Palin Palooza

Today Sarah Palin is doing a book signing at the Orange Park Mall which is about 30 minutes away from here. For the past two weeks, since hearing about the event, I've been planning to go get my copy of her new book Going Rogue signed... that is, until, my dreams got squashed last night while watching the 10 o'clock news. Sarah's book has already become such a success that people had begun lining up on SUNDAY morning for the book signing which took place today at 9am on Wednesday! Even if I had gone out there at 6am this morning as I had planned, it would have been to no avail. Yesterday afternoon they handed out 500 wrist bracelets gauranteeing those people to get her signature. I had no idea it was going to be that crazy! Granted, I'm happy for her that so many people are still supporting her, but at the same time I'm a little bummed that I didn't get to meet her.

Disney World!!!

As I mentioned in the last post, over the weekend Sayre and I went to Disney World and oh what a bast we had! We drove down to Orlando on Friday night after another one of Sayre's ship's Hail & Farewell parties, got a good night's sleep, & then woke up bright and early to begin our adventures in the Magic Kingdom. The park didn't open until 9am, but we got there at 8am to be the first ones in line. Somehow or another (I won't reveal our secrets here ;) ) we managed to actually get into the park before it opened to the general public, so we got some great pictures of the castle & various places without anyone else in them! The rides themselves didn't open up until 9, but that was perfectly fine because we were still the very first ones on Splash Mountain... and when I say "the very first ones," I do indeed mean the very first ones. That's both a blessing and a curse because... well... you see... we got soaked. Lesson learned: even if they tell you to ride in the first row, ask them if you can sit in the back! Regardless, it was still awesomely fun and we eventually dried off.

Unbeknown to us, we picked the perfect weekend to go to Disney World. The crowds were almost non-existent. In all my past Disney experiences, it was just expected that for most rides you'd have to wait at least 30 minutes or so in line to ride a ride (and even that was pretty short!); however, this weekend, we were able to literally hop off and hop right back on to most rides. I was dumbfounded. Case-in-point: we rode Thunder Mountain four times in a row. It took us longer to wind through the path up to the ride than it actually did to get on the ride. Now, granted, as it got later in the day the crowds did pick up a little bit and Fantasy Land in the Magic Kingdom was probably the most crowded area (that's the best place for mammas & daddies to take the little ones), but it still wasn't bad at all! We had sooo much fun!! Usually, because you spend most of your day just standing around in lines, you're able to stay in the park late into the evening without being too tired... well, since we spent all day hopping on & off rides time & time again, by around 4pm we were utterly exhausted! Although we would have liked to have seen the fireworks that night, we decided to conserve our energy for the next day, so we left around 5 and headed over to the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney for dinner. Yum!

On Sunday we decided to go to Epcot before heading back to Jacksonville in the afternoon. Once again, we arrived at the park at 8am even though it didn't open until 9am hoping that we could get in early like we had done in the Magic Kingdom the day before. Unfortunately, that didn't work out so well for us, but we were still happy to be there bright & early & first in line to get in! Once again, there weren't any waits for the rides... I felt like I was living in the twighlight zone! It was fantastic! We rode the Test Track 3 times in a row before deciding that we should probably move on to other things since we were planning to leave the park around 2. When talking with some of the Disney workers during the day, they told us why they thought the parks were so empty this particular weekend: it was the weekend right after the Epcot Food & Wine Festival ended and it was also the weekend right before the crazy Thanksgiving crowds were going to show up. Bingo! That made a lot of sense to us! Anyway, Epcot proved to be tons of fun as well! We were sad to leave, but we're hoping to go one more weekend before Christmas (and after Thanksgiving) before our nice little military discounted tickets expire. We were told that they're not going to renew the offer next year, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it isn't true. We'll just have to see!

Click here to see more of our pictures & videos from the weekend.

Casting Crowns Concert

Last night Sayre and I went to see Casting Crowns in concert at the Jacksonville Arena. I had seen them a few years ago in Baton Rouge, and once again they put on a great show! What I love about Christian concerts is that you get more than just a musical experience when you go... there's such a positive and uplifting message to all of the songs. It's not even about the fact that you're seeing a well-known artist perform, it's that the message their music brings is one that you don't find in secular music. Maybe I'm just getting old, but often times I find myself disgusted with some of the songs I hear on the radio. With Casting Crowns and other Christian artists like them, you leave their concert feeling empowered and refreshed. Now, don't get me wrong, I still enjoy catchy pop and rock tunes, but it's nice to balance out the dark messages the world gives us with the simple love and praise of God.

Ok, I'm getting off my soap box now ;) and heading out to Disney World tonight! Of course, a blog post will surely follow once we return!

Pepper Spray Sympathy

Today my poor sweet husband got sprayed with OC (military strength pepper spray) as a part of his training. Pretty much everyone has to go through it, but I still felt pretty bad for him. An hour after it happened they let him drive home, but it was very evident that he was still in a lot of pain. When he got home, we tried to look up some home remedies, but unfortunately the concoction we tried seemed to only make matters worse... especially when he had to wash it off. Rinsing water over the affected skin only seems to make it feel worse because the OC is oil based. Fortunately, we eventually figured out that putting a fan on his face and lightly patting it with a wet, cold cloth made things much better.

In the meantime, I knew of only one thing for sure that would eventually make him feel better: sweets! One of my favorite baking blogs called "Bake at 350" featured a caramel brownie recipe today that looked too amazing not to try! You start with a cake batter based brownie recipe, cook half of it for about 6 minutes, spread chocolate chips and melted caramel on top of that, plop the other half of the batter on that, and then bake for another 16 minutes. They aren't the most presentation-friendly brownies because they're ooey & gooey & fall apart, but that's what makes them sooooo amazing :) and they go great with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream! Needless to say, this made Sayre feel quite a bit better.

Trunk-or-Treat

As I mentioned in a previous post, Sayre and I volunteered for "Trunk-or-Treat" at the Pumpkin Patch Party at Christ's Church here in Jacksonville. It was a fun family-friendly Halloween alternative for families to come and enjoy. They had food vendors, 100 "Trunk-or-Treat" cars, games, & inflatables (slides, bounce houses, etc.). It was such a fun event to be a part of! We chose the theme of "The Wizard of Oz" and decorated our trunk and ourselves as ;) I made a Dorothy apron to wear and threw together a little costume to make Sayre look like the Scarecrow. There were so many cute and creative trunks out there & the kids seemed to have a lot of fun :) It was estimated that over 6,500 people showed up for the event!

Click here to see more pictures that we took!

Pumpkin Mousse Pie

My dear sweet husband has a mouth full of sweet teeth (ok... maybe we both do). One of his favorite holiday treats is pumpkin pie, so when I saw a recipe for Pumpkin Mousse Pie on the back of a graham cracker pie label I knew I had to try it! I'm personally not a huge fan of pumpkin pie, so I was hoping that this would be a creamier, lighter alternative. The results were fantastic! Needless to say, the two pies that this recipe yielded were gone in just a matter of days! (Fortunately for our waistline, each piece of pie has only 3.5 grams of fat & no sugar!)


Here's the Recipe from Keebler Ready Crust:
1 1/4 cups Fat-free Milk
1 pkg (4-serving size) Vanilla fat-free sugar free instant pudding
1 tbsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 cup Canned Pumpkin
2 tubs (8oz) Fat Free Cool Whip
2 Keebler Graham Cracker Reduced Fat Pie Crusts

Beat milk, pudding mix, & spice for 1 1/2 minutes then whisk in pumpkin.
Fold in Half a tub of whipped topping.
Spread into pie crusts.
(The original recipe claims to only make one pie, but it definitely left me with enough filling for 2, so unless you want an over-flowing pie, I suggest making 2 or cutting the recipe in half!)
Top with whipped topping.

Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving. It's hard to serve this pie b/c it's very moist & gooey (& yummy!), so I also suggest maybe popping it in the freezer for a few minutes before cutting into it.