjoying it immensely. Now I’ve been around the folks at Social Spark for over a year so there are many friendships that have developed over that time. I’ve had a chance to meet several of these people in real life, and that makes this whole blogging experience even more fun. My favorite part about Social Spark is the ranking system. Real ranks are updated every night and I do have to admit that I have stayed up late at night just to see what my rank is for the next day. It’s almost like you try to out do your ranking every single day.

Because there is no hiding of paid posts with Social Spark, some people may be more keen to believing what they read as someone’s honest opinion of a product. I’ve always tried to give an honest opinion whether I was paid to post it or not, so this part isn’t too new me. Plus, because there is the use of the “no follow” tag, maybe Google won’t dislike us as bad as they used to. Search Engine Optimization is important to so many people, but there are some better ways to get it.

All in all, Social Spark is new. It’s fun! And it’s better than ever! If you are working to make money online yourself, this is something fun and new to try!

Can you say YUM!! This is what we are having for dinner tonight! It’s one of my favorite things ever, mind you–scones alone are yummy too–but for dinner-nothing beats the taco up top!

They are really easy to make, and I just use either Rhodes Bake & Serve bread dough or roll dough. Either one works great–you just have to make sure the dough is at room temperature before trying to flatten it. Otherwise, it won’t stay flat enough for you–and it will take longer to cook. After that, it’s just whatever taco toppings you love! In this family it’s meat, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, olives and guacamole!

It’s not even 10:30 am, and I’m already getting hungry for this puppy!!

I got it! In an earlier post I mentioned how I have been craving Chinese food for the past several days and finally last night we had it. I can’t tell you how good it was. I do miss my Lemon Chicken from my favorite little Chinese stop in Salt Lake, but the Sweet and Sour Pork was good enough to suffice. I had the remnants for lunch this afternoon and just like pizza, I do like it better the second day. I really do love meat too much to go vegetarian–but I ordered mostly the vegetable dishes and even the kids were over the moon with them.

I’m not sure how slimming Chinese food is—I’m sure it’s got all of the ‘bad’ stuff packed in there somewhere–but oh, if I had a full time Chinese cook on staff, I would eat it every day!

See, there was a good reason I loved living in Japan so much!

I have been really surprised at just how many questions I’m getting about wedding cakes. Well, people wanting me to make theirs anyway. I’ve already done one (I’m much better now) and I have two orders in the works. Then Saturday morning someone else asked me about the possibility of doing their cake. It’s kind of gotten me in a wedding mood–reminiscing about our wedding oh so many years ago.

I was online looking at Wedding Invitations and I was amazed to find ours. Looking at it today, it is still my very favorite invitation ever! I know, hopefully everyone says that, but ours was elegant. It was square which was new at the time, and it had this beautiful shimmery gold outline. Here, see for yourself.

Isn’t it pretty? I had loved it for years before I actually got to use it, so that made it really fun to find it then, let alone 11 years later!

At 1st-class-wedding-invitations.com you can customize your invitations anyway you want them. We went pretty traditional with the standard text, but so many couples these days are really making each aspect of their wedding match their personality, and with these beautiful invitations it’s really easy.

Have you ever had a craving so strong that it consumes your every thought? That has been my weekend! My craving, Chinese food. I hadn’t mentioned it to my husband and then on Sunday evening he has the nerve to call and tell me he ordered Chinese for lunch. The green eyed monster was raging! He forgot to bring his left over beef and broccoli home Sunday evening, but remembered it last night and I ate it for lunch this afternoon with the two little ones. It was so good! However the craving was not satisfied and I need more! So I’m thinking it’s what’s for dinner!