Ginormous egg

This is a seriously huge egg! There is a wonderful Amish Store in Branson that I love going to for my spices and eggs. The prices are great, especially the spices. Much cheaper than the grocery store and I like the quality better. I recently started buying brown and green eggs from them. They raise their own chickens and one certain chicken made this HUGE 3" egg. Apparently, every other day, they find one huge egg. They don't know which chicken is laying these over-sized eggs but...sheesh...that is one tough chicken!

Wouter Weylandt Part 2

Here is a tiny follow-up to Part 1.
I got my awesome Road ID in the mail today and absolutely love it. Road ID is donating all proceeds of these bands to Wouter Weylandt's family. If you would like to order one or make a donation to the family, please go to Road ID.
You will also get a nifty little keepsake box. =)
For those of you who aren't familiar with Road ID, I urge you to look at their website. They carry various bands that you can customize with your contact information. This is especially great for athletes because there may come a time where you will need help and you are unable to speak for yourself. Whether you are a cyclist that has been run off the road or a runner that has collapsed, your ID will speak for you. Personally I think these are great for children too, in case they get lost. You can either choose to have the information imprinted on the metal plate OR you can make it available online or over the phone. The band will just show the website and a 1-800 number that people can call to get the information....this is great in case you aren't comfortable to with everyone seeing your personal info.

If you are interested in ordering in the next 28 days or so, you can use this coupon code to save $1 on your order: ThanksVikki5704390.

Wouter Weylandt Part 1

Honestly, I can't quite explain why I have been so affected by the tragic accident that happened in Stage 3 at the Giro D'Italia this past Monday. I am feeling saddened and heart-broken for the family and friends of Wouter Weylandt. Sorry and full of sorrow at this life that was cut short so unexpectedly. I have been following cycling for over a decade and there have been losses before this one, but for some reason this one has touched me much deeper.

I have been moved by the out-pouring of love and support that everyone in the cycling community has had for the family, friends and teammates of Wouter. Through this time of mourning one is able to see the raw emotion that people are feeling, which has been heart-wrenching. The tribute ride during Stage 4 was difficult to watch because of emotion that was felt as you watched, from the Bugle playing to that image of Team Leopard and Tyler Farrar crossing the finish line together. Seeing Tyler's face at that moment just broke my heart and wrecked me.

It doesn't make sense because I am simply a fan. I am not related, have never met him and did not follow his career as closely as I have followed other riders. Why does his death seem to tug at my heart-strings and bring me to tears so easily?

The only explanation I can think of is the sense of family that cycling seems to have. I have met fellow fans both in person and over the internet. I have also had the wonderful opportunity to meet several riders, which has been amazing! In the US it's kind of like our own special club because there aren't as many fans as say....basketball or American Football.

I do think that social media, such as Twitter and Facebook have enabled me to form my own group of friends who understand my need to follow this sport. That overwhelming need to wake up at insane hours to watch a race online or read race reports as reported by teams and riders on Twitter. Giggling as I read Tweets that riders make to each other and seeing the respect and support that they have for one another. Twitter has made the riders much more accessible, including pictures of some pretty harsh injuries, road rash and surgeries. Ya gotta love it!

I'm not quite sure why I'm even writing this but....there it is.
RIP Wouter Weylandt. Love and hugs to all those that knew him and to anyone else who has been affected by his death.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's to all the women out there! I hope everyone had a wonderful day today!
I got this nifty little gadget for Mother's Day. I was eyeing it in the Brookstone Catalog and saw it in pink on Amazon so...seeing as it was in pink....it HAD to be added to my wishlist. =)
The Boogie Board is basically a glorified White Board....ummmm, except that it's black. I love it! I wish you could save files and erase specific things as opposed to the entire page , however, I knew it's capabilities ahead of time so I'm happy. I mean c'mon! It's a gadget and it's pink, what's not to love?
This is the case. Works great so far.
For Mother's Day our family went to Mom and Dad Hughes' house for dessert. I decided to make vegan cupcakes. UNHEALTHY yummy vegan cupcakes. It took me twice as long because I accidentally forgot the sugar in the first batch. DOH! I seem to have a problem with leaving out ingredients lately, salt in bread and sugar in cupcakes. They actually didn't taste too bad...basically fluffy biscuits. Because the frosting was made with powdered sugar and orange juice, it was sweet enough to put on the "biscuits". I packed 20 normal cupcakes and 4 frosted fluffy biscuits.

Isn't my carrier cool? We bought it a few years back in a breast cancer awareness display.
NOM!

5/6/2011 Garden Update

We have finally started to plant things in our garden this year. YAY! It all started with my stalking Starbuck's for their coffee grounds. I now have a nice supply to use for our garden this year. I'm hoping that it will help boost our plants this year. We can't make our own compost in Pointe Royale so I am mixing the Coffee grounds with egg shells in 2 small tubs to later use as fertilizer. Mushroom Compost is still our staple that we use for our squash and tomato plants.
As some of you have heard, we had several major storms in our area, which caused a lot of flooding. The second bed in the picture is the one that has our spinach and lettuce. We lost a lot of the spinach and 5 out of 6 of my cabbage plants. Grrrrr
This is the size of the remaining spinach plants as of now. I'm hoping that they will start taking off now that the sun is finally coming out.
Here is a picture of the Mizuna lettuce. It is doing great! This has a slightly bitter taste so I'm not quite sure how we will be using it. I got this as a sample seed and decided to plant it to see how well it would grow. AMAZING how easy it is to grow.
So...this is how the sugar snap peas and the snow peas looked after a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, the rabbits decided to snack on half of the plants. A lot of the plants were eaten down to the ground. I don't think those ones are going to make it. We have since put up chicken wire around the outside of the plants to keep them out.


SO...the plan was to plant everything from seed this year, including the tomatoes. However, the tomatoes will be from Home Depot this year. The seedlings were doing great. Granted, I was 2 weeks behind schedule....but they were growing well. Too bad Kahlan decided that she wanted to taste them. As you can see, she decimated them all. Argggg. Not cool.
This is the Rocky Top Salad Mix. I am loving the variety in this packet. I think we will be harvesting this in the next couple of weeks.
This was a nice surprise that I found today. Apparently my basil seeded from last year! So far the biggest leaves are almost 1/4 inch.

We are planting the tomatoes, squash and herbs tomorrow.