Sarah was home!!

So it was Sarah time this past weekend, actually for 3 days. She stayed until after noon on Monday.


Since she missed Easter, I had to bake some Danish twist for her.
Sorry I forgot to take a picture before we ate almost half of it.
Trust me it was good, strawberry jelly, powder sugar icing and
all. (I never get my way to use raspberry jam in it.)




This picture is from Saturday night at LaBamba. No, Alex isn't drinking this Margarita; it's his Daddy's. It's a monster one. Take my word for it, it's big. Just compare it to the sugar shaker near by. It's much taller than it.

Alex and Brady took turns with my camera again. Here they took some great shots of
Sarah with her new niece.

Brady took these, including the one

of Grandma looking quit dizzy.

And this one of his Mom taking his picture. After all is turnabout fair play?

I got up and went to work Monday. Sarah came and met me at 9:30. I took off for a couple of hours and we had a girl's whirlwind shopping trip. Our first stop was Dunn Brothers for her a Vanilla Latte.

On to T J Maxx, where she found 2 blouses and a kitchen whisk. However, we were in search of gray dress pants. Or is it grey? Anyway onto Penney's, only found a belt and a cami there. We tried Maurice's, no luck there or Dillard's.

Across the street to Aspen Ridge Sporting Arms shop. AKA a gun shop. There we priced some pepper spray. He only had one option, it sounded great but we needed to see our options before we decided.

Two doors down to Abiy's International liquors. We picked up several bottles of Missouri wine for her to take back to Oklahoma City.

Some of her favorites were Adam Puchta. She likes their Riefenstahler. It is a good sweet red wine, best when chilled. Summit Lake Winery, Eberbach Red another sweet red. One from Les Bourgeois Winery, Riverboat Red, of course you guessed it, sweet red.

With time to spare we stopped at Kohl's. There she hit the jackpot with a pair of gray pants and a darling spring jacket. While she was shopping my sister who is under the weather, called and asked if I could get her some Gatorade.

Leaving there, we planned our next stop. I would run in the grocery store and she would call Madison's restaurant to order their famous house salads. The house special salad is a blend of romaine and iceberg lettuce, tossed with a red wine vinegar and oil dressing, artichoke hearts, red onions, and fresh parmigiano cheese. We picked up an extra one for my

co-worker.

I drop off the Gatorade and head to work, pulling in at high noon. We had accomplished all this in just 2 and half hours.

Oh how I love shopping with the daughter.

She headed home as I had to put in my time at work. We sure enjoyed her visit at home. I just wish Rusty could have made the trip with her. Maybe next time!

Okay I'm tired after shopping and working all in one day.

10:10 55 degrees.

Eating off the land.....Sunday anyway

First I must share one of Elizabeth's first studio pictures. She is just adorable. BT and I got to cuddle with her a little bit Saturday evening.

She is doing great. Mother is a little under the weather. Daddy made a quick trip to town today for a prescription that should take care of the problem in a day or two.




So today to give Mom a break, the two grandsons came over for the afternoon. BT and I took them to the woods where we dug dirt from several rotten logs to use as potting soil.

Two five gallon buckets took care of that. We then went to the lake behind the house, down through the ravine and dug wild ferns.

Now if I can just keep them alive. They need some trimming but I thought one shock for the day was enough.





Saturday BT worked in the forge. This is an all metal pinwheel he made. It is amazing how the metal can spin in the wind.





Forty mile per hour winds on Saturday proved that it could spin too.









After forging for a couple of hours, (he made more than one pinwheel) he came up for a beer and deer sausage and crackers. Bentley wanted in on the food. Of course Bentley gave his puppy face look until BT gave in.





Saturday night after church the neighbors joined us at LaBamba for dinner.

Here is little Colten enjoying his ketchup at LaBamba!

You can tell you've been going to the same restaurant, the same waiter when after BT orders, the waiter said to me... and you want the same too? Which is usually true. But this time I changed my mind and ordered something different. We all had a good laugh out of that one.







And Sara a.k.a. Annie Oakley, this next part of the story is for you. The son a.k.a. Starvin Pilgrim, came over after his medicine run to town. With him he brought fresh wild mushrooms!





Along with those mushrooms, he brought Deer Steaks, and fresh ground beef. So he grilled the meat, while I fried the mushrooms.


Thus living off the land title!

Oh and the deer was taken by our 7 year old grandson.




Right now it's 37 degrees. As you saw in the above picture we were outside without coats yesterday and eating on the deck. The dreaded 4 letter word of SNOW is in the forecast. Low of 28 tomorrow night. There goes all the fruit trees, the redbuds and dogwood blooms. Sarah I will let you know when the snow hits here. It should be at your house a couple of hours later.

PS Monday is my blogger friend Betsy's birthday. Would you stop by there and leave her birthday wishes!

Lizzie

The little Princess is here.
And now they are a family of 5!

I took the boys shopping.

Brady holding his baby sister. Isn't this just precious?

Alex is holding Lizzie, but he's not as sure about her as his big brother is.

Alex's turn for a self-portrait.

Elizabeth Norine "Lizzie" arrived today at 7 lbs. 3 oz. Her Mom was at the hospital less than 2 1/2 hours before she was born. They even took at trip to McDonald's drive up window to get the father-to-be some breakfast.

BT and I arrived at the hospital about 4:30. Great Grandma beat me there. Oh those 85 year olds!

New Mother Lori was doing wonderful. She was ready for dinner. Poor girl, they brought her tray and it was shrimp. She hates shrimp. New Daddy went to the cafeteria and brought her back chicken strips, with mac and cheese. That made her feel much better.

We took the boys to LaBamba for dinner. They were more interested in getting a gum ball out of the machine for dessert than having a sopapilla. So that's what they got.

At home, after I returned phone calls and emails, I gave them both baths. New Daddy took Brady home and will put him on the bus in the morning. Alex is staying here. He and I will go visit the hospital since it's not a school day for him.

I'm so excited with a new healthy grandbaby. Hope I sleep tonight.

My Saturday

Our day started like this. snow, and it continued until about 3 PM. We have about 2 inches of the ice stuff.









I had wanted to spend my day here. Sewing!














But we spent it here in the basement. Working on the oak wardrobe and the quarter sawn oak planter.










Things are starting to look good.






My reward was La Bamba!

There's always Sunday to sew. Hopefully!

Sinfully delicious

Sorry I didn't take a picture of the whole pie. But as you can see, it's almost all gone. (Shortly after the picture we did eat it all). Why is it sinful? The crust was made with good old fashioned lard. That's right, pig's fat. Nothing better for pie crust.

A fellow blogger at We Love it, Don't we? showed pies she made. Oh to have some of her black raspberries! Wonder if I could trade her Missouri black Walnuts for raspberries?

I spent most of the weekend sewing. I almost have 2 baby quilts finished. Pictures should be coming tomorrow.

Saturday night we went out for my birthday dinner. We tried to go to Aris' Pizza but the line was out the door. So my jeep knew the way to LaBamba and away it went. there I celebrated with my usual frozen Margarita!

Sunday we had company for noon lunch. I made pot roast, dressed green beans with diced tomatoes, which include the holy trinity. Of course the peach pie was the dessert!

Wow did the weekend fly by~~~~

The Weekend 8-16/17-2008

The weekend started at 4:30 Friday when I called for a carryout at Pizza Haus. Friday is BT's early day off and he was at home. I had hoped to BBQ, but rain was threatening. I had tomatoes, tomatoes, and more tomatoes to can, so I wanted a quick dinner.
Before bed at 10:30, I had 13 jars of Chili sauce made, and 2 loads of laundry finished.

Saturday after an early breakfast (okay 9:00 AM for food is early for us). It was so cool out, I turned the AC off. Tomatoes were awaiting me. I hadn't even gotten half of them finished yet. This time I made Spaghetti sauce. BT finished installing the new gate hinges.

He then made Alex a frog gig. Or as Alex says “Frod didder”.

Jeremy and the boys arrived to show us his “new” 1949 Bantam trailer. It is sweet. (Is that an adjective to describe a trailer?). The boys came to the house with me. Later I made us all grilled ham and cheese sandwiches on Sour Dough bread. After lunch Alex went down for a nap and I went back to the tomatoes. By quitting time I had another 13 jars canned.

We went to church at 5:30, stopped by the grocery store for more canning supplies and then went to LaBamba where son, wife and boys meet us.

Sunday we woke up to cool morning, it was 60 degrees in the house. BT joked about turning on the heat, the day after we had turned off the AC. I made BT a breakfast sandwich while I had a bowl of fresh peaches with a sprinkling of sugar.

BT started packing up for his annual Squirrel hunt. This has been a tradition for the past 35 years. Him and a life long friend camp for the entire week on the Current River in southern Missouri. When they started it was a 3 day thing, gradually it developed into a week long hunt.

We cleaned up and drove 5 miles to St Thomas Catholic Church for their picnic. We meet our priest in line and bought his dinner ticket with ours. We visited for about an hour before our numbers were called. The food was well worth the wait. Golden fried chicken, roast beef and all the trimmings including Sauerkraut cooked with potatoes. Of course you had your choice from two 8 foot long tables as to the kind of homemade pie you wanted.

BT's hunting buddy called and said he would be ready to go by 4 PM. As you can see by this picture, they have a wagon with their supplies. This is the modern version of a chuck wagon plus. They have nicked named it the wienie wagon. It has everything including the kitchen sink. While they loaded up, I took this video of Bentley playing with a frog. I am as afraid of them, as he seems to be. They have always been the thing I am most afraid of. (Don't worry PETA, the frog got away).

After the guys got off, I went back to the kitchen, by the time I was finished I had canned 6 jars of ketchup, 6 of plain tomato juice, 18 jars of chili, and 8 of spaghetti sauce.

The good news is, I am finished. The bad news is, there are more tomatoes on the way.

I crawled in bed early, knowing I wouldn't slept well with BT gone. It will be a long week without my sweetie.

River time!

Sarah made it home just before the 10 o'clock news came on. It was so great to see her beautiful smiling face in person. We talk every day. But seeing the real thing always makes a mother's heart feel good. This is what the sky looked like about 2 hours before she made it home. This was after a hard down pour.

BT and I were up Saturday in time to take the dog to the Vet for a spot on his chin. Doc says it looks benign, gave us some drops to put on it. Patted Bentley on the head and out the door we were.

At home after breakfast burritos, we packed up the boat. With snacks, beverages and towels loaded met Eric and Kathy at the river. Along with them was their son Colten who is just shy of 1 year. He took to the water like a duck.

We stay about 4 hours on the river. Here's a tip....buy sunscreen every year, fresh and with a high sunscreen count. This is the before picture of Ms Sarah. You don't even want to see her in lobster colors.

Back home about 5, we cleaned the boat up first and then ourselves. The three of us headed to, where else, LaBamba. Eric and Kathy pulled in just as we did. We had our drinks before Jeremy, Lori and the boys came. There were Margarita's everywhere! BT almost told them it was Brady's birthday but feared Brady wouldn't like all the attention, the Mexican singers and having his nose pushed into whipped cream. So he ordered the sopapia with 2 spoons and let it go at that.

It was an enjoyable evening with the kids and of course Eric is my adopted son it seems like. Back at home, Sarah's long time friend Holly came and they headed out to socialize. We called it a night and hit the sack early.

A beautiful Saturday evening

.....and this is how we ended our day sitting on the deck with the 5 lanterns burning. What a beautiful night.

We spent the day cleaning house and working in the shop respectively. Lori and I then took the little boys and went to Charlotte's Web at the Stained Glass Theatre.

BT and I attended 5:30 mass and stopped by Ace Hardware before we went to LaBamba.

Hope you all had a great Saturday!

9:44 PM 73 degrees.

A Grandma and Grandpa weekend

Our new garage doors were installed Saturday morning. BT gave moral support from his lawn chair, as Jeremy helped Mike who was doing the installing. I was busy inside baking a ham, making potato salad and watching Alex and Brady.

After lunch Alex went down for a nap. Brady watched some TVand played Wii. Together we took a 4 wheeler ride around the lake, up to the road to pick up the mail, and even stopped briefly to visit with Diane.


Jeremy and Lori had a benefit dinner/dance in Loose Creek for Lori's aunt so we would be keeping the boys all night. First we went to church at 5:30 at St. Stanislaus. The boys were very good for us in church. When we got out, I had a message from Kathy that they would meet us at LaBamba. They were waiting when we got there. Brady asked for an order of white cheese with his meal. He and Alex found a new use for it, they dipped their french fries, chicken strips, I even saw Brady dip his hamburger once.


When we were walking to the car the boys asked if we could go to the Capitol. I was glad to oblige, because last week there was a new monument dedicated to Lewis and Clark. I was so mad that I didn't have my camera with me. Here is a link to Sabra Tull, the creator's, web site. It is the most awesome display. 4 larger than life statues, Seaman, Clark's dog, a possible bag, a goose, Clark's journal, and even their hats, lying beside them. We than walked entirely around the capitol, stopping to view the War memorial, the fountains, the trains on the Missouri Pacific tracks, the barges on the river and all the coins in the fountains. We made our way to the train depot, Jefferson Landing , the Governor's garden, the Governor's mansion and finally back to our car an hour and a half later. By this time it was dark and lights were shining on Lewis and Clark. It was just as beautiful then.


Today while googling for pictures of the Corp of Discovery Monument, I found this Jefferson City's Daily photo blog. She has the best pictures of my home town, Jefferson City. I wish I had captured all the beautiful sites she has. Check it out.



Sunday morning we enjoyed breakfast out on the deck, before it got too hot. By a vote of 3 to 1, we had corn cakes for breakfast, I was the only one that wanted breakfast burritos.




The boys left about 1:00, so BT and I put the boat in the Osage river, just behind our house and boated for a couple of hours. I took the camera to show you our view from the water.

St Thomas Bridge

Across from Luebbering's Island

Eagle's nest in a tall Sycamore tree.

Looking up the Osage River

The boat ramp behind our house.

Cows enjoying the river too.

The turtle that almost got away....

Tuesday I ran to town for a weekly supply of groceries. While in town I met Lori at LaBamba! From there I took Alex with me. We made one last stop at the meat market and then headed home. While driving I gave Alex the cell phone to call Aunt Sarah in Oklahoma City. It was a bad connection and when I took the phone I couldn't hear her, so I hung up. About a mile down the rode the comment from the 4 year old in the back seat was, "Maybe Aunt Sarah needs to buy a new phone".

While little Alex took a nap, I put away groceries and sewed two toss pillows for the niece. When he woke up I was making fruit dip using 8oz. creme cheese and a jar of marshmallow creme. Here he is licking the beater.

Wednesday Alex came at 8:30 to stay while his Mother worked in the morning and had an appointment in the afternoon. After he ate his lunch I gave him the options for his dessert. He choose a soft Molasses cookie. I told him "oh that would be good with his milk", little did I know he was going to dip it. Awe to be young again.....

After Lori and Brady came to pick him up, BT and I were having a drink on the deck before dinner. BT was having a brown water, a Smirnoff with a slice of lime for me. I went in once to check on dinner and saw a huge snapping turtle in the front drive way. So I go and tell BT, he said call Eric, he wants one for the shell. I call Eric and he said well it wasn't good timing, he was busy. BT tells me to call his friend Kenny. I call and get Janice, who will tell Kenny and said it would be near dark before Kenny would come and get it. So while I am putting dinner on the table BT goes to the barn for the wash tub, brings it to the front yard and fills it will cool well water. He puts Mr Turtle in there, and we go in to eat. About 10 minutes later I look out the window and the tub is upright, and empty, water and all. So we go on a search for the turtle. It is no where to be found. So we call Janice and tell her it's an escaped turtle.

It is now Thursday. Maggie and I go to the local greenhouse and arrive at 8:01, for their sale. But on my way out of the garage, for some reason I do look down before I step out of the house, just in case there is a turtle lurking about.

By 10 I am on my way to town to do a little clothes shopping. I hit the jack pot at Penney's along with my $10 free coupon, I find 3 pairs of capri's and a blouse.

Once home, I put on my garden clothes and Bentley and I are working in the front of the house. All of a sudden, he is in the garage, growling and barking. He's found Mr Turtle! He is under the red flyer wagon. I went and called BT and told him to call Kenny, the turtle has reappeared.

About 7, Kenny came and got his turtle. He plans on frying it up in a week or so. He will save the shell for Eric, so in the end both guys will get what they want.

Strike 2

If I get another strike tomorrow, it will be 3 and I will be out. I actually thought yesterday's strike was enough with breaking the jam jar. Today I locked my keys in the jeep at my favorite restaurant - LaBamba's.

Of course I had to have the front parking spce too, right along the street. Luckily Lona was with me in her big Dodge truck. She drove me to where I thought BT would be eating lunch. He was there and kindly drove me home to get the only spare key we have.

I am happy to report that home key now has a new home in BT's Jeep.

After my delayed grocery and shopping trip I made it home just 25 minutes before I had to go pick Brady up from the school bus.

Tonight Jeremy, Lori and the boys were here for dinner. I set the table with my red heart placemants. Little Alex noticed right away and said hearts for Valentine day! I made Chicken and Rice and those great little carmelized Brussel Sprouts along with Caesar Salad. Carrot Cake rounded out the meal.

Thank goodness I did sew a little before I went to town at 10 AM.

8:56 PM 30 degrees