Recipe Time!

Oh yes....I know its been a while. So here is a tasty dessert to try. I made this a few weeks ago when my parents were in town. We all enjoyed it. It was very yummy!!!! Here goes:

Banana Split Cake:

1-1/2 cups HONEY MAID Graham Cracker Crumbs
1 cup sugar, divided
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1 can (20 oz.) crushed pineapple, drained
6 medium bananas, divided
2 cups cold milk
2 pkg. (4-serving size each) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, divided
1 cup PLANTERS Chopped Pecans (Optional)

MIX crumbs, 1/4 cup of the sugar and the butter; press firmly onto bottom of 13x9-inch pan. Freeze 10 min.
BEAT cream cheese and remaining 3/4 cup sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Spread carefully over crust; top with pineapple. Slice 4 of the bananas; arrange over pineapple.
POUR milk into medium bowl. Add dry pudding mixes. Beat with wire whisk 2 min. or until well blended. Gently stir in 1 cup of the whipped topping; spread over banana layer in pan. Top with remaining 1 cup whipped topping; sprinkle with pecans. Refrigerate 5 hours. Slice remaining 2 bananas just before serving; arrange over dessert. Store leftover dessert in refrigerator.

My Parents Visit to Florida

Okay, well I know its been a long time, but with my parents visiting, the new job, and just trying to do things around here...well its been a long time. And not to mention our dial up...that enough makes me not want to get online sometimes. Anywhoo...lets see...what should I say??

Mark and I really enjoyed my parents visit here. They were able to visit my dad's mom and siblings in Jacksonville last week Monday-Thursday. Thursday they drove back down to Lakeland and we had them over for dinner. We stayed up late and enjoyed each others company. Needless to say I was a bit tired the next day for work. But I guess it was worth it since we don't see them often. Friday they made a trip to MacDill Airforce base and did some shopping and site seeing. Friday night we had dinner with them and Mark's parents at BD's Mongolian Grill. They really enjoyed that, they hadn't been to a place like that before. It was good to see them have a good time. Later that night we had ice cream at Baskin Robbins...yum! Saturday morning we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel. It seems like we ate a lot during their visit. Whoa.... and we don't eat that much during a normal week/weekend....but I guess since they were in town etc. Anywhoo... later we went to Orlando so they could return their rental. We then went to the Outlet Mall down there. A day full of walking I tell ya....so then I didn't feel that bad about "all the food" I ate that weekend. Ummm what else. We did some shopping and everyone found something they wanted. What a fun day. And we didn't even get rained out! It started raining on our way home. Oh yes, our last stop was dinner at Fuddrukers. That was tasty. My favorite was the milkshake. We walked around the mall Fuddruckers is in (Festival Bay) and found a cool store where everything was $6.98 for every item!!! Too cool. I found some shirts and Mark found some pants and my parents found some clothes and some stuff for my bros and sis. Then we headed home. Sunday morning, as you know you all were able to meet my parents or for some of you see them again. They really enjoyed the service, they said. After church we had a yummy lunch at Mark's parents house. They enjoyed meeting you Gina and seeing the rest of you again. They kept saying how much they enjoyed your company and how friendly everyone was. Oh and Chad, they said it was awesome to meet the guy that photographs us and the doggies etc. Sunday afternoon/evening we had them over and just relaxed and visited. Mark had to mow the pastures and then study, so the pics here he isn't in them because I was taking them while he was outside. Bubble and Shanaynay really enjoyed playing and being pet by my parents. My dad said Bubble is "something elese". And "mischievious" ha ha ha. They left Monday afternoon and arrived back home Monday evening. Their flight was a little delayed in Houston, but overall they said they had a really good time and plan on visiting more often...and I'm happy about that. I miss them though...but I'm doing alright.

Last night Mark and I were able to go out on date. With work, school, studying, and getting things together at home, we haven't been able to have much time together to hang out etc. So last night we had dinner at Pizza Parlor place downtown Lakeland. I forgot the name but its run by Italians. It was very good. The funny thing is, there is another pizza place like 3 or 4 doors down that had NO business at all and the place we went to was very busy. So hmmm go figure. Anyways, we took a walk around downtown Lakeland and there was an apartment building and in the window there was a tall "man" staring out. I got a little startled, but then realized it was a fake big man. He looked like a hit man. ha ha hah aahahahah..really! Anywhoo I thought that was kinda cool/funny/yet kinda freaky perhaps. Okay well its Saturday and I plan on cleaning the house and start decorating for Fall. My favorite season!!!

Have a wonderful weekend/week. I will try to keep up on my blogging. (smile)

Labor Day Family Day

We drove up to Jacksonville today (Labor Day) to visit with my family. We saw my Grandma, Aunt Celia her husband Darren and their two crazy kids below Renaldo and Marcus, Aunt Dianna, and Aunt Barbara. Grandma was watering her flower garden when we arrived. Her garden is soo pretty.
From the left (Aunt Dianna, Mark, Marcus, Aunt Celia, Me, and Aunt Barbara.
Here are my crazy cute cousins Renaldo and Marcus. They love the camera.

My parents followed us in their rental car. They will be visiting with them in Jacksonville till Thursday. Then we will have them back. I'll take some more pics with them and blog more.

We got back a few hours ago. The trip was fun. Being in the car for 3 1/2 hours wasn't cool...but visiting my relatives was fun. We BBQ and just relaxed and hung out.

Okay well more will follow. Its great to have more family in Florida now. I've never really been able to see/visit my aunts and uncles and cousins before because they have always lived so far away. So I should take advantage of having them just a few hours away. Good times.