Monday Morning Musings - Howdy Folks!

WOO HOO!!! I'm so excited y'all! I get to go to the Great State Fair of Texas today! With Oprah. I'm so sick and tired of hearing everyone talk on their blogs and of Facebook about going to the fair, and I have to miss out. I have heard tales from friends of fried butter, fried coke, and fried pecan pie. You know, the pecan tree is the state tree of TX.

"Men from lesser states may know their state capital but you – you know your state's bird, tree and reptile. You display your pride with your Lone Star tattoo… and contempt for any state that doesn’t start with Tex and end with iss.”

But I digress. Set your DVR's, you don't want to miss it. It IS the biggest state fair in the US of A. I can just hear Big Tex now, "Howdy Folks! Welcome to the State Fair of Texas!"

Whew! Back to life as normal. Or as normal as it can possibly get around here. I had some big undertakings goin' on round here this month. I was in charge of collecting donated items for Humanitarian School Kits for a big service night we had with the women at my church. Then I turned around and got to be in charge of Red Ribbon Week at the kids school. But that is all over now. And I must say, after spending 2 1/2 hours at the school every day last week, I have a much greater appreciation for teachers. Here is Zac and some of his friends during Red Ribbon Week.

On Friday I handed out my last pack of Smarties and said for the last time, "Be a Smartie, don't do drugs", tore down the Red Ribbon decorations, went home and packed my bags and hit the door baby. It was time again for my 24 hour Scrapbook Crop. Please pretend like I don't look so nasty in the photo below. I worked hard and came home with an 84 page album of our 2 weeks with Mike and Sheila this summer.

LaRee and I were all by ourselves this year because Laura had to go and pop out a kid and Dianna had to do homework. We missed you girls!

YAY!!! Steve painted the mud room wall. It is my sincere hope that before winter hits, this room will be complete with shelves for shoes and backpacks and hooks for coats and jackets. Hint, hint baby.

I have been on this "making doughnuts" kick lately. I don't know if it is the fall weather or what, but it just feels like doughnut making weather to me. The girls love getting in on the action.

If you wanna know how I make 'em, it is so dang easy. Now my Bishop's wife, she made doughnuts for the whole neighborhood last week and she made, made her doughnuts. In fact, Zac was watching her make them and he told her that I had just made doughnuts that week. Then he watched her a little longer and said, "Oh! Did you make your own dough? My mom just used dough out of a can for ours." So my doughnuts aren't as fabulous as hers, but for the likes of me, they will do. Here's how I make 'em:

I just get the refrigerated biscuit dough and use a bottle top (real fancy pants here) to make a hole in the center. Then I heat up some canola oil in a big pan and drop the dough in. It takes less than a minute for the first side to cook, then I flip 'em over and cook the other side. Then I drop them in a bowl of powdered sugar. Like I said, they aren't fancy, but we think they're yummy round here.

Monday Morning Musings - I ♥ TX

This is our first Hunting Season in our new home. Apparently you don't need to set your alarm clocks around here during hunting season. At the very first faint sign of light, the guns start going off. Don't those people have to go to work or something? You should have heard it on the morning of opening day. It was flat our ridiculous. It was like a firework finale that lasted for hours. I don't know what they were shooting at for so long. There is no way there could have been any birds left after the first few minutes.

I had never seen an episode of Matlock before. And then Zac was born. And I found myself at home in the middle of the day with a sleeping child I had just put down for a nap. I had some quiet time all to myself so I made lunch, sat down in front of the TV and started looking for something to watch. And there he was. Ben Matlock. In his ugly grey suit. And from that day on I had a regular lunch date with Ben. That is until I had seen them all. I went years without watching it. And then, suddenly, a few weeks ago, I picked up the habit again. It has been so long since I have seen them, they are all new now. Anyway, to make a long story even longer, everyone seems to get killed off in that show when they are busy in their garage doing something. So the other day I was in my garage and I was leaning over vacuuming out my car, and I kept looking up to make sure no one was going to sneak up on me and kill me. Anyway, go ahead and make fun of me for watching it in the first place. Steve always does.

I went into the Home Depot the other day. I got this weird feeling as soon as I walked in the door. You know how it is when you have been away from a really familiar place for a long time and you go back? It was like I was home again after a long vacation. It was only a year ago that I was making multiple trips there daily. One day I went to 6 different Home Depots. In one day. I don't miss it, so I don't know why I felt so attached when I went in last week.

Speaking of being away from a familiar place for a long time. Steve and I went out to eat one night last week. The place we were originally going to (think lettuce wraps)(Mmmmm...OK, STOP thinking lettuce wraps, I'm really hungry) was just closing, so we opted for the place next door. I usually don't like to eat at this place, 'cause I don't like fake. But when you're hungry, you're hungry, right? So anyhoo. The place we ended up eating at was Texas Roadhouse. Go ahead fellow Texans, make fun. You already made fun of me for watching Matlock, why stop now? Ohhhh, it made me so sad to be in there. Peanuts on the floor, Fishin' in the Dark on the radio, the BBQ smell, fake TX motif. Right then at that there moment, my heart longed to be home. It has been TOO long. Next month it will be 4 years. Four whole years! How did that happen? I hardly even say Y'all anymore! What's wrong with me?

An Indian Summer Saturday

Yesterday we woke up to an absolutely gorgeous October Saturday morning. We just couldn't bring ourselves to waste such a beautiful day, especially since we don't know how many more of them we will have this year. So we sent little munchkin off to Grandma and her "Best Friend La La's House", loaded up the ATV'S, and headed for the hills. It was a fun day!

My Life On Pause

Right now, my life consists of this:

This:

And taking care of these:



One of these days soon, I will get a little of my life back and I can do a little more of this:

My Friend Liz Says It's Karma. I Sure Hope She's Wrong.

I'd be in big trouble if this was Karma makin' it's rounds to kick my pyro fanny. 'Cause if that were the case, then we are only just beginning. I used to burn a lot of stuff.

Yes. This is what happened today. I am sick. So I pretty much puttered around the house all morning in my PJ's. I fed Addy lunch, chicken fingers (and some fruit and veggies). When she was done, I put her little be-hiney in the play room and turned on Dora. Then I decided I should probably go take a shower. So I did.

Just as I was stepping out of the shower, Addy came in and took my hand and said, "Mommy it won't come out!" I asked her what wouldn't come out. She said, "COME SEE! IT WON'T COME OUT!" It sounded pretty serious, and serious with this girl is actually really serious, so I wrapped a towel around myself and followed her. To the kitchen. Where there was black smoke coming out of the microwave. Oh yeah. She had decided she wanted another chicken finger. So she got one out of the freezer, put it on her plate that already had ketchup on it, and put it in the microwave for who knows how long. It was still cooking when I got there.

Uhmmm, yeah. I threw open all the doors and windows and turned on all the fans and waited for the smoke alarms to go off. Because there was a lot of smoke. Everywhere. Guess what? Not one alarm went off. So I started looking at my smoke detectors way up on the ceiling. Nice. They still have the little plastic bags over them to keep out the construction dust. I guess we should take those off.

Oh please. Don't let it be Karma.