golden ruler cookie favors

well school's in full swing over here.

and for some, school hasn't even started yet. (lucky ducks!)

anyway, thought i'd share a school treat 

that i made for a bunch of my school nurse buddies 

and my students as well.

it's to get them on the straight and narrow path to a successful school year or whatever. lol

here goes:

they are super simple to make using the 

ready made cookie dough and they actually taste 

pretty good to boot.

here's the lo down:

carefully place the individual bars on a cooling rack 

as shown below and continue on with the steps as shown.

ok so now that they're bagged, 

let's add some fun embellishments.

get the ruler printable by Mique HERE.

next up are apple pom poms.

you'll need to fluff the apples. 

one $3 garland at target's dollar spot gives about 14 apples.

then tie those cookie bags up with the pom pom apple and the printable and you are surely a head of the class.

ok you got an A+++ and have reached your goal so class is dismissed and you may now have another summer break.

WHOA! 

now that's what i call a great school year...

if only school were that easy!

an epic cross country summer road trip

 holy schmoly.

this post took me 

F.O.R.E.V.E.R.

to make.

but i think it will explain my month or so absence this summer, and hopefully you will 

enjoy my cross country trip that we took this summer

with NO reservations

anywhere.

i know! crazy right?

and it's even crazier that we as a family survived 24/7 

for 28 days in a row

which was how long we were gone for vacation.

see, my daughter will be 18 soon,

 and knowing that may put a big change in the family future summer plans, 

my hubby proposed we take an epic summer trip.

so here goes a LOOOOONG drawn out detailed scenario of the stops we made, starting with a couple screenshots of our 7513 mile trip...

STOP 1. TEXAS

driving thru Texas was a 2 day event after we stopped at crestview, fl from home. 

in texas we stopped at Tyler, Amarillo, and Dallas.

holy cow there were a ton of very interesting and fun stops in Texas. including a crazy dinner and lunch spot and some cars stuck in the road, literally.

the big texan was a place you could eat 

a 72 ounce steak for free.

only if you ate it under an hour...

otherwise you'd have to pay for it.

and no, we did not order it, cuz if we did, 

we would still be chewing.

dang that's a lotta cow to swallow 

but some crazies did manage to do it.

in dallas,

there was this place called truck yard and oh my goodness i was in photography heaven.

it was an outdoor place that was super eclectic i could barely sit still to eat.

click click click click 

was all you could hear from me.

we also went to the dallas cowboys at & t stadium that my son and hubby were enjoying and me and my daughter were suffering. lol 

(we're not exactly football fans)

for the next stop, 

my son LOVED this place especially 

after he found a spray paint can that 

wasn't empty after checking, oh about a hundred or so of them scattered everywhere.

he was happy as a lark painting his name on every car.

i am 1000% sure his name was already spray painted over by that afternoon.

i think these cars may actually still be standing due to 

the layers upon layers of spray paint holding them up.

they sure are cooool though!

after leaving texas, we stayed at the beautiful town of flagstaff, az for a quick overnite stay since we got there after dinner 

then headed up to page, arizona for my hubby's bday celebration on the colorado river.

living in flat boring florida made this day surreal.

STOP 2. COLORADO

then we did this, again...

our bodies were in pretzel positions cuz that's how you have to position yourself 

when you are driving nonstop and haven't seen a bed in a while.

my hubby calls himself a "super trucker".

i am not a "super trucker",

i am a "super sleeper" when it comes to road trips but heck it's hard to sleep in a car when you come to places like :

STOP 3. LAS VEGAS

we stayed here for 4 days.

and managed to get a really good price at the paris hotel cuz my hubby likes last minute deals whereas i sweat and get anxiety waiting for the last minute.

dang we are so opposite.

speaking of opposite,

i can't decide if i like vegas better in the day,

or night.

STOP 4. LOS ANGELES/HOLLYWOOD

i don't understand why L.A. and Hollywood is made out to be so glamorous.

i mean, mad hatter johnny depp dude and hangover alan hang out there.

and i have no idea how people get so close to the darn hollywood sign on the hill cuz the closest we could get was about 300 miles away (give or take a few miles) lol

so anyway, 

hollywood's not complete without a tour right?

we took one of those buses, excited to see michael jackson, katy perry, and beyonce's homes.

but the tour was a little different than we had hoped for...

the pic above is really how far we were from the sign and the lower pic is just a blow up.

dang i was all ready to get up on top of the "o's" and take an epic pic.

not.

and speaking of not, you know all those movies of the sunset strip of palm trees?

tell me what you think of this,

what the heck, did they mistaken anaheim's trees in the movie for the sunset strip?

dang i was fooled so many times watching those movies!

and then sunset strip?

ummm...ok.

and the famous hollywood homes?

i guess if you like roof tops, 

then the tour is fabulous...

STOP 5. ANAHEIM

ok, THIS city was fabulous.

so clean. so pretty. and of course disney.

 and had one of the cooooolest places full of restaurants that foodies would die for. 

this is the packing house, 

an unassuming place from the outside and AWESOME on the inside.

STOP 6. SANTA MONICA

we were going to go here for the 4th 

but i think if we did we would still be stuck in traffic. ok, so maybe not.

but it is a pretty place nonetheless.

STOP 7. PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY

oh my goodness oh my goodness oh my goodness.

if you've never driven along the PCH, 

put it on your bucket list.

it was by far THE most fave place for me on the whole trip.

i wish i could take some of the scenery back home with me to flat boring florida.

(can you tell i'm a mountain girl at heart?)

i mean i was THISCLOSE to these crazy gurgling sounding half ton elephant seals!

and this place?

well, see what you think yourself.

we were in awe. 

it may be the fact that we were totally winging the entire trip and 

had ZERO idea what to expect but it was BEAUTIFULLY breathtaking.

normal people research and research and plan way in advanced for trips like this but oh no, not us! we are insane and didn't even know why there were so many cars parked off the road when we got to this place.

we just figured there must be something over there...

holy moly guacamole.

so we saw this and my heart pitter pattered and my cel phone camera did a major workout.

i just stood there in all its wonder and thought 

"this must be a dream". 

i know that sounds silly but i think you need to see this for yourself if you haven't already to see what i am talking about.

i took a gazillion pics of the falls but am only sharing one or else i will take up most of your valuable time for about a week if i showed you every pic. :>P

STOP 8. SAN FRANCISCO

we went here 11 yeas ago.

a lot has changed.

it wasn't like i expected and the seals around pier 39 were gone :(

it was an ok stop...

but i still love the muir woods, 

and the cooold 50 degree weather in July 

from all the sea fog.

STOP 9. MONTEREY

this city has a ton of character and was one of my hubby's favorites, 

mostly cuz it has a racetrack there which he of course visited with my son while me and my daughter took a nap in the truck. 

STOP 10. NORTHEAST CALIFORNIA>UTAH>COLORADO

there were days here and there where we drove and drove,

and drove and drove and drove,

then drove some more.

this mountain girl was on a mountain high at 

YOSEMITE PARK,MAMMOTH LAKES AND UTAH.

(STOP 11-whatever number)

i mean, authentic indian crafts?

and this?!?

STOP 12 OR WHATEVER: BRECKENRIDGE

my hubby and i used to ski here yearly way back before the kids. 

being from florida we wedged ourselves all the way down the green trails. lol 

(wedging is ski talk for 

basically pretending to know how to ski)

we spent a day at a horse ranch,

which had more than just horses.

and of course went into town.

but before that we had just a short visit to 

VAIL, STOP 13 OR WHATEVER

since it's way overpriced and hootsy-tootsy 

for me but hey, we were in the neighborhood and thought we'd stop by.

STOP 14 maybe: BRANSON, MISSOURI

our last tourist stop thank goodness for you right? i mean i do have to let you go to the bathroom for pete's sake since i held you up for this long already.

this city is family loads of entertainment.

but honestly i'd rather sit on top of that purple mountain all day.

so there you have it.

a screenshot of my cel phone gallery.

i had about 3 of these 

(around 9000 pics!!!), 

all of them different.

now you know why i took a blogger break,

and why i wanna do another kind of this summer trip forever.

my bucket list will never end.

but thank goodness this post ends for your sake. 

thanks for the ride with me!

:)

cross country travel map corkboard

hello. 

let me introduce myself.

my name's lisa and this here's my blog...

a blog that i have deserted for the 

past month or so due to a long 

overdue blogger break.

(thus the reason for us meeting once again!)

i say long overdue cuz i didn't realize 

how freeing it was to not blog 

until i actually did it.

see, it started out with a trip.

and epic one of that.

seven thousand five hundred and thirteen.

7000

500

10

3

7500 + 10 + 3 teens 

(my hubby and 2 kids lol)

equals

7,513 miles.

that's how many miles we went on our 

cross country summer trip and why i thought 

about blogging for 7,513 times but 

told myself to chill and recollect my thoughts.

see, blogging takes up a lot of time

like, ALOTOFTIME, 

time which i made into wee hours of the night and still going to work M-F with my eyes still half closed.

time that i coulda shoulda woulda spent with my kids or family just chilling,

something i have a very hard time doing,

since i am such a doer.

anyway, i'm back!

and yes i missed you guys but lemme tell ya,

i had the BESTEST trip ever with my family and would do it again in a heartbeat.

it was sooooo cool 

that i made a craft out of it :)

so without further ado,

here we go,

you'll need this:

the map's from marshall's, and 

the cork board and pins are from hobby lobby.

the whole idea was to put the map sticker 

on the corkboard but...

don't you hate when things give you lip?!?

we fixed that right up now didn't we? lol

i just made the labels outta a word document and printed and cut them out in strips to fit the pins.

so there ya have it:

a souvenir of an epic trip, 

one of which i will tell you more about 

in the next post :)

and i promise i won't wait 7513 days 

for it to happen.

ps-it's good to be back! 

hope you've been well & good too :)!