Wined and Dined!

Yesterday I held an open house here at my home. It was sort of a co-open house. A lady that works at Southwest with me, also sells wine. Sheri, a customer service rep, also does wine sampling at your home or work! A great way to unwind I think! The name of the company that she does this for is WineShop at Home. I had never heard of it before. One day as we all were leaving work and driving out of our parking lot, I noticed an advertisement on the back window of her vehicle. I was very intrigued! So after asking her a few questions, we decided it would be neat to get together with our respective products and have people over! So we set the day and time....
As for my part of it, I put together an extensive menu of items that were made with the new products that Tastefully Simple offers in the new spring and summer catalog. I was wanting to give people ideas on different ways you can utilize the products without using the same ritualistic recipes. The day before I made my shopping trips to both Sam's Club and Walmart to complete my ingredients list and get the supplies I needed for serving many people. Needless to say, I spent a small fortune on all of this! Yikes!

Here is what I prepared and what product went into the respective dish:

• Beer Bread- one loaf prepared as a bread bowl with dip
• Spinach and Herb-dip for the beer bread
• Sloppy Joes-made with the Smokey Bacon Grill Sauce and Onion Onion seasoning
• Tuna and Noodle Salad-made with Meyer's Lemon Infused oil, Seasoning Salt and Onion Onion seasoning
• Chocolate Bliss Cheese Ball-prepared and served with Vanilla Wafers
• Absolutely Almond Pound Cake-prepared as normal, poured Strawberry Jello on top that went into holes of the cake, served with Cool Whip
• Sassy Skewers-made with Cubed Turkey, Cubed Monterey Jack Cheese and Strawberry chunks. Dipped into Asian Honey Mustard Dressing
• Fiesta Party Layered Dip-recipe includes the Fiesta Party dip mixed into mayo and sour cream, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, shredded cheese and topped with Corn and Black Bean Salsa
• Pizzeria Cheese Ball Pinwheels-prepared cheese ball spread on tortillas, topped with chopped pepperoni and chopped green olives.
• Pizzeria Cheese Ball- served with crackers
• Blue Aztec Chips-used with anything!
• Various crackers, chips and pretzels
• Brewed Iced Tea and Water

Most of these dishes were made from recipes I found in the newest recipe books that are also now available from TS. I had baked 3 loaves of beer bread the day before to get a jump on completing my menu. Sunday morning I made the cake. From there, I set about making roughly 6 lbs of sloppy Joes and put it into my Smart Pot to simmer all day. The hours seemed to pass quicker than I had hoped. My friend Trisa came over a few hours early and put my skewers together while I finished preparing the layered dip. I literally had no space left on my counters due to the over-size platters that were covering them, at the mercy of hungry tasters!

Once Sheri arrived, we helped her carry her things into the house and let her set up her sampling supplies. I had several wine glasses out and on the ready! There were 6 or 7 kinds of wine that she had brought along for the taste testing. We each had our favorites in no time. Honestly, I had hoped for a better showing. But the people that came loved everything they ate and many orders were placed!

TinkerBell Spotted on Southwest Airlines!

I had to get pictures of this. The first people that came to mind when I took the pictures were my nieces! I thought they may think this was kind of cute! I myself think it's very catching to the eye!
Southwest has many airplanes with different pictures painted on them. They may be dedicated to a certain work group in our company. They may be dedicated to a certain state to which we fly that has the respective state flag painted across the fuselage. And if you wait long enough and watch out the windows long enough in any one airport that we fly to, you might even see a "beached whale"! Yep, Shamu is even depicted on 3 of our planes. Each one has a specific name to go along with the painted theme. For instance, one plane has the state flag of California painted across it. Thus the name, "California One." Or, one of the planes has a huge basketball hoop with a basketball going through. It's called Slam Dunk One because we were a sponser of the NBA (National Basketball Association). We even have an airplane (click on the link to see the model with the jet about 1/2 way down the page, image no. 25) with a Sports Illustrated model (scroll down about half way on this site and see a closer picture of the girl!) laying across the side of the plane!
Those are just a few examples. Here is one site you can look at to see the many beautifully painted airplanes. Even though there are alot of photos to view, you should try to look at each one. The perspective on some of them is outstanding!

Here are a few that I took with my phone camera. I was sitting on the belt loader as the flight pulled into our gate. TinkerBell came to Omaha for a visit! I had the perfect view! After unloading it, I stood on top of the belt loader where I had a much closer look and got a better picture. See for yourself........

One of the newest of MANY themed aircraft. "Powered by Pixie Dust"

TinkerBell catches a ride the SWA way!

The nose of the aircraft. Walt Disney Pictures TinkerBell.

Surprise, Lisa!

The email I received read, "it's a surprise!" Scott was having a cookout in honor of Lisa's birthday but she knew nothing of it. Her actual day was the 12TH of March. But the surprise would happen on Sunday the 15Th.

The weather couldn't have been better to grill for the first time this year. People were sitting out on the deck and basking in the beautiful sun and warm air.

Scott asked us to bring a side dish and our own beverages. Along with an appetizer that I made from a couple of Tastefully Simple products, I brought some chicken too. I wasn't sure how much meat he had for the BBQ. First, about the appetizer. It was made from a new recipe book that we have out called Tempting Appetizers. It's made with the Fiesta Party Dip and a jar of the Corn, Black Bean salsa. Basically it tastes like a scrumptious taco dip; it's made with sour cream, mayo, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, shredded cheddar cheese plus the key ingredients of the afore mentioned items! But it sure was a hit! The platter that held the new creation was empty in no time! Second, the chicken. I also brought a new sauce for grilling that also got rave reviews!

Scott managed to keep the day a surprise until he needed to clean house. Then he had to tell her why he was needing to tidy up the house. So she actually found out on Saturday. But I think it was still a fun day for her!

We all ate a bunch of great food and then the cake and ice cream were brought out. We over did ourselves as usual with the food. I have to admit, our big group of friends can definitely cook!

Scott and Lisa...serving ice cream with the cake.
Paige Champion and Lisa

Logan and his Mom cleaning frosting off his fingers!

I hope you had a great birthday Lisa! Have a great year!

In Memory....

I miss you and love you Mom. Here's to your memory....

If tears could build a stairway,

And memories were a lane.

We would walk right up to heaven,

And bring you home again.

...................Author unknown

A View from the Ground Up

I'm sure that the majority of you have been on an airplane before, right? For those of you that have, stop and think for a minute about the view that you all have from either the airport windows or even the airplane windows. You as passengers see us from the top down. I imagine that from your perspective, the airplanes look pretty big. And the employees on the ramp look a little like ants running around in a scurry of activity. We, and I mean me as a ramp agent, feel like fish in a giant fish bowl! We are surrounded by windows with eyes screening us from every direction!

But you never actually see what we as employees see working next to the airplanes! I would like to show you what it looks like to be sitting in front of one of our own planes from inside our push back tractors waiting to push the jet back from the gate. It's a whole new view!!! The yellow coiled cord you see is connected to our headset that we use to talk to the pilots. They tell us when we are clear to push them back.

Sitting inside the push back-my view looking out.

As it turns out, I had written a post similar to this one which was about 2 years ago, and had put other pictures in. Check this out for other "ground up" photos. Our push back tractors were different--no cabs. And I'm seeing that I still had long hair! Sheesh!

Anyway, that's just one of the many things we do on the ground. It's just to show you the difference between your view from inside the terminal or the airplane and my view from the ground up!

Do You Know Your Hymns?

I receive, from my hometown church in McGregor, ND, the monthly newsletter. Occasionally I find myself chuckling over some very creative and humorous items that are usually printed on the back page. Being Lutheran, we tend to find humor in many things. (shocking, right?) An example of this would be that it's very well known how much Lutherans love to have a potluck meal! Or maybe drink coffee in the middle of summer when the temperature's are soaring high!
Or maybe it's the fact that so many parishioners always sit towards the back of the church!

This month the topic of choice on the newsletter had to do with some very popular hymns and their relation to various occupations. I thought they were so cute that I wanted to share them with you as well. I think that even if you don't attend church on a regular basis, you will find them just as entertaining as I did!

Know Your Hymns!

--------------------

1. Dentist's Hymn-----------------------Crown Him with Many Crowns
2. Meteorologist's Hymn-----------------There Shall be Showers of Blessings
3. Contractor's Hymn--------------------The Church's One Foundation
4. The Tailor's Hymn--------------------Holy, Holy, Holy
5. The Golfer's Hymn--------------------There is a Green Hill Far Away
6. The Politician's Hymn-----------------Standing on the Promises
7. Optometrist's Hymn------------------Open My Eyes That I Might See
8. Tax Payer's Hymn--------------------I Surrender All
9. The Gossip's Hymn-------------------Pass It On
10. Electricians Hymn--------------------Send the Light
11. Shoppers' Hymn----------------------Sweet Bye and Bye
12. Realtor's Hymn-----------------------I've Got a Mansion
13. Doctor's Hymn------------------------The Great Physician

And for those of you that like to speed when driving, here is a list of hymns you may choose depending of how fast you're actually going:

If you're driving.......

1. 45 mph---------------God Will Take Care of You
2. 65 mph---------------Nearer My God to Thee
3. 85 mph---------------This World is Not My Home
4. 95 mph---------------Lord, I'm Coming Home
5. 100 mph--------------Precious Memories

Upon further research on silly Lutheranisms, I found this...if only to prove my point! And here is a list of bulletin bloopers.....FUNNY!!!

This will serve as your chuckle for the day! I hope it put a smile on your face like it did for me!

Happy Hymning!!!