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.

A Blast From The Past

I was looking around in the picture file on Steve's computer and I found an entire huge file that I never knew existed. It has a ton of old pictures in it. I had so much fun looking at them last night. I thought I would share a few with you.


First there are the pictures of the bedrooms I decorated right after we bought our last house. This was Zac's room. My sister-in-law, Sheila, helped me paint this wall. It was so much fun. It was kinda hard to paint over it when Addy was born, but we did. Slathered a nice purple right over the top.

And this was Emily's room which she eventually shared with Aubrey, after she came along. And when Addy came along, we painted over it with a nice army green for Zac.

And BLAH! This one makes me want to vomit. This was Steve's and my old room until, of course, Addy came along and I very happily painted over this one with bubble gum pink for Emily and Aubrey.

I had almost forgot that I used to have short hair. This was back in the day when Steve used to highlight my hair. Good work baby! I might have to put you to work again. I forgot what a good job you used to do.


The awesome pumpkins we spray painted one year for Halloween.


And the awesome ones we painted the next year.

Poised and Polished

"Addy, what is that all over your face?"

"Fingernail polish!"

I have given them far to many warnings, and now, the fingernail polish goes in the trash. Emily and Aubrey have a nice little array of fingernail polish that they have received as gifts. I told them they could keep it as long as they keep it up where Addy can't get into it. But for some reason they don't seem to be able to do that. So in the trash it goes. This child. I love her. I love her so much. But she makes my right eye twitch nervously. This isn't the first time she has done this, and now we have fingernail polish on the carpet in Emily's room, on the floor in the girls bathroom, and on several of Addison's cutest outfits. And now on her shirt Uncle Sam brought her home from Mexico. Here is a picture of her toes she painted a few weeks ago.

Monday Morning Musings - Can You Hear Me Now?

So I had to go and get a new phone today. Not one of my most favorite things to do ever. Ya know, for me, I just could care less what my phone looks like. As exhibited in the above photo. I liked my phone. It has been a good little phone. Except for this past weekend when it wouldn't charge. And then it died. And it still wouldn't charge. I really didn't want to have to go and get a new phone, but I really didn't like not having one either. So I broke down. How did people ever used to live? Before cell phones. Anyway. Steve had a defective phone several months ago and he upgraded, but they sent him a replacement so I took the replacement in to have it activated as my phone. The man there thought I was crazy for wanting to activate such a dinosaur. I don't even think it is a year old. And he kept talking about Steve's new phone that is a couple of months old like it was an old phone. I had no idea phones had such a short coolness factor life span.

Anyway, he kept telling me I didn't want to activate such an out of date phone. I could get a new one for practically nuttin. He said, "Unless you just don't care about things like that". So I picked up my red dinosaur and said, "Does it look like I care?" (I don't know if you can tell by the pic, but the face is so scratched up I can hardly read what it says) He said, "No, I guess not." But alas, he talked me into this cute little new one:

But this is why I am really irritated though. Since my new one couldn't hold a charge or turn on or anything, they weren't able to transfer my data over. I had like 100 phone #'s stored on that phone. I kinda feel like I'm walkin' around naked now, without my digits. Not to mention how much I hate learning how to use a new phone. I was very comfortable with my red dino.

You know what is really annoying? Craving cereal and realizing that you don't drink milk. Downright irritating. So I'm just eatin' it straight out of the box right now. Not the same. But it is fruit and yogurt special K. Only there is too much of the K and not enough of the yogurt clusters.

I put my memory card in the computer to download pictures just a minute ago and found about 50 pictures like this. I guess I know what Emily has been up to.

And unfortunately I don't know enough about what this one has been up to. Here she is all complete with self applied mascara and lipstick. Notice the dual bruises on her forehead. Last week she came running across the driveway to me and biffed it. She knocked a bruise into one side of her noggin. Then the very next day she was coming down the stairs and took a little tumble and added the second bruise. The day that happened she had these 2 big knots and she kinda looked like a Klingon. I am scared to take her into public because I am sure people are going to think I might have something to do with the various array of bruises on her body. I guess in a way I do. She has inherited the grace that my family so perfectly exhibits.

Zac had his first Court of Honor the other night. He received 5 merit badges. He worked hard over the summer to earn those. I would post a picture, but I am in it, and I am feelin' much too vain right now. But really, you should see me. Scary! I kinda can't believe I was out and about in public like that. But I digress. Way to go Zac! He earned all 3 citizenship's and his swimming and life saving merit badges.

The other night, my neighbor invited me and a few other neighbors over to make jewelry. It was so much fun to get together with my neighbors and have a girls night. I am sad I didn't take any pictures, but here is the jewelry I made.

Addy got her first real haircut about a month ago. Ii is cut short and it is so cute on her. She loves her new hair and she gets very angry when I try to brush it. She says, "NO! The girl fixed it and made it look pretty! DON'T MESS IT UP!"

Crock Pot Mishmash, For The Lack Of A Better Name

This is one of my favorite things to make because :

A) It is easy
B) It smells good all day long while it is cooking
C) I always have all the ingredients for it on hand
D) It is versatile
E) Everyone likes it


I just put chicken breasts in the crockpot and dump in a can of black beans, corn and rotel tomatoes. I use mild rotel, because despite me Texas heritage, my taste buds are babies. I let it cook all day in the crockpot and it really does smell terrific.
Now you get to the options. Sometimes I just serve it with chicken breats intact and all the mixture over it, with rice and salad on the side. Sometimes I dice the chicken and serve the whole thing over rice.

But my most fav-o-rite way to serve it is as smothered burritos. Mmmm, mmmm. I shread the chicken, mix it with cooked rice, load it into tortillas, smother them with green burrito sauce, add a little (or a lot) of cheese, and bake. Oh yeah. It's that good. My mixture above made 2 pans of burritos this size.

Roots

When my grandmother was here visiting, I had a little chance to explore my roots. We went to Tolman Park. Tolman is my mother's maiden name. This park is named after our ancestors. I thought I would include some pictures for those of you who might be interested, but feel that you live too many states away to come and visit.

We were also able to visit the Thomas Tolman Family Genealogy Center (we are direct descendants of Thomas Tolman) and see many pictures of our ancestors. It is something I have been meaning to do for a long time and I am glad I was able to experience it with my grandmother and my mother.

We also had a little family bonding time while making a recipe for

Grandma Tolman's Refrigerator Pickles

I, for my whole life, have hated sweet pickles. Blah! But back when we had my mother's birthday party our friend Kami brought the refrigerator pickles she made from this recipe my mother gave her. I refused to try them, but Kami guilted me into it saying something about my heritage, blah, blah, blah (I ♥ U Kami!). So I tried them and I actually liked them. Here is the recipe if you are interested. It is my great grandmother Tolman's recipe, and it surprisingly easy to make.

Mix in large bowl:
4 cups sugar
4 cups vinegar (white or apple cider)
1/3 cup plain salt (not iodized)
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 1/2 tsp. celery seed
1 1/2 tsp. mustard seed

In gallon jar (or 4, 1 quart jars) place sliced, unpeeled cucumbers and alternate with layers of sliced onions (about 2 medium onions). Pack tightly in jars and pour liquid over them. Put lid on and refrigerate. They will be ready to eat in 7 days. These can be kept in refrigerator for up to 8 months. Juice can be reused during this time if all the cucumbers are eaten. Needs no processing.

It is funny having these in my refrigerator because I can remember always seeing and avoiding them in our fridge growing up because I thought they looked so nasty.