Dear Monday....

Dear Monday, how are you able to sneak up so quickly?  It seems like one day it's Friday and a blink of an eye later you are already here.  But don't fret, we still had a wonderful weekend.

Friday night hubby and I attended a prayer service and renewal of wedding vows at our local parish.  This is something our parish does every year and I find it to be a wonderful celebration and beautiful reminder of our commitment to each other.

Following the prayer service, there is dinner and a dance that follow.  We have a lovely group of friends who attend this event as well and we always end up having a lot of fun.
This year was no exception.

Saturday morning was a nice, lazy morning.  I even slept in.... until 7:15 (darn internal alarm!).

After lunch, another afternoon of watching Sassy play volleyball was upon us.  After last weekends volleyball tournament resulted in a bloody elbow and bruised and swollen knee, I was hoping for an injury free event.  Not the case.  Girly hurt her shoulder somehow during their first of their 3 games.  However, she powered through and played hard all 3 games (her coaches opted to not have her serve in their last game of the day to prevent further injury).  Now she is taking it easy and using lots of ice.
During the course of the games, the girls had about a 2 hour break.  Unfortunately the players can't leave (they have to ref the other games and be there in case one starts early.) But hubby, Smiley, Action and myself, snuck off to BW3's for a little dinner.  Quite tasty!

Sunday was a relaxing, uneventful day.  The day started by going to church.  Once we were home though, the sweatpants came on and a day with no agenda lay ahead.  Smiley and I found some cute valentines on the blog Capturing Joy with Kristen Duke.  And  YAY! for downloadables!  Seriously, check out these cute Ahoy Matey valentines.  I think Smiley's kindergarten classmates will love them!

 via Capturing Joy with Kristen Duke

So you see Monday, you maybe snuck up on me, but this weekend, unlike many others, was beautiful, fun and relaxing.  I'll put up with you today and your 4:40 morning alarm and I will choose to have a wonderful week, no matter what gets thrown my way!

No Bake (Cherry) Cheesecake

Yesterday, I reverted back in time.  I pulled out a recipe for a dessert that I started making way back when I was probably about Sassy's age ~ 8th grade.  This use to be my favorite dessert, and I still find it delicious.  No Bake (Cherry) Cheesecake

You start with a graham cracker crust.  You can purchase one, but they are so easy to make that I always make mine.  

Just melt 1/4 cup of unsalted butter

Add in graham cracker crumbs and a little sugar and mix it all together.  

Firmly and evenly press the crumb mixture into a 9" pie plate.  Microwave the crust for 1 1/2 minutes - 2 1/2 minutes.  This depends on your microwave.  I only cook my crust for about 1m 45s. Take it out and let it cool while you make the filling.

Onto the delicious, creamy filling....

Start with 8oz of softened cream cheese

beat it until it is light and fluffy.

Then add in sweetened condensed milk

Lemon Juice 

and Vanilla

Mix again until the filling mixture is smooth and creamy.

Pour the filling into the prepared crust (I dare you to try to refrain from licking the spoon).

Pop it into the refrigerator to chill for at least 3 hours.

Top the cheesecake with 1 can of cherry pie filling.

Serve and ENJOY!

No Bake Cheesecake

Crust:

1/4 cup unsalted butter (melted)

1 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

2 Tablespoons sugar

Mix together.  

In a 9" pie plate, firmly press mixture in evenly. 

Microwave for 1 1/2 - 21/2 minutes

Cool.

Filling:

1 8oz package cream cheese, softened

1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk

1/3 cup lemon juice from concentrate

1 tsp vanilla extract

In large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy.  Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk.  Then add in lemon juice and vanilla.  Mix until smooth and creamy.

Pour in to graham cracker crust.

Put in refrigerator to chill for at least 3 hours.

Topping:

1 can cherry pie filling

Pour and spread evenly over top of cheesecake

Volleyball Weekend

Right now, Smiley is sitting next to me, talking.  As usual.  Action is hangin' on the couch enjoying the last few minutes he has of iPod time.  And, Sassy is chillin' in the recliner with her leg elevated and ice on her knee, watching an episode of "Love it, or List it" on HGTV.  The kids have the day off of school today due to a teacher inservice.  Needless to say, we've had a lazy day.  I did start the day off by making sticky buns ~ they were delicious as always! And, I whipped up a no bake cheese cake, which I can't wait to dig into tonight! Hopefully I'll get the recipe posted for you all tomorrow!

I don't know about you, but our weekend flew by.  Hubby and Action went to a friend's lake cabin to have a boys weekend and do a little ice fishing with friends.  While they were off us girls had our own plans, mostly involving Sassy's volleyball tournament on Saturday and Sunday.

We did go to the movie theatre on Friday night.  We found one theatre in our area that was still showing Annie. The girls have wanted to see that since it was released in December and we just haven't had time.  When we arrived we were pleased to find out we were the only one's in the theater. The movie ended up being very cute and Sassy leaned over about halfway through and said, "We have to buy this!"

Saturday morning was relaxing and uneventful.  At 1pm we hopped in the car and headed to volleyball.  Sassy's team won all 3 of their games and took first in their pool.  We got home around 8:30.

Sunday morning arrived early....too early.  Sassy had to be walking through the gym doors when they opened at 7:30 am as per her coaches.  Us girls loaded in the car, grabbed some coffee for the 35 minute drive to the high school they were playing at and prepared for a long day of volleyball (as you'll see in the pic ~ some little girl just couldn't stay awake for the final game).  5 games later.  The girls took 2nd in their bracket and 6th overall out of 40+ teams.  Not to shabby for 16 1/2 hours of volleyball in a weekend.

We headed home to see the boys and watch a little football.  We made it back just in time to see the halftime show with Katy Perry.  I'm not a huge fan of Perry, but I thought she put on a good show.

I didn't see a ton of commercials (missed the first half and dozed off a little bit in the second half ~ oops!), but I did like this one (I actually started a blog about this one last year on June 30, but never finished writing about it):

Note:  This is maybe a longer (or a little different) version of what was shown last night that I already had saved

and this one:

Like I said though, I didn't see many commercials so, help me out ~ what commercials did you like?