Miscellaneous

Last Day of School!

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So today is my kids Last Day of School and tomorrow will be first day of summer vacation! Three months of freedom until school is back in session…

Last Day of School!

This summer will be BUSY! On Monday we leave for a much needed vacation to Santa Cruz, California. Beach, sand and sun for a few days! I am counting the minutes!

The middle of June I am having a Girl Scout campout in my backyard. I am quite excited and can’t wait!

At the end of June, beginning of July my husband and I will be in Washington D.C. for a conference and staying extra days to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary. I hear the fireworks display for the fourth of July is spectacular!

Then you have July. It is just packed to the brim… my daughter will be attending Girl Scout Camp. We’ll be working on our roof. Making all the repairs to it from when we had that massive wind storm back in February. We also have our 6-month dentist appoints squeezed in there as well.

Then towards the end of July the kids and I head down to my parent’s house for 12 days. And a week later the kids are back in school!

Anyhow, in about 2.5 hours summer begins at the Armstrong house and we will be taking it on by storm!!

Geocaching.com is celebrating 15 years!

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Into the Blind Geocache

I can say over the last 15 years I have had a blast Geocaching with my husband, but have had more fun over the last several years Geocaching with my kids!

My husband and I are polar opposites with practically everything and butt heads because if it. But one thing that we love to do together is Geocaching. When Geocaching first came out 15 years ago we jumped on the bandwagon and tried it out. I will say we were instantly hooked. The only problem was my husband nor I officially became a member. We geocached, but never logged our finds. So to this day I have no true idea of how many caches we have actually found.

We found many caches in our area over a 5 year period and then took about 5 or so years off due to having our kids and literally forgot about geocaching. I have no idea who suggested trying Geocaching with the kids, but my husband and I were definitely ready to get back in the groove again. And to our surprise our children thoroughly loved it and ask to Geocache all the time.

Geocaching is a great exercise too. You are either hiking or climbing to get to your cache — so it is all around a good past-time for the family.

So you ask what is Geocaching. Well Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices – we orginally used a GPS unit, but now only use our cell-phones with apps. People navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache which is some kind of container hidden at that location.

Anyhow, last weekend we went Geocaching for “Into the Blind” and literally had to climb a rock formation that made me worry if a kid slipped it would be the last I’d see them. However, they were like monkeys and proved me wrong.

Into the Blind Geocache

Into the Blind Geocache

Into the Blind Geocache

Nevertheless, it was a tremendous workout and a lot of fun (after the worry faded).

And you know what? May 2nd marks the 15th anniversary for Geocaching.com!! This weekend be it by yourself, with friends or even with your family JUST get out there and FIND what treasures are hidden in your area!

My travels to Maui, Hawaii

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In preping for my trip I was reading through pages and pages of Maui travel guides searching many hours away looking at where and what to do via other peoples posts on Pinterest. I even went as far as to borrow Maui travel books from my local library because I love being prepared activity-wise when I am on vacation.

What it didn’t say is that if you grew up in California, you will probably feel like you are in San Diego or Santa Cruz while on the West Shore of Maui though. I won’t lie….. I was a little disappointed with the West Shore of Lahaina for that very fact… that was until we actually started getting out and participating in fun activities. And of course all activities that we wanted to partake in were practically all on the North Shore. Which meant a rental car was a must have.

Of all the days/nights we were in Lahaina, I only visited the beach in front of our hotel once. And that was to see the sunset. At that time I called my kids to say I missed and loved them and that I would see them in a week. From there on out I decided I was going to have fun no matter what and make the best of my vacation.

Sunset Sunset2

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Getting ready for Maui

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Right now my husband and I are getting ready for a trip to Maui on Monday.

I literally haven’t been to Hawaii in 22 years (am I dating myself?) and my husband has unfortunately never been. So needless to say this will be a vey nice get away for the both of us. Especially on the heels of our town having had such bad weather over the last several months. And all of us recovering from all our sicknesses.

I have in my anal ways researched the heck out of Maui by emailing as well as Facebook PM-ing different restaurants. I can’t help myself. I need or want information on where I can happily eat gluten free meals instead of blindly searching once we get there. And of course I have my heart desires on Zipling, Snorkeling, Whale Watching and attending a Luau… of course not in that order. But you get the idea. Anyhow, hopefully we’ll have time to do all that and maybe hit the sandy beaches as well.

Nevertheless, I will be posting many reviews of our week long excursion so I hope I don’t go overboard with the photos.

Mahalo

~ Michele

Fat Tuesday

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I have a nice crockpot of Gluten Free Gumbo brewing. Might even make some hurricane’s for when my husband gets home. I so can’t wait for dinner tonight. Nevertheless, I will be posting the recipe tomorrow if not sometime tonight.

Then tomorrow the ritual of fasting begins for Lent.

But for now “Laissez les bons temps rouler,” (Let the good times roll) until then….

Happy Mardi Gras | Small Town Living in Nevada

So much that has gone on since Friday

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I have been planning a birthday party for my two sons. Their birthdays are 5 days apart so every year since the youngest has been one, the boys have been having a combo-birthday together. This year they were celebrating 6 years old and 4 years old  birthdays together. I know eventually they will want separate birthdays but for now I like combining the two together.

Unfortunately, we had a storm hit us on Friday – the night before the party. This storm was worse than the one that hit us in December. Weird thing is — our area has never experienced such destruction like this ever from windstorms or rain prior to the December Windstorm.

This time — our Trampoline that takes several adults to lift to move was flung by the 90 mph winds like it was a feather. Our neighbors tree was uprooted and toppled over nearly missing our fence. Our tent trailer’s roof popped open and my father and I were out in the gust for nearly 30 minutes trying to get the roof down and latched. And then another 15+ minutes trying to gather up the chickens and put them in the coop and praying the coop wouldn’t blow over. Then while I was gathering the chickens my father yells, “The Shed!!” I turn around and our shed that the ATV was in blew over and teetered upside down and almost over the fence into our other neighbors yard. And of course, now I have been suffering with massive sinus congestion and a stuffed up nose since being in the wind. And I was just starting to feel better after being sick for 6 weeks with bronchitis.

IMG_0210 IMG_0212

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With love from Germany

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So a dear friend of mine who is in the Air Force living in Germany sent me a wonderful care package — and I can’t express how much I love the basket… and of course all the yummy chocolates and everything that was inside the basket!

THANK YOU MY DEAR FRIEND ERIKA!!

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Girl Scouts add two new gluten-free cookies to its 2015 line up

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The Girl Scouts have added two new gluten-free cookies to its 2015 line up. These new cookies, Toffee-tastic and Trios, are the third time gluten-free cookies have been offered by the organization. Each cookie is being sold in different marketing areas. Here in our small town my daughter is selling the Trios gluten-free cookies for $5 per box (price varies depending on marketing area). They can be pre-ordered through door-to-door sales, purchased through our online ordering or next month at a local cookie booths near you.

Toffee-tastic (rich, buttery cookies with sweet, crunchy, golden toffee bits) and Trios (Chocolate chips nestled in a gluten free peanut butter oatmeal cookie) are made in dedicated gluten-free facilities. These cookies do not contain any artificial colors or flavors, high-fructose corn syrup, palm oil, or even hydrogenated oils. Trios Gluten-Free Cookie

Toffee-tastic and Trios are made and certified by two different companies: Toffee-tastic cookies are made by Little Brownie Bakers and certified by the NSF, while Trios are made by ABC Bakers and certified by the Gluten Free Certification Organization.

If you are local here in Gardnerville, Trios and their long time standard cookies can be purchased locally or you can place an online order through an e-card invite. If you aren’t local I suggest you find a Girl Scout (like my daughter) and purchase a box or two since each Troop benefits from your purchase. And of course if you don’t want the cookies yourself, you can always donate boxes to be sent overseas to the military troops as well. Either way help a Troop out and purchase a box or two.

Taking a look at GFF, A New Gluten-Free Food Magazine Based out of San Francisco

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It isn’t very often you come across a great magazine, but even rarer a gluten-free magazine at that. I was really intrigued what this magazine would or could even offer. I contacted GFF’s Editor Erika Lenkert to see if I could get my hands on a copy and possibly see what their magazine was all about. And I can actually say I was really impressed by their content, pictures and that GFF stands for Gluten-Free Forever…

GFF is a quarterly magazine for anyone that is interested in a gluten-free lifestyle that includes recipes, gluten-free food reviews, gluten-free travel destinations, cooking tutorials to basically everything in between. The photography on their pages are gorgeous and eye catching, the ads are gluten-free which is refreshing to see, and their gluten-free articles are written so exquisitely that you can’t help to be drawn in. And while GFF is aimed at a widespread audience, their first issue is filled with Bay Area-ites such as chefs Lena Kwak, Niki Ford in addition to Craig and Annie Stoll.

And lastly I love that this magazine is based out of San Francisco – just a hop, skip and a jump from where I grew up in the Bay Area — so it feels a little bit like home.

If you are interested in getting yourself a copy, GFF offeres delivery to your door or desktop with a one-year print or downloadable PDF subscription at: http://gffmag.com/subscriptions

GFF Magazine

*** Disclaimer: I received a PDF copy for free from GFF. I am not required to write a positive review. And all opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

My iPad screen is shattered….

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OMG — my youngest son dropped my iPad face down onto the tile while we all were at the Dentist office this morning and Shattered the screen!!! I even cut my finger on the glass when I touched it!!! I am devastated I use it for everything including for selling my daughter’s girl Scout cookies on their cookie app. And I don’t have the extra cash to fix it. But will have to suck it up and get it fixed nevertheless, AGH!!!

Shattered iPad Screen