My favorite Sony Cybershot W55 camera died on the 4th of July. The button you use to take pictures broke off and since it was attached with plastic, it couldn't be repaired. Sigh... it gave me a good 4 years out of it though and took a beating since I had dropped it a few times over the years...

I ordered another Sony Cybershot on Amazon.com. I got the W570 with 16.1 MP for $149.00 on Amazon last week. The macro on Sony cameras is one thing I really love about them, since I love taking up close photographs of flowers, pets, food, etc. The focus is great. The low lighting photos are also amazing on this new camera. One shot I took of Aspen was actually in a dark part of his cage, but it turned out perfectly, not washed out with the flash at all! Love it!

Aspen

Olive

Clover & Honey

Iris

Other News:

F.B. has an interview for Amazon.com on Friday! It's for their shipment facility in Allentown, PA. So pray and keep your fingers crossed that all goes well! We are also going to the DMV one day so he can apply for his PA drivers permit.

I was also told today we will probably be getting furloughed from work by the end of July and not getting recalled until January. So good and bad news.

I have two vacation days on the 15th and 18th, so we are thinking about going to Hershey Park one day this weekend! I've always wanted to go!


(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a book or music when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)

F.B. and I headed up to Peddler's Village yesterday evening to watch a fireworks show for their Independence Day celebration. It was mobbed with people, I've never seen so many people at Peddler's Village before. The fireworks lasted around 20 minutes. It was terrible getting out afterwards though. It took us an hour to get back on the road we needed to get home. We ate dinner around 11:30pm at the Eagle Diner. We didn't get home until 12:30am or so.

Video of the Fireworks, sadly after only 2 seconds my camera said it ran out of memory for an HD video, lol.



Some cute stuff I picked up at Peddler's Village. I got an owl coin purse and owl earrings. (Putting the earring charms on a necklace chain though.) And a rattie cookie cutter! (Cell phone pic!)

Pretty Flowers at Peddler's Village:


A few weeks ago Kohl's had a great sale early bird sale. I got a 17 piece blender/smoothie kit for $19.99 plus 20% off when I used my Kohl's card! I love it, I've been making fresh fruit smoothies for breakfast every morning, making iced frapp's, and icy drinks. It's awesome! I even ordered my cousin one for her birthday. (Sadly, it's back to it's $49.99 price now.)


I also got a great sale price on a Land's End tote bag last week! I've always wanted one, they are so sturdy and nice. I got an aqua blue/white tote with my initials for $19.99.


My adorable rattie/mice pins, I found on Etsy and put on my tote bag:

My beautiful Ivy girl passed away today. She had a tumor and I think it had begun to block things so she couldn't go to the bathroom... she got very sick last night and by this afternoon she passed away. Her nickname was "Cream Puff", because when she was younger she was so squishy & round. Ivy won a photo contest once for Jen's Custom Crafts. She will definitely be missed, she had such a spunky attitude. ♥♥♥

I finished both of these books over the weekend. Both are really good, I'm starting to reread them again.

1. Sisterhood Everlasting- Ann Brashares









 2. Room- Emma Donoghue









(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a book or music when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)
 

It's a nice sunny Saturday and not too hot so F.B. & I headed to Pennypack Park this morning and took Curry & Aspen my two new boys to the park with us. We got lot's of pictures!

Curry

Aspen

Aspen

Curry

Curry

Aspen

 We got Starbucks after the park. I don't get to have Starbucks so often anymore because there really isn't one very close to where I work anymore. *Sad Face* (Hint Starbucks put one in 30th Street Station! 19th street is too far!) We tried the new Coconut Mocha Frappucino and OMG... it is AMAZING! It tastes like chocolate coconut and it has toasted coconut on top. Mmmm!

I won a free hardcover Shutterfly Photobook from Shannon at Misguided Mommy last month! I just got around to organizing the photos I wanted and it arrived the other day. It's really nice! I decided to put together a small wedding album for my prize.

These are just some of the photos:


 Thanks Shannon!

It's my 3 day Memorial Day weekend! F.B. & I headed down to Center City Philadelphia today so we could visit the Mutter Museum and the Academy of Natural Sciences! We got off at 30th Street Station and walked to the Mutter Museum first, we went early because it's such a hot weekend. It was around 84 degrees (It will be in the upper 90's on Memorial Day, yuck!) I had to put sunscreen on because it was so sunny and hot today.

30th Street Station

After the Mutter we walked down Market Street to 19th Street and headed straight down to the Academy of Natural Sciences. We got to see Logan Square and the big fountain they have there. There's also a great view of the Philadelphia Museum of Art from the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. I've never actually gotten to stop here, so it was nice to be a tourist in my own city and take pictures!






Afterwards we went to the Academy of Natural Sciences, which I've been too many many times on class trips and family trips. It's one of my favorite museums.

F.B. with a dinosaur skull!

We were planning on going to The Gallery and Reading Terminal Market but because it was so hot and I had a bad headache we decided to make that another day trip sometime soon. We took the train back home and headed to Friendly's for lunch. We shared a Reece's Pieces sundae for dessert.

Heading home on the train

I also won this psychedelic shark from the crane machine at Friendly's on the first try! Whoo hoo! My Dad has always been really good at winning stuffed animals from those machines and I've won quite a few times as well, though it's been awhile since I last played!

I was Walmart one day and stumbled upon Wanda E. Brunstetter's books. I like that there's more than one story in every book. So it's like having 3-4 books in one. She writes about young Amish woman. If you like historical fiction books, you will probably like these books as well. Some are drama, some are romance, etc.

These are the ones I own:














































(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a book or music when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)

I made a lemon layer cake today, but sadly I peeked in the oven before it was done and as I was looking the air went out of each cake like a balloon. So my poor cakes had a flat middle on each layer... My Mom made up a saying, "Let baking cakes be..." and it's true, lol!

I never saw such a sad pitiful looking cake!!! As soon as we cut it, it collapsed in on itself! :-(

I had a hard time finding a recipe for a lemon cake, all of them had 3 layers or more. So I decided to take the cake recipe from The Pioneer Woman's coffee cake- literally, and replace the coffee in the cake and icing with fresh lemon juice and lemon zest. It tasted amazing, it just didn't look too pretty!

Replace the coffee in the cake and icing recipe with:

• 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Hopefully your lemon cake will look better than mine!

F.B. also got me a really nice heavy duty metal meat tenderizer from Walmart. It's awesome! (It's great for taking out stress/life frustrations when cooking too, lol!) I'm making beef with onion and mushrooms fried up in a pan tonight and served with mashed potatoes and peas. (Last time we tried it with steak strips).

I tenderized the beef, cut it in small pieces and then I'm letting it soak in a marinade I make myself. I don't have exact measurements. I think less than 1/4 cup for everything, I just add as I go along. My steak marinade has:

• Little bit of water 
• Olive oil
• Soy Sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• Brown sugar
• Teaspoon fresh garlic 
• Montreal Steak Seasoning

Then after tenderizing your steak, let it marinate several hours or overnight before cooking.

I had been a part of the Rat Chatter forums for almost 4 years. I joined back in October 2007 when I got my first two pet rats Sugar & Spice. Eventually, I became a moderator and got to work with a lot of amazing people, like Brittney from Star's Rat Rescue.

Sadly and unexpectedly the Rat Chatter Forums closed on May 5th, 2011. We have still not heard from our good friends that ran and owned the forums and we hope they are alright.

I mentioned to Brittney it would be a good idea to start a forum for her rat rescue, somewhere to connect with adopters and our friends from the RC forums who we had gotten to know over the past 4 years. It took a few days, but the Star's Rat Rescue forum is now up and running. So rattie lovers and SRR Adopters are welcome to join us over at the new forum!