I want to be just like her!

I just had to post this picture of my Mema. I haven't seen her in many years and I've been asking for a picture for a while now, but since my dad doesn't own a camera it has taken some time. He took this picture of her with his camera phone last weekend. She still drives her car and gets it washed each week. Her and her sister(good genes in that family) take trips together when they can and she reads so much that I'm sure the library is having a hard time keeping her in books. She is pictured here working on a crossword puzzle which she starts and completes daily. All of my childhood memories of her are special. When Tanya and I were little girls, we LOVED staying overnight with her and my Pepa on their farm. This special woman also turned 98 years young this past January. I think she's incredibly special.

You couldn't pay me to drink it

Have you ever had a coffee that was so strong tasting that after you took a sip, it tasted like you just smoked a cigarette? Ok so it wasn't a coffee, it was one of those coffee type drinks with added flavor and a fancy smancy name. Anyway, I had that happen earlier this week when I was sampling a Caramel Latte. Uhh...thank you, McDonalds?

The Ice Storm Cometh

The ice storm came in waves. It started with a slight coating of ice on the cars. But then as the frozen rain continued and temperatures dropped, our streets and roads were coated as well. Sleet fell through the night and there was a layer on top of the ice. This was a blessing in disguise because it supplied the traction needed on the roads so that those who needed to get to Lowes… could. :-)













By the afternoon, we were well coated with sleet and snow and the roads were a slippery mess mostly because of the surface being abused all day. This picture was taken with my cell phone... while driving. I call it multi-tasking. Some call it risky. It was a little more harrowing getting home and there was some slippage and fishtailing involved here and there. Fun to some, I’m sure, but NOT to this gal. We have too many hills to climb in this area and midway up one of them I questioned whether I was going to make it. Ray says he did the same thing.








We have a pin oak in front of our house that is clinging to it's leaves from the previous summer and will probably hang onto them until the new ones begin to emerge in the Spring. It's an ugly object to view all winter but now with this nice new coat of ice, it's a look that seems to work.









All of the foliage in the area takes on a new look and as much as I despise the ice, I am in awe of the beauty it supplies.

Reverse Psychology

There's an ice storm in our forecast for Monday and Tuesday. Not the news I wanted to hear when those are the two days that I report to work this week. Not only will I drive to the other side of town over slippery, icy roads but I will also trek across an icy parking lot that is free of any hand holds if by chance I might lose my footing.

It seems that the more I hate winter, the more I become a target for this frigid abuse. If I'm being punished for my strong hostility towards this colder season then I'm willing to change for the greater good. From this day forward, I will "adore" winter.

Winter creed:
I'll embrace the prickly coldness of its winds and envelop the stings of its icy rain. I will laugh at it's playful attempts to bring me down on my rear. I will prevail.

After all, it's only 54 days until Spring.

Oklahoma Hoedown

I went to a local pub/grill last night, called the Fox and the Hound, for a dinner with several local bloggers. We were expecting around 20 women and actually had about 15 show up, so it was a really good turn out for this event. note: If I get any names wrong in this post, please forgive my memory.

Some of my "getting aquainted" time was spent with these girls, Jerri Lynn, Georgie and Dawn. Jerri Lynn and Georgie live in the Tulsa area and Dawn lives in Owasso, closer to my neck of the woods. You can't see it but Georgie is wearing a shirt that says "I heart Dawn" made by her daughter. We all love Dawn for putting this event together. I found out that Jerri Lynn is from Ft. Worth so with both of us being from Texas, we talked about things that Texas has that Oklahoma doesn't have like good mexican food, barbecue and Dairy Queen. And what a coincidence that we both have family in Midland.

Here is Dawn with Michelle and Jessica. I enjoyed meeting Michelle and finding out how her and Dawn became friends. Both of them love blogging and photography. Jessica was very nice and I look forward to reading her blog.

I was also able to visit with Melinda and Maggie who are pictured here with me. I'm the one who looks awkward because I'm the most unphotogenic person. But I digress.

Can you believe that Melinda drove over 2 hours to attend this dinner? Now that's impressive! As for Maggie, her blog has been nominated for one of Oklahoma's best looking blogs and it's well deserved. In fact many of these bloggers have been nominated in one catagory or another.

It was a pleasant night and not one of these people appeared to be "abinormal" (you know... Young Frankenstein... 0k....nevermind). I was really pleased at how nice all of these girls were and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.

And you just now noticed?

Hayden informed me that he needed a new pair of shoes because his were feeling too small. So after school, we went to our local shoe store and found him a nice pair of athletic shoes. We threw away his size 6 shoes that were too small with a hole forming in the toe area and he walked out of the store wearing his new, size 9 Adidas. Yes, I would say that his shoes might have been feeling a bit small.

Winter Ball 2009

Caitlin attended the Winter ball this past weekend with her boyfriend and about 6 other close friends. She enjoys almost any reason to dress up and go out in public. Their plans were to go to a movie after the dance and then go "glow" bowling at the local bowling alley, but they weren't able to go bowling because they attended the late movie and these kids have curfews... as all kids their age should.

Are we there yet?

We had a bit of cold weather last week and even saw a little snow. Luckily it wasn't anything major and didn't stick around for more than a day. In fact this past Sunday was incredibly nice with temperatures in the high 50's. It felt good to go outside and stand in the sunlight. I like to imagine that Spring is near and the first signs of it are appearing, even though that is clearly not true.

One of our customers at Lowes mentioned that he could remember one April here that received a terrible snow storm. I had to walk away and just not think about it.

My irrational side

I decided to take a little hiatus from the blog world this past week and focus on doing other things like chillin', kicking back, relaxing and taking it easy.

Although it's not easy to relax when you are cultivating a science experiment in your backyard. I decided to partially uncover the swimming pool to check on the water since it's been almost 4 months since we covered it for the winter. I peeled back the cover and noticed that the water was a little dark but I figured the pool cover was the cause so I peered down through the water trying to locate the drain at the bottom and couldn't see it. I could however see the pool light and with this object to focus on, I could see that the water was definitely not in good condition and even a bit of a green tint. The water in my swimming pool has been infected with an algae and has started to turn green and just the thought of the water turning dark and murky soon makes a chill run down my back. Not only that, I'm having swimming pool dreams where I'm removing the cover to find out what lies beneath. I'd be lying if I said I'm not at all freaked out by this.

For as long as I can remember, I've had this water phobia focused mainly on plumbing problems that involve uncontrollable water issues or water flow. So if my toilet overflows, I remain calm, rational and deal with it like an adult, but it spooks me to my core!

Dumbbells are not so dumb

I started working out with my bff a few months ago on her bowflex machine. It was a really good workout and it was fun at the same time. When the holidays crept in, it was a little more difficult to find the time or motivation to work out.

I've noticed the past few weeks that I haven't felt as good or slept as well as I had been and I think it might have something to do with not working out for so long. So this week I've been trying to workout with my dumbbells and I even did my 8 minutes abs, buns and arms. I'm a little sore today so I'm taking the day off, but I'm glad that I have a few days of workouts behind me.

Delicious

The past few days, I've been trying to organize my recipes and find more for my collection and this is the magazine that I consider my recipe bible. I like them because they don't use those fancy ingredients that I never have on hand. Just simple recipes that are easy to make. I love getting things organized. It makes me tingle.

My white trash is showing

My next door neighbor teasingly asked me when we were getting my car repaired because he was a little concerned that I was making our neighborhood look bad driving this unsightly mess around. I reminded him that I've never denied being white trash trying to fit into an upper class environment and right now, my white trash is showing.

I'll be taking my car into the body shop this week and finally getting it repaired from the damage that was done in San Antonio. We normally would have taken care of this already but we had to wait for the insurance company to actually make contact with their client to determine who was liable. Puhhlease!! We weren't even in our car and they need to verify who was liable? I hate insurance companies and thier stupid mindedness! They love to take our money every month but their butt tightens up when they need to give a little back.

Beware: may cause cavities

I got up this morning and started a crock pot of stew and then proceeded to make a rich fudge from the back of the Hershey's Cocoa label. My mother has made this recipe many times and I had her teach me how many years back. I decide this time to make it the way the Hershey's label suggested and all went well until I got to the end.

Hersheys says that after you reach a certain temperature to remove from heat and let the fudge cool to 110 degrees, a temperature I never reached because it started hardening up. I went ahead and added pecans, which is an adjustment my mother made to the recipe and an important one, and then began to stir it. This was an incredible struggle and took lots of muscle power. I was able to get it onto my platter but unable to spread it out because it set almost immediately. In the end it was still quite delicious.

I used a candy thermometer this time and it sure made things easier. My mother had taught me to watch for a glossy-ness in the chocolate and if you put a small amount in cold water and you were able to form a ball with it, then it was ready. I was always able to make the fudge successfully but never felt comfortable deciding when the chocolate was glossy, so the thermometer was a great tool to use. Here's the recipe but I've altered it to the way my mother taught me. It's very rich and chocolatey, so if you think you can handle it then try it and let me know what you think.

Classic Rich Cocoa Fudge
3 c. sugar
2/3 c. cocoa
1/8 t. salt
1 1/2 c. milk
1/2 stick of butter
1 t. vanilla
1 c. pecan pieces

Butter a large plate or platter.

Mix sugar, cocoa and salt, in a heavy 4 qt saucepan, until all lumps are gone. Stir in milk.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a full rolling boil. Boil, without stirring, until mixture reaches 234 degrees on candy thermometer or until small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water forms a soft ball which flattens when removed from water. (Thermometer should not rest on bottom of pan)

Remove from heat. Add butter and let melt. DO NOT STIR. When butter is melted, add nuts and stir. Spread quickly onto prepared platter; cool completely. Cut into squares.

It's January 1st, 2009

Happy New Year!!

Hope everyone had a safe and happy New Years Eve. I made salsa, a bean dip to have with chips and cookies that failed miserably. I think it might have been the shortage of baking soda. The cookies were delicious but flat.

This year I actually stayed up until midnight. Well... sort of. I think I might have dozed off a time or two while watching tv, but I was up and about at 5 minutes before midnight and stayed that way until the clock struck twelve. I quickly found myself in bed shortly after where I had no problem finding dreamland.