"Someday my Prince will come"... a love story that will last forever

"Someday my Prince will Come"

a love story that will last FOREVER

A long time ago, in a quiet country town,

a beautiful little princess was born.

She had skin as fair as snow covered mountains, long delicate fingers and cute chubby legs.

Her head was covered with thick chocolate brown hair and

her bright sparkly eyes and an infectious smile lit up the entire kingdom.

Her life was simple while she was small, as her every need was cared for.

She spent many hours, both day and night, dreaming of the day her handsome prince

would find her and capture her heart.

She dreamt of him whisking her away to a majestic castle somewhere high upon a hill

where they would be married for time and all eternity.

Princess "Kimberly Kay Crazy Mabelle Susabella Wilkerson",

was was no ordinary little princess though...

she lived amongst the common folk. She played just like all of the other small children-

crawling through long blades of grass on hot summer days,

throwing dirt up toward the sky just to watch it fall back

down onto her locks of curly red hair

(yes, her chocolate brown hair turned into a beautiful shade of auburn red),

and eating anything that crawled close to her chubby little hands...even large black stink bugs.

Yes, she was a cheerful little girl and found happiness in every experience that she had.

One of Princess Kimber's favorite past times, was to laugh. Maybe it was because she was

always so happy or maybe it was because she found life funny,

whatever the case, the little princess smiled and laughed....almost continually!

She giggled when someone would pass

her by, she snickered as she carefully watched her toes wiggle,

and she laughed happily when her mother dressed her in her fancy clothing.

Her smile and laugh lit up the lives of all the townsfolk in her humble little village and left

many of them feeling like the world was a better place because she was in it.

As Princess Kimber grew up, she was taught some of the simple things she

would need to know in order to marry a prince.

One of the first things she was learned was how to feed a one.

The best way she found to feed a handsome prince was with her hands.

She also learned that a hungry prince would eat just about anything...

even if it was smashed up gooey cake...

in fact, she found that smashed gooey cake just happened to be one of a prince's favorite foods.

It was proven, by the fact that prince's would come from far and wide,

kneel at her feet and beg for this delectable creation of hers.

She also learned that drooling was acceptable behavior when you were in the presence of a

prince. In fact it meant that you thought they were charming and handsome, and drooling was actually encouraged...as to let them know you would like to get to know them better.

Princess Kimber practiced her drooling skills frequently and even learned to blow

bubbles while she was drooling...

a skill she thought would really come in handy when she was trying to impress a young suitor.

Our little princess loved to hear stories of young stalwart prince's riding in royal green carriages, plowing through mounds of dirt. She got so excited when we got to the part of the story where

the prince crept into the tall fields of corn in the dead of night

to chase away pesky raccoon's with his long shiny sword.

But her favorite part of the story was when the young prince took his fair maiden into the blossoming alfalfa field for a royal picnic (because she knew this was the part where the prince

kisses the princess), her eyes would light up and her mouth would open wide with complete excitment, as we got to the part about the magical kiss...she loved that part and wanted us to read it over and over.

She couldn't wait for the day when she would get to kiss her prince charming.

The years passed by quickly as Princess Kimberly Kay Crazy Mabelle Susabella Wilkerson started to grow up. She learned to be a lady and even took a young prince under her wing...and taught him the ways of royalty. She and her young prince (brother) became quite close

and competed in many "royal contests"...contests like, how to make the best cookies (you know, to win the royal baking contest), the "weed pulling" contest to see who's garden spot could stay the most "weed free" and the raspberry picking contest to see who could fill their bucket the fullest...all of which helped Princess Kimber become a hard worker...something that would sure play a part in her winning the heart of a handsome prince.

Princess Kimber was no ordinary princess...she loved the outdoors and doing anything

the "prince's" would do. She loved fishing in the crystal clear lakes, driving royal carriages and doing anything to get her delicate" lady like hands", dirty.

She loved to attend royal sporting events held all over the land. After all, she was

one of the biggest fans of her charming prince brother who played on many of the teams.

The day that Princess Kimber had planned and prepared for her entire life, finally arrived.

She packed up her regal carriage, left her family and

the royal nest, to make her way in the land.

She attended several of the finest schools and studied to be a Noble Nurse.

After all, it was her passion to help others and

bring smiles to sick people in villages far and near.

But her life wasn't all about work and studies...

she spent time prowling around, looking for "Prince Charming" as well......

Sometimes when she would leave the majestic manor where she resided,

she would go in disguise, as to search out for

her handsome young prince without being noticed.

....and other times she went out as the "Princess" herself to meet the many

young suitors that came calling.

After searching for quite sometime, but coming up empty handed, the princess started to plan her life as though prince charming may never appear...THEN ONE DAY,

a handsome young prince came galloping up on his red horse (yes, he had a red horse),

Princess Kimber took a step back and re-thought her life that she had so carefully planned.

She started to spend a considerable amount of time

with this fine gentleman and quickly began to feel as though she had

met the man of her dreams.

She was sure he was the prince she dream't about for 20 years, the

one she had heard about in the stories that her mother used to tell her...

he was the perfect prince in every way.

Prince Michael and Princess Kimber spent hours talking,

laughing and driving around the countryside.

They played in the snow, walked the cobble stone paths of the village, rode in his royal green carriage and upon his grand red stallion...

it didn't matter what they did, as long as they did it together they were happy!

THEN it happened...the magical day every princess awaits for...

The day that her Prince Charming asks her to be his Princess FOREVER!

Prince Michael prepared the royal staircase of the exquisite castle,

for the surprise arrival of his fair maiden, Princess Kimber.

He carefully laid out a bed of roses as to capture her attention at the top of the stairs....

The princess arrived to find her handsome prince at the top of a long flight of stairs.

She gracefully galloped up the lofty steps to find

Prince Michael down on one knee.

It was then that he asked if she, Princess Kimberly Kay Crazy Mabelle Susabella Wilkerson, would

become his wife, for time and for all eternity~

Her eyes began to glisten as she fought back tears of excitement, happiness and

pure love that she had for the prince, her knight in royal armor, Prince Michael.

THEN it came... the magical kiss the princess had waited her entire life...it wasn't in a

blossoming alfalfa field but on the steps of the most beautiful castle she had ever seen, which made it even better.

Prince Michael and Princess Kimber couldn't have been any happier than they were at that very moment.

The years of searching high and low for one another were over,

Prince Michael and Princess Kimber were going to tie the knot!

And so it will be...

this young dashing prince and his stunning princess are going to become husband and wife

at a beautiful spring wedding...in a castle high upon a hillside...

where they will begin their life as one,

FOR TIME AND FOR ALL ETERNITY...

living HAPPILY EVER AFTER!

THE END~

*YES, our daughter REALLY HAS met the man of her dream and REALLY IS getting married.

We couldn't be happier. Mike is a wonderful man and we already love him with all of our hearts.

Congratulations Kim and Mike!!! WE LOVE YOU!

Antique?

I love "old" things...I have always had a fetish for antique's and things with a history. My decorating tastes tend to lean toward the "vintage" feel, although I have very few "real vintage" things...I just make/create things that "look" old, but aren't (someday if I ever have dollars to spare, I would love to collect antiques and decorate my house with them). I have a few things that I've inherited from my grandparents and I always like to share the story behind them with my kids...mainly because I want them to pass on the history of this stuff as it gets passed down from generation to generation...WITH THAT BEING SAID, the other day I was pulling dishes out of the cupboard and I told one of my children that this particular dish was something that I received from my grandpa when Deron and I were married. They said, in pure innocence and being as serious as ever, "Wow!!! So its an antique???".....UH NO, I'm not that old!!!! It's not an antique!!

Oh the FuNNy things kid's say!!!

MY MAN of Honor~

Last weekend was our Region Wrestling Tournament in Randolph. Its a LONG way from home, so we drove to Evanston the day before and spent the night so we could cut out some of the EARLY morning driving time. We arrived to find the team warming up and ready to RUMBLE!

***I don't have the best of camera's for taking

pictures inside a large gym...

so pardon the blurry and not so great pictures***

Cam's first match was a "bye", but his second match was against

a young man (I referred to him as a MOOSE because he was so BIG)

from Rich high school. He outweighed Cam by 43 lbs!!!

But that didn't stop Cam...he got right in there for the fight!

Watching Cam wrestle is both exciting and scary...exciting because he's so strong

and able to do things that he's worked years to be able to do,

scary because wrestlers get hurt all the time being put into positions

that the body just isn't supposed to be in! Cam out wrestled his Rich opponent

and pinned him, winning the match!!

BUT...as Cam got up from pinning his man, the Rich young man continued to lay there~

in obvious pain, excruciating pain. I could tell Cam's excitement for his huge win

was quickly replaced by concern and friendship for his opponent.

He got down on one knee as a way to show respect and love for

one of the team. AT that very moment I felt so proud (but not in an arrogant way) of my boy-

what a wonderful, HONORABLE YOUNG MAN I HAVE AS MY SON!

He could have been out on the mat jumping up and down celebrating his win...

but instead, his heart was with his friend.

Cameron genuinely cares about this young man and was worried about what had

happened to him. He IS MY HERO!

Cameron went and found his Rich High School opponent after he was taken from the mat,

to check on him and let him know he was worried about him and hoped he was going to be alright.

(not sure what was wrong. He injured his knee really bad, the Dr.s weren't exactly what he had done to it. The

young man told Cam that he heard and felt, something pop or tear, but he wasn't

sure just what it was. He wasn't putting much pressure on that leg...and he was going to go have it looked at later that evening, but he went on to wrestle his next

match, in excruciating pain, but ended up winning and placing 3rd at Region)

The young man and Cam gave each other a BIG BEAR HUG as they left the gym that night!

Cam is a tough opponent, but off the mat his is a very thoughtful, kind and gentle boy!

Cam's wrestled for the Championship against a young man from Altamont.

It was an extremely tense match and went right to the wire...he fought with every ounce of his body and never gave up...Cam ended up losing BUT he

stayed right with his opponant and wrestled an outstanding match!

He placed 2nd at Region!!!

What a great accomplishment for an amazing guy!

State is this next weekend and we are excited to see how he does!

Good Luck Cam!!!

WE LOVE YOU!

Freak of "NaturE"

Clementine's are in season and I've been taking full advantage of this plentiful gift from nature, buying bags and bags of them. I've eaten my share, as well as everyone else's. They are so sweet and tiny that I can't help but eat one right after another. The other day I was craving one of these delicious little bundles of joy and started to peel one, only to find inside, that it was missing some of its orange segments...probably close to 4 or 5...the peeling had grown around as if they were there...but they clearly weren't...it was a little STRANGE!

It's hard to tell...but this little orange is only "partly" there.....

It's just one of those "Freak of Nature" kind of things......

StuCK in a RuT~

It seems that my New Year's GOALS have already taken a nose dive....ONE of my most "looked forward" to goals this year was to "do something fun" as a family at LEAST once a month, and take pictures. If you follow my blog...you will notice...I've kind of been lacking on the "fun and entertainment" side of that goal (no pictures, nothing happening). When I set that particular goal, the object was to PLAN something exciting and fun and then spend time together as a family doing it...example: go to the movie, go the rec center, go for a drive somewhere warm, play games...you know, the normal (whatever normal is) kind of things. NONE of the above or anything of that kind, has happened at our house...Blahhhh!! We've been just doing the same ol' things pretty much day in and day out.....makes for a bit of a dull winter (which was what I was hoping to avoid!). Its hard planning and doing things when Cameron doesn't get out of practice until late, when we've all had long, tiring days and the weekends seemed to be filled with the last of the wrestling hoopla....maybe in a few weeks, when its all over, I will plan something that we can do to get us out of this rut and salvage my NEW YEAR'S GOAL (I will make that my NEW goal).

Even though winter in my little neck of the woods, has been dull and lacking in the "excitment" category, I've been trying all kinds of new recipes out (and making up a few of my own) to post on my recipe blog HERE . Most have been great success...although, there have been a few "NOT so great SUCCESSES" (but you won't ever see those, I keep all the failures "under wrap" NO since in "airing my dirty laundry") as well...sometimes things just don't turn out as good as the picture makes them look...other times they turn out better...I guess, you win some-you lose some!

Here are a few recipes that will be coming up soon~

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcake....LoVE

SINFUL Butterfinger Cupcakes....TOTALLY and completely sinful

Cheesy Chicken Taco Soup (woo hoo, one of my own creations)

and

Pizza Panini's...tastes like PIZZA on a sandwich...cool stuff!

Those are just a "few" of my fav's!

I was thinking the other day, since starting our recipe blog a few years back, my family rarely eats the same thing twice (other than leftovers) for months...as I'm always trying new things so that I have recipes to post. They don't seem to mind...but there are some days when I miss the simpleness of "taco's" and "spaghetti" 2-3x a week (which is the reason we started betterthanburgers.net so that I actually had to step out of my comfort zone...AND COOK)...I never had to look for a recipe, I just grabbed a bag of taco shells or box of noodles, fried up some meat, grated a little cheese and dinner was served...and often on a paper plate (now you see why that looks so appealing?)...as easy as that was/is, I love that I have so many fun new things to serve for dinner, so many choices and we NEVER get in a rut when it comes to eating/cooking...I could never go back to the "old" way of cooking, even though it was easier at times...it was very DULL! I like the challenge of finding new things my family will eat, making up my own yummy new creations and fixing QUICK meals that don't consist of the "same ol' thing" day in and day out. Through all this trial and error, fun and not so fun, successes and flops, I've discovered....I REALLY ENJOY COOKING (CLEANING UP my mess, is NOT included in the "enjoy" part of that thought). Although, as much as I enjoy cooking...its NOT entertaining...so I hope to get out of our RUT of "dull and boring" and do something fun as a family during this month of February...now that I've said that, maybe I will be more inclined to MAKE IT HAPPEN!

The END~

It's always a let down when things you've enjoyed and done for so long come to an end. Cam just had his last home wrestling match...the last one of the season, but the VERY LAST for him...since he's a senior, he will now be moving on to bigger things. Its been so much fun to watch him over the years as he has progressed and improved and become a fierce competitor. He's thoroughly loved his wrestling years, his coaches and many friends. Having his wrestling days come to an end is going to be very hard. He's a great young man and I can't wait to see what the future holds for him!

Betcha can't see Cam in that circle can ya?....I'll give you a hint as to where to find him,

he's the one STANDING A HEAD above everyone else.

Out warming up with the guys~

At the last home match, the parents always get something for the seniors...this year it was a really nice poster of each wrestler...pretty cool!

Cam is excited to compete at Region in a few weeks and then on to his last and final State Tournament! He's worked so hard and we can't wait to see how he does...no worries, I will keep you posted.