Jason and Mara's 2011 Scrapbook

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Here is the book that we made for Jason and Mara this past Christmas

Marty and Cindy's 2010 Scrapbook

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Shutterfly photo books are the new way to preserve your memories. Create your own today.

This is the book that Adam and I made for Marty and Cindy's family last year. We just finished making one for Jason and Mara. I'll try to remember to post it after the new year....after they have received it. =)

This is how the Hughes Family does spices

Earlier this year our family got a HUGE order of spices....for free. WOOT! I won't go into the details as to how we got these for free ( 'Cuz I don't want to get anyone into any trouble) but needless to say, it was a HUGE value! Everything was delivered to our house and I split everything up amongst the families according to what spices people wanted and the size of their family. A lot of sneezing was involved and our dustbuster still reeks of cumin but...that's ok. =)

The big brown box is full of cumin, BTW. Heh heh.
Adam is allergic to sesame. These are his containers of death.

Turning 38

OK...so this should have been posted on my birthday, July 11th but....well....it wasn't. =)
Above are my fun Sci-Fi gifts that I received. Woot! I love me some Sci-Fi! The Tardis Cookie Jar is from my brother. When the lid is opened, or the light on top is pressed, it makes the whirring Tardis noise. NICE!
The Babylon 5 DVDs are from Adam. Like the geek that I am, it was the only thing that I could think of that I wanted at the time.
It was nice having the family out here for my birthday...even though I am getting old. BOO

Me with Adrienne, my sister-in-law, and my mom.
Me with Adam, the cake I couldn't eat and a non-frosted vegan cupcake that I made so that I could eat something. =)

Soundcheck for Dudu Fisher's Jerusalem

Tuesday I had the honor of attending Dudu Fisher's Soundcheck. When I say "honor", I MEAN honor. He was amazing! If you missed how this came about, click here.

I have never had a chance to go inside the Tri-Lakes Center. WOWZA! Huge theatre! I got there while the band was still setting up their sound. It was definitely a different experience than with our show. Our show's soundchecks are usually a tad louder with a stray child running across the stage, a diaper change, crying baby, etc. =)

Adam was able to join me after the actual sound check started. I was blown away by Dudu's voice. I have only heard his CDs and seen videos so I wasn't completely prepared to hear his voice in person. You know how you can listen to a CD and then you see someone in person and they don't sound quite a good due to editing? NOT the case here. His voice has even more power and emotion in person....and the singing? Spot on. I am hoping that he will be coming back to Branson so that I can see the actual show because I know he had to hold back since he was performing a show right after the sound check. If I was already impressed by what I heard...those high notes are bound to be fantastic!

Adam's parents were able to attend the show and they absolutely loved it. They were moved by his voice and the show. The stories that were shared in the show really added to the show. They said that Dudu had people literally dancing in the aisles at one point. Her favorite "tee hee" moment was when he explained his nickname and how he got it. For those of you that saw the show, it was the comment that the little girl made. I told her that I've always wanted to see him perform "Bring Him Home" in person (they didn't get to that song during the sound check). She loved the way Dudu introduced the song and tied it into his show. I have heard from several people that there wasn't a dry eye in the audience. *sigh* Someday I will hear it. =)
They were shocked when he was thanking all of his staff, family, friends and those that helped him with the show because...well, after those thank yous he thanked our family and introduced the two of them. They weren't expecting that. HA!

I want to thank Dudu and Ilan for giving me the opportunity to come to the soundcheck....again. I will never forget that experience. Thank you also for being so kind and generous. Best Wishes to the both of you and your families.

I won a cookbook!

WAHOOO!!! I am so excited that I won this book from @ChubbyVeganMom on Twitter. She is a fellow Vegan and is always posting fun tweets that will make you smile. Several of the tweets are about her blog posts. If you have never seen her blog, go check it out. It is full of yummy recipes....complete with pictures.

As for the book.... I Can't wait to try some of these recipes. They look YUMMY! This will make a great addition to my HUGE cookbook collection. I'll try to remember to post when I try out recipes from the book. I am sure they will be great from all the reviews that I have read about this book.

Thanks again @ChubbyVeganMom!!!!!

Dudu Fisher performing in Branson!!!

I am SO excited that Dudu Fisher will be performing in Branson! I received an email from a friend of his, Ilan Sharon, informing me about his one night performance in Branson. BRANSON! The man has 5 shows listed for his performance dates and he is coming here of all places. Argentina, Jerusalem, Brazil, New Jersey and..ummmm, Branson.

For those of you who have no idea who Dudu Fisher is, please read my last post about him.

When I first heard about his performance, I knew I would have to attend....then I realized that it was on a Tuesday night. ACK! We have a show on Tuesday nights. Not good. I went through all of the numbers (in my head) that I was in to see if I could somehow get out of the show that night. I could get all of the parts covered except for one, Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat. Argg. It's one of the many new songs that we just added to the Broadway section of our show. Unfortunately there is no way that I can miss that number. I even tried talking to Jason about just missing that number...uhhh, cutting that section for that night? No dice. If that number gets cut, 2 others will have to get cut along with that one, due to costume changes. Needless to say, I was a tad depressed that I would have to miss it... but then something great happened!

I asked Ilan if there was any way at all that I might be able to see a sound check since I couldn't make it to the performance. I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. I knew that there might be others in my family interested too. He later emailed saying that yes, Dudu Fisher said that we could! Wahooo!!

SO! If anyone else wants to see this amazing performer. GO! This is your chance to see him. He will be performing for 1 night only, September the 20th at 7:30 PM. I am attaching a video that has the location and pricing. I encourage you to go see it. Uh, don't let my family know that I said that since I should be encouraging you to see OUR show that night. So Ummm, Go to our show the day before. =)


The venue also has information about Dudu Fisher on their website.

Hwang Family 2011 Photos

This summer we FINALLY took pictures with our entire family (last time Brian was missing). Once again we had Jared and Joanna take our pictures AND......once again...they are beautiful! You can see more of their work on their website. If you live near me and need any family portraits, wedding photos, etc., give them a call!

These pictures were taken at the Wilderness Trail off of Fall Creek Road. You have to hike a little ways but the view is gorgeous out there. There are several trails including one that is made up of a gazillion steps that lead down to the lake. One day Adam and I plan to go down that trail a little after it rains; apparently there is a natural waterfall....but only when there is runoff. Hmmm, maybe we can go this winter after the snow starts to melt. Hmmmm.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from that day. Enjoy!

Watermelon Harvest of 2011

Our watermelon harvest wasn't quite as impressive this year when compared to past years. We were hoping to have our usual 30-40 pound melons but.....it didn't happen. I believe it was due to the insanely hot weather that we had this summer. The vines just kept withering and the fruit just didn't grow as large. On average these melons weighed between 15-20 pounds. =(
Unfortunately, they weren't as sweet either. Normally, about 1 week before we harvest, we stop watering so that the sugars can store up, thus making the melon sweeter. I tried doing that for 1 day but the vines started dying from the heat. Some of them could have used a few more days on the vine but we wanted to pick all of them because some of them had literally split open from the heat. Ah well.....hopefully next year will be better.
Check out our huge hostas in the background.
Sad little watermelons
Prepping the fruit to pass out to the family
Jason and Mara's family
Ryan and Carina's kids
Andy and Becky's kids
Dad
Marty with the kids (Cindy took the pic)

The Gluttonous Bee

I would like to introduce you to our gluttonous bee. I took this picture about 1.5 months ago when our garden was a happy garden. It was healthy and full of squash blossoms each morning. Now.....it's a sad pest-filled garden, but...that's another story.

This is our cute and fuzzy gluttonous bee. Granted, we had a ton of bees at the time but this guy was different.
He spent several minutes inside of this flower and then moved to another. He was COVERED in pollen. He tried to fly away but kept sinking as he flew. I KID YOU NOT!
He finally gave up and landed on this leaf.
He then proceeded to rub off some of the pollen from his hind legs. You can see some of the pollen in the picture, as well as his legs at work.
Liftoff!!! I tried to get video of him flying off but it didn't come out. He looked like a drunk bee as he flew off. He kind of went side to side whilst dipping down a few inches from the weight of the pollen.