Thursday, March 7, 2013

Oreo Pudding Pie

Here it is Thursday and I forgot to post my Tuesday recipe.  I guess it's better late than not at all.  Last fall, before my daughter and son in law found out that they were wheat and lactose intolerant, I made this pie for them.  I imagine it caused a lot of distress afterward, but they sure enjoyed it.  My grandchildren told me this week that they want that pie for their birthday cake next year.  Here is the recipe.  It isn't healthy, it isn't low calorie but it is GOOD!

Oreo Pudding Pie


1 Oreo crust 
1 sleeve crushed Oreo Cookies 
1 8 oz. cream cheese 
1/2 cup margarine/butter 
1 cup powdered sugar 
1 large tub cool whip 
1 3 oz. box white chocolate pudding 
1 1/2 cups milk

Instructions

Mix cream cheese and margarine/butter until smooth.
Mix in powdered sugar and fold in 1/3 tub cool whip. Pour over oreo crust. Set aside.
Make pudding by mixing the milk and pudding mix together. Pour over first layer. 
Pour remaining cool whip over the top. 
Sprinkle crushed oreos over the pie. 
Refrigerate for one hour or until ready to serve.





Example of a Virtual Geocache

A few days ago I wrote about geocaching and how we liked learning interesting things along the way.  Here is an example of one that we found.  This one is a virtual cache which means that you don't have to find a container but just gather information from the site.  When you email the requested information, the cache owner gives you credit for the find.  Some other time I will write about another type of cache.


Blood Stained Mausoleum


John Henderson Craigmiles was a very successful man. He was a former sea captain, and a prominent business man in Cleveland, TN during the 1800s. However, his endured more tragedy than most people can imagine.
Nina Craigmiles was born on August 5, 1864, to John Henderson Craigmiles and his wife, Adelia Thompson Craigmiles. From the day she was born, her entire family fell in love with her, especially John. He showered her with affection, and bought her the best toys money could buy. He rarely ever let her leave his sight, and, as a result, she had few friends her own age. Some people have suggested that she wanted friends her own age, but if she did, she didn't appear to want for it very much. She seemed very happy in such a loving family.
Sadly, on October 18, 1871, that happiness came to an end. It was Saint Luke's Day, and Nina's grandfather, Dr. Gideon Blackburn Thompson, was taking her for a ride on a horse and buggy. He had done this many times before, and Nina absolutely loved riding. Apparently, Dr. Thompson lost control of the horse and buggy, because it went directly into the path of a train. Dr. Thompson was thrown to safety, but Nina was killed.
The entire town was saddened by the news, and many people showed up for her funeral. After her funeral, Dr. Thompson and two others were baptized. The Craigmiles were devout Episcopalians, and since the Episcopal congregation of Cleveland did not have a church to visit at, John Henderson Craigmiles vowed to build one, which he did in memory of Nina. Saint Luke's Episcopal Church was consecrated on the third anniversary of Nina's death. It was (and still is) a very beautiful church. Not long after, Mr. Craigmiles had a mausoleum built behind the church in memory of his daughter. She was laid to rest inside, as was another infant son who died, and Mr. and Mrs. Craigmiles. Mr. Craigmiles met an untimely death after falling on some ice, which apparently triggered blood poisoning. A third member of the family had met a tragic death.
Today, if you visit the mausoleum, you will notice red streaks the color of blood appear on it. The stories say that the bloody stains first began to appear on the Craigmiles mausoleum after Nina was interred there. With the death of each family member, the stains grew darker and more noticeable. Some of the locals began to believe that the marks were blood, coming from the stone itself, in response to the tragedies suffered by the family.
To this day, the bloody marks remain. What may have caused them, and why they refuse to be washed away, remains a mystery.

To receive credit for this cache you must email answers to the following questions.
1.)How many columns hold up the cross structure on top of the Mausoleum?
2.)Who's garden is to your right when you are facing the doors to the Mausoleum?
3.)What is written on the step at the entrance?
4.)What is the date on the door?

Monday, March 4, 2013

Geocaching As One of Our Hobbies

Hopefully this will be the last big snowstorm of the winter or not nearly as bad as predicted earlier.  We do need the moisture desperately but enough is enough.  We didn't have much rain the entire summer and nature has a way of making things even.  I could go on about Global Warming at this point, but I won't.  With Spring brings the thought of one of our favorite hobbies.  We like to Geocache.  Geocaching is an outdoor activity using a GPS device.  There is a website called geocaching.com.  If you go to the site, you can sign up for free and then put in the address, town or area you would like to search in.  Listed will be all the spots where some type of container is hidden.  These are called geocaches and the object is to find the cache, retrieve it, sign a log sheet with your username and date and then return it to the exact spot so others can also find it.  We have found caches as small as a watch battery and as large as a 5 quart ice cream bucket.  It has shown us places we would never have known about on our own.  They can be in busy downtown areas, along bike trails or in the forest, in cemeteries and any number of other places.  Sometimes you have to solve puzzles to get the coordinates.  Whenever we travel, we try to find a couple of caches.  We even geocached in London.  There are geocaches placed all around the world.

It is particularly fun to go with our grandchildren.  It is a way to be active and have fun at the same time.  We have done over 750 but many people have searched and logged in 15,000 or more.  The last couple years we haven't done many, but hopefully this year we will be able to do more.  I will probably blog about some interesting places we find in the future.

Here is grandpa stomping through the woods with some of the grand kids last fall.


There was a cache hidden near this bridge.

 and near a quarry

 a covered bridge and

 in cemeteries and millions of other place throughout the world. 

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Log Dollhouse

A while ago I blogged about my husband making a circus train (Circus Train Memory) for our grandson.  That same year he also made a dollhouse for our granddaughter.  The kids find it hard to believe that our house is made out of logs.  Here is the house he made.  Although she never really had an interest in playing with it, I think he did a great job.