SpruceHill

It's My Birthday.....

   

Yes it's my birthday today. I am officially one year closer to 45 ( Ok I'm 43 there I said it). I don't really have a problem with that. I am happy to be here on this earth to celebrate a birthday.

 

And since I have been celebrating a lot this week I thought I would share some embarrassing photos from my childhood. There are LOTS! This is me sitting in front of my childhood home on our canon. Yes we have a canon, My Dad shot it off on my wedding day. It still works. I can't remember how old it is. Maybe my brothers can help me with that. Anything guys????

 

I particularly love this one. My little brother looks so angelic here(quite out of character for him). I think my outfit needs some help though the shoes are so wrong with that dress. What was I thinking?

 

Aaaaaa and the old going to the beach in your diaper shot. Who doesn't want to see that?

 

Who are those cute little boys? Surely not my big brothers, they look so dapper. We should have been on the cover of a magazine or something.

   

Humm playing in mud puddles in the middle of our driveway? In my diaper........Need I say more? What can I say we were farm kids.

   

And here is me with my Mom. Hi Mom! 

I had a nice three hour coffee with two friends this morning. There is a little dinner celebration planned for this evening. It's snowing outside so there will be no riding lessons today. We will have lots of time to enjoy the evening as a family. I am looking forward to a quiet night, curling up with some good food, a glass of wine and my hubby and girls. Oh and dessert :)

Thanks to all my face book friends for ALL of the birthday wishes. I am quite overwhelmed.

Cheers!

Must Have Chocolate!

I am still celebrating. Valentines day, my blogs birthday, and another special day tomorrow (I will let you all know about that later). I thought I would share a recipe with you, well because we all need chocolate don't we?

Sarah’s Chocolate Pie

 

The ingredients.....

 

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips (6 oz)

½ cup milk, half and half or even heavy cream

3 eggs well beaten

1 tsp vanilla

A pre-made graham cracker pie crust, or if you want to go all out go ahead and use a chocolate one. You know you would enjoy it!

An extra square of dark sweetened chocolate for shavings and whipped cream

 

Grind chips until powder using a food processor.

 

 

 Bring milk to a boil, and pour into chips. Stir until mixed thoroughly.

 

  

Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well.

 

 

 

Now this recipe does have raw eggs in it. If you feel a bit squeamish about this you could mix the chips, boiling milk and eggs into a saucepan and cook it for a few minutes to make sure the eggs are safe. Add the vanilla afterwords.

 

   

 

 Pour into a baked pie shell and chill for about two hours.

 

     

 

Serve with whipped cream and chocolate shavings on top!

 

 

 Enjoy!

It's my Blog's Birthday!

 One year ago today I wrote my first post on Spruce Hill and my blog was born. At first I used it as a tool to connect with my friends and family during my cancer treatment. I had visitors but mostly only my family. Since then I have posted 266 times, I have had 24,887 hits on my blog and have received 1,168 comments! In my first few days I only got 2 page views, my highest page view day was 198. I have made a lot of new friends and have turned into a blog addict. I carry my camera around with me where ever I go, to the dismay of my family. I read over 65 blogs everyday and find more blogs to visit every week. I have some very faithful readers and have some new readers too(I love new readers!). I have made friends with people all over the world. France, Germany, England, Australia,Canada, Israel, California, Texas, Colorado, Pennsylvania and even some here in my own state of Maryland. My blog has opened my world up and made it better.

I really appreciate all of my visitors that come to visit me here at Spruce Hill. As a token of my appreciation I am having a give away!

 

I am giving away this one of a kind handmade bracelet. Made of polished multi-colored aquamarine gemstones and sterling silver Bali beads and toggle.

 

All you have to do is leave me a comment on my blog. That's it! I will pick a person randomly from my comments in two days time. Please only enter one time, but if you go over to my photo blog and comment too, I will enter your name in twice.I will make the deadline 9:00 pm eastern standard time on Monday. I will announce the winner on Tuesday morning.

(anyone who is a relative is not eligible for this giveaway, sorry, but feel free to comment anyway!)

Happy Valentines Day!

Well I had a lot of comments! Thank you to everyone who came over for a visit and left a comment. I received so any well wishes! I enjoyed checking out everyone's blogs, I am still working on visiting them all. I will try and finish up this week.

 My winner is #20 Di-The Blue Ridge Gal. Please e-mail me your address and I will mail off your bracelet. Thank you again for coming over to visit Spruce Hill. The giveaway was so successful I am planning to do another again soon. I hope you come and stop by again!

True Random Number Service

Random Integer Generator

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20

Timestamp: 2009-02-17 02:47:47 UTC

Quebecalicious!

Yesterday after getting home from picking the girls up from school, my husband gave me a slip of paper that said that I missed a mail delivery. I needed to sign for the package so they would not leave it on my front porch. Darn it!

 

This morning we traveled to the our town post office to pick up the much anticipated package, that came all the way from Quebec City. My excitement was overflowing. I knew who the package was from and that it was on it's way.

 

We were to go out to lunch with My Mom, so I showed much restraint and politely put the package into the back of my truck and drove on to our next destination, secretly wishing to open it in a flurry of paper and packing tape.

 

After a wonderful lunch Miss H and I headed home as fast as we could so we could see what was inside.......

 

The box was packed full of goodies and love.

 

Every item selected with great care and thought.

 

A fuzzy moose magnet for Little E's bulletin board.

 

A beaver dude for Big E, and a Canadian deck of cards for Miss H.

 

A Canadian key chain for all of us to fight over.

 

I've the perfect spot for this in my kitchen. I have a little collection of Cat's Meows that will look perfect resting next to this scene of Quebec City. 

To my delight there was chocolate of course!

 

Almost too pretty to open, ALMOST!

    

Mmmmmmmm It was yummy!

   

Ok I am admittedly a chocoholic but these maple cookies are my favorite......So yummy and flavorful. They taste just like Canada, I think :)

 

Chloe enjoyed the aroma of Canadian Furry Pad friends. ( a stray toffee fell on the floor and Chloe ate it wrapper and all, "Thanks Romy! I wash delicioush!")

 

Sadie wants to give a shout out to Romy her new Homie G.,"and my Mom says I have to include the kitties but I don't really like kitties!"

 

A wonderful book for me to read. Sharing a common bond between us. Merci Gin, Steve, and Little Miss! Merci Merci Merci!!!! Nous nous sommes amusés tellement en ouvrant toutes nos surprises! I hope that is right I used a translation web site! :)

Day Off

I am home today with Miss H. She has off school for a long weekend. Earlier we took a walk together.

 

We walked down to the creek, which only takes about 3 minutes. There is a tree there that I had not noticed, that is hollow. 

 

It is the perfect place for an animal to live.

 

I am thinking maybe a raccoon? I have seen a lot of raccoon prints down by the water.

 

We gave the ponies some peppermints....

 

Which were greatly enjoyed....

 

By my sweet Arial, Oh how she loves them! She is very easily pleased.

 

Her lips always twitch when she is happy, and she always makes that face when I give her peppermints.