Yikes, it's been a week!

All is well--except for Stacey's boredom with my blog. :( I have been busy and just haven't taken the time to post. I've been busy drawing for my journal, researching my family history, making a scrapbook and well just hanging out. Last night, I was able to finish my scrapbook, including all the "outings" since May, except for my visit with Stacey, which I would have scrapbooked if our photos were any good! But I was able to get my trip to Worlds of Fun with the Truman kids, my outing with my niece, Madison, and my sister-in-law, Rachel, to see Wicked in KC, which was FANTABULOUS! I love musicals, but this one topped all I've seen. Of course, I had an invested interest in this since the Wizard of Oz is my favorite movie ever. I also got my trip to see my dad in Branson and the trip to Colorado. I have friends who have buckets full of photos still to be scrapped, but I cannot wait that long! It's like when I get back from a trip before I ever return to my house, I go to Walgreen's and drop off my photos to be processed, so that by the time I've unpacked my car, I can go back and see the wonderful things belonging to the memories of my trip!
In addition, I've been researching my Chapman family tree. My grandma has really been pushing for me to get finished with this. I received the REVOLUTIONARY WAR pension packet for Edmund Chapman, my great, great, great, great grandfather, back in December, and I've been waiting for this summer to sit down and just put it all together. Next week, I'll be taking a trip to the middle of the state to read through court records, hoping to find more info. I so love doing this research. It's addictive.
So today, I did that, and then I made a huge dinner for Eric, his two kids, and my baby (mind you he's almost 20!!). I actually made homemade pie crust (I used Crisco, good lord, can you believe it! Well, the vegetable shortening, not the lard that the actual recipe called for.). The dish is called Russian Pie, and is like a beef potpie, but better. Of course I made one that was non-meat for me, and guess what, just like always, everyone like the non-meat one better! For years, my co-workers have ordered vegetarian lasange and cheese pizza for large parties, and it NEVER fails that I only get one small piece of the "pie", and every one who is a meat eater eats all the veggie stuff! No fair. I never get seconds or left overs....not that I need them, but...so many people give me grief for eating non-meat items and then they are the ones who eat them up!
Oh, I almost forgot, I made a cool little "carrier" for the 4th. On our trip, when we visited Buck Snort, there was a cute little container of salt and pepper, etc. They had taken the plastic beer bottles, cleaned them out and used them as salt and pepper shakers. Then, they also used the six-pack container to carry these around. I thought they were cute, but could be better. I took the same idea, but I covered a six-pack container with photos from our trip. I'll use this to hold the plastic forks and knives and napkins on the 4th, while we are on the deck, cooking out. Cute, huh? What do you think Stace?