Three Things About Me

I was tagged by Kathryn over at The Empty Nest to do this meme. The rules are to tell everyone three things about yourself that they don't already know. Hmmmmmm, ok that's out..... uuuuuhh, no........... Let me think, nope everyone knows about Rusty, OK here:

• I always come in on the trailing edge of technology. I never even heard of blogging until a couple of years ago. I know, pretty pitiful. I just shake my head in wonder when I read about people who have been blogging for years. I was one of the last of my friends to get a cell phone and now I can't live without it. When I got my iPod my niece had to show me how to use it. I didn't quit buying cassette tapes until they quit selling them. I tried to turn my first CD over to hear the other side. I could go on but I think this is bad enough. (Point in fact here. I can't get rid of the extra bullets.)
• I was raised an Air Force brat. Dad was a pilot in the USAF so we lived in several states including Michigan (where I was born,) Alaska, California, Alaska (again,) and Kansas. After dad retired we lived in Missouri then Texas, where mom and dad were from originally.
• I pay good money to Curves every month and haven't been there for weeks!

If you would like to play, please do. Leave it in a comment or leave a link to your post! thanks.

What's in a Name?

Kathryn at The Empty Nest and Mere at Mercedes’ World did this meme and it looked fun, so I borrowed it!

1. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (First 3 letters of real name plus “izzle”) Shaizzle
2. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (Favorite color and favorite animal) Blue Panda
3. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (Middle name, and current street you are on) Dea Trimble
4. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (The first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letter of mom’s maiden) Broshtay
5. YOUR SUPER HERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink) Purple Sweet Tea
6. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (Mother’s middle name and father’s middle name) Anita David
7. YOUR GOTH NAME: (Black, and the name of one of your pets) Black Rusty, or should I have gone with Black Bear? :)
8. YOUR SPY NAME: (Your name spelled backwards) Norahs

Feel fee to join in by leaving your answers in a comment or create a post and leave me the link to your post!

Three Awards!

Kathryn over at 4urpets gave me this award! Isn't it pretty? Her friend translated it: “Love Me. When I deserve it the least is when I need it the most.” Thank you Kathryn for being my friend and Rusty's!

Meredith over at Mercedes World gave me this award. It is one she created herself. Mere is a friend both here and at Rusty's blog. Mere recently lost her own sweet dog, Patch. Thank you Mere for being a sweet friend.



Tammy at 3 Sides of Crazy gave me this award. She always has good recipies and lots of fun going on over at her place! Thank you Tammy!

An Award!

Look what Kathryn at 4urpets gave me! She has such a fun blog there with her 3 cute little chihuahuas. I consider her a great friend. She was the first person to comment on Rusty's blog and we have been friends since. Recently she started a blog, The Empty Nest, over here at Blogger and has gone to town with it. Thank you Kathryn!

Mere at Mercedes World also gave this to me! Mere is a great friend. She has given Rusty many awards over at his place and always has something nice to say. There is always something fun going on over at Mercedes World. She even hosts two of her own memes, Hump Day Humor and Scrumptious Sunday. Thanks Mere!

I'd like to pass this along to my friends! Enjoy!

Grandson (pictures below)

The time has come. As I stated in a post a couple of weeks ago, our own busy little grandson has come to Texas to live with us for at least 6 months. He is 3 years old, cute as a button, and VERY active. He will spend part of his time with his Granny (that is his great-grandmother, my step-daughter's grandmother) and part of his time with us. His mom and he flew in from Seattle, Washington last Wednesday and his mom flew back home yesterday. Granny took her back to Dallas for her flight. They split their nights between Granny and us, then on Tuesday night Ethan spent his first night with us alone. I was so afraid that he would be upset but it all went VERY well. He went to bed and slept the whole night away! Wednesday morning, yesterday morning, he got up in a good mood and had a great day with his Granpa while I went to work. They came to the school to visit and he met a lot of my friends there.

Friends have been helping me with necessities. Teresa gave me a booster seat, an umbrella stroller, a potty seat (the kind that adapts the toilet for tiny hineys), and a little net barrier that slips under the mattress and keeps the child from rolling off the bed. I think he is fine without it, but....

He loves Rusty, they get along so well! They run around like a couple of, well, 3 year olds.

One of my friends at school gave us a wooden car and track set that should provide hours of fun.
I am going to hit garage sales in search of 3T jeans and shorts. I've got to go to the store for tiny socks and 3T undies and size 8 shoes.

Life as I know it has changed, at least for 6 months.

Here is the Busy Boy ready to tour first Monday last Saturday with his great grandma (Granny,) his mom, and me (Nana.)
Here's Busy Boy with the Devil Dog Marine stuffed toy his granpa and I picked up in anticipation of his visit. Granpa was a Marine in his younger days so.....

Spring Break

Last week was Spring Break and boy was I busy. I had a great time. First of all I finished off the little half bath I was redoing, and got some spring cleaning done. Pictures here. I cleared out a little and took stuff to Goodwill. It doesn't look like anything is gone *sigh*. Then on Thursday my sister from Kansas and her family came down for a visit. I hadn't seen her since last summer when she got married and moved to Kansas. We enjoyed catching up, playing games, and spending Easter with family and friends.

We also exchanged our Christmas presents, which we hadn't mailed to each other. We always have a great laugh when we do this. This is because we try to out do each with useless and stupid gifts. We tend to pass some of them back and forth over the years.

Easter at Teresa's house was wonderful as always. We ate, and ate, visited and visited, played with kids, took pictures, and visited more.

Then today David, who had taken the week off, and I went back to work and Sandi and fam went back home. I'm back on a schedule now!

A Book Meme from The Aged Cat

I was tagged by the Aged Cat to do this book meme, which is right up my alley since I love to read. I'm reading a weird book right now, Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett so it is closest at hand. I've read quite a number of Pratchett's Disc World books and they never fail to make me laugh out loud. I put in a couple of extra sentences, I couldn't help it. The first two sentences were really short anyway.

Here are the rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and post a comment here once you post it to your blog so I can come see!

Here are sentences 6 - 10 on page 123 of Moving Pictures:

One Spink, two Spinks. Now get on with it. I want those posters all around the city first thing tomorrow. The artist gave Victor an agonized look he was coming to recognize. Everyone around Dibbler wore them after a while.

This was fun and I enjoyed reading others entries. If you would like to do this with us, please do and let me know so I can go read it!

You Cheer Me Up Award

This is such a cool award! I love Lucy. Lots of thanks to Elaine over at Napaboaniya for it. She has a very cool blog, so go visit!



I'd like to pass this award on to Mercedes, Gina, Paulie, Edmund Bear, The Aged Cat, and Susan

The Bird Nest Cafe, Better Known as Wanda's

Weekend Snapshot

This is Wanda. She is sweet and warm and everything you would expect out of the owner of a small southern cafe. Wanda was a waitress for years at another local cafe. When it closed down she opened her own cafe and named it "The Bird Nest Cafe." Most of the people we know who go there call it "Wanda's."

David and I enjoy going there on Saturday mornings for breakfast and on Sunday afternoons for the plate lunch special. Talk about your down home southern cooking. We had the pork chops yesterday. Wanda told us they were"as tender as a mother's love." That's pretty dog gone tender. We thoroughly enjoyed them (fried of course) along with the green beans, real mashed potatoes with cream gravy and peanut butter cake. YUMMY! I had coffee and David had sweet tea.

I am a member of NaBloPoMo '08.

Four Things

I saw this meme at Gina's and thought I’d do it. Feel free to copy and do it too.

Four TV shows I watch:
Lost
Scrubs
Monk
Psych

Four places I’ve lived:
Michigan (born here)
Alaska (Elmendorf AFB)
California
Texas

Four places I’ve vacationed:
England (week long bus tour, wonderful)
New York City
Alaska (David & I did an Inside Passage cruise)
Florida

Four places I would like to vacation:
Washington, DC
Plimoth Plantation, Plymouth MA
Yosemite National Park
Isle Royale National Park (David and I are trying to visit as many national parks as we can.)

Four of my favorite foods:
Mexican, I even put it on the blog here once.
Italian
Southern home cooking (That's the best isn't it Gina!)
Hamburger Bar hamburgers (local)


Four things I like to do:
Read and listen to books. I check out books on CD and tape and keep one in the car so I can listen to it on the way to work and back.
Play with my dog, Rusty.
Go to the movies with David.
Make cards.

Happy Valentine's Day

First I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day, hope it is the best! Here is Rusty to help me.

Below is a picture of the card I made this year for Valentine's Day. Of course I was late in mailing them. No one will be suprised when they show a little late. The image is a little blury, sorry.

Here is an example of the little cards I made for my students.

An Uneventful Weekend - Love 'Em

It was, totally uneventful. Quite and restful. I slept till 8! (See the afore mentioned pain preventing prescriptions.) My DH and I sat around the house then went to the cafe for lunch. We had both vehicles inspected. We both found some New Balance shoes on sale!

The main event of the day was a fund raising supper for a friend of ours who is running for constable in our district. Right now he works with my DH at the courthouse. He would do a great job. My friend D came with us.

After the supper the three of us went to see Cloverfield. I couldn't watch it, the jerkiness of the filming made me ill. It may have been a combo of a pain pill and chili, but I don't think it would have set well anyway. All the reviews I've read of it, by monster movie aficionados, say it is great. I don't see it. It starts out slow, then it all goes downhill quick, and jerkily. That's not even a word is it?

After we got back home, D helped me with an ongoing pantry door-Rusty problem! Rusty learned to pop the pantry door open by pushing it with his nose. I was keeping a chair in front of it, however forgot to pull it up one day. The results can be seen here, complete with guilty canine. The next day I came home and he had shouldered the chair out of the way and nosed the door open a little, not enough to get in, but enough to encourage him to pursue this line of shouldering. So I put two chairs up, and was going to the hardware store to get a hook or something to put over the handles of the door. Enter D with a spare shoelace. TA DA.

Very First Award

Look what Jane over at Sneezy's Ramblings gave me! Jane, you make my day too!

The directions are: "Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so that they can pass it on. Beware! You may get the award several times!"I have so many people I love reading I'm going to have trouble keeping it at 10:

Jane, right back at ya!
Mrs. G at Derfwad Manor
Paulie at Post Cards From Paulie
Gina and Tuffy at Gina's Public Diary
Quin at ...secrets...
Christy at Mamma of a Whole Lot of Drama
Susan at Enjoy the Ride
Dot at Strolling Through Georgia
Jenn at Juggling Life
Rusty (I couldn't help it)

Frazzled Female

I was invited by a good friend (retired this year from teaching) to join this Wednesday night bible study. I went and as it turns out in a class with 16 women 8 of us worked in the same school district, most of us on the primary. We didn't plan it. This was just the introductory night. There were a lot of laughs and fun. We each got a copy of The Frazzled Female to begin the week one study. I've looked through the book and like it so far. I know I'm going to enjoy the study as well as the fellowship!

I like this church and have been to bible studies there before. A lot of my friends who go there. I've considered moving my membership there but my husband isn't all that ready to move.

To make a good thing even better this church has a dinner every Wednesday night for only $5 per person. No cooking for me on Wednesday nights! At least for the next 6 weeks!

New Years Eve & Recipe

Yesterday was a busy one. I was preparing goodies for the party at my friend's house, we went to get my 21 year old niece, her husband and baby to go with us. They will be spending a couple of nights in the guest house. ;)

The goodies I took were simple but edible. With all the young people and kids that were there that's fine. I brought cokes, sandwiches, a meat and cheese plate with crackers, apples with two kinds of fruit dip, tortilla roll-ups, and a relish tray. This is always a family party with lots of eating, laughing, game playing, talking and more eating. We palyed Apples to Apples and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? The little ones watched Dora the Explorer and High School Musical. We toasted at midnight with sparkling grape juice and egg nog. My friend makes THE BEST home made egg nog. We visited a little more then cleaned up and every one went home. We had a great time! Below I will give two recipies for versions of this appatizer.

Tortilla Roll-ups

20 flour tortillas

3 8oz. blocks of cream cheese

1 8oz cour cream

5 pickled jalapenos (or more to taste)

Picante sauce

Mix bottom three ingredients together, warn tortillas in microwave and spread mixture on tortillas, roll up, refrigerate until set, slice, arrange on platter, and serve with picante sauce. I usually use more than 5 jalapenos and take out the seeds. Also I usually add at least a teaspoon of juice from the jalapenos to the mixture.

Rolled Trotillas

3 8oz blocks of cream cheese

1 8oz carton sour cream

g to 8 green onions (chopped)

1 Tablespoon jalapeno peppers

1 large package flour tortillas

Picante sauce to taste

Warm tortillas in microwave and let cool. Mix other ingredients. Spread over each tortilla, then roll. Chill overnight, then slice into 1/2 inch slices. Serve with picante sauce.

Christmas Trees

Christmas trees are my favorite Christmas decoration. No two trees are alike. Looking at friend's trees is always a treat. I've seen some really beautiful theme trees and have thought about doing one, but can't bring myself to leave my old treasured decorations in the boxes. I like to think of my tree not as a hodge podge of decorations and of styles, but as "eclectic." Many of the decorations were given to me by students. I write the name of the student and year it was given if there is a place. Others were given to me by my sister and nieces. (See the Gossamer monster near the top of the tree.) Many I picked just because I liked them. I've been trying over the last few years to find lamb ornaments. I call it my "Lamb of God" collection. My sister is always on the out look for them as well. Hanging inside the tree where it isn't visible is a replica of a nail from the cross. There are candy canes that tell the story of Jesus. Small glass fruit ornaments hang on the tree, each one naming a Fruit of the Spirit. Several cross ornaments are there, also. "Manger" nails hang from many branches, unseen unless you know to look since they are not colorful. Some were my mom's ornaments, familiar and loved since childhood. Won't be going to a theme tree any time soon. They are beautiful, but my "eclectic" tree holds so much meaning for me.

Busy Day at School

It was! First there was a bus safety video to view. It was mainly for the bus drivers, but state law said the little ones had to view it. Then we went outside and participated in a bus evacuation drill. Soon after that we loaded the buses again for the short trip to the nursing home. The kids sang Christmas songs for the residents, who seemed to enjoy it. The kiddos made cards that the staff there passed out among the residents. Then cards, that had been made by the residents and staff, were given to the students. We had time enough for a little phonics and reading before lunch. Whew! Math after lunch, reviewing carrying.

Then after school the School Board and Administration gave a reception for teachers and staff at the Central Office. It was very nice! Great wassail and the eats were good, but those of us from the primary school couldn't indulge too much because......

The Primary School faculty and staff Christmas dinner was tonight at the Country Club. Great food! Great company! We brought white elephant gifts (no, I didn't regift) and read a right-left Christmas story to exchange them. We presented the principal with her gift and she liked it.

At this point I'd like to say that I saw something on Mrs. G's blog that I want. I'm going to try to make one for next year and that is a WHITE ELEPHANT. It is a stuffed toy elephant (white of course) and I think that would be a lot of fun to pass around as a white elephant gift!

Christmas Recipie - Sweet Potato Souffle'

It is getting to be that time. Usually I do a turkey and dressing, or ham and dressing. My nieces love my dressing and fake giblet gravy. This year my husband has to work and my sister has moved to Kansas (where they are freezing their patooties off) so I'm going over to a friend's house and have been requested to bring my sweet potatoes. They like them a lot. The recipe calls it a souffle' but it's not. So here it is:

Sweet Potato Souffle'

3 c cooked sweet potatoes, mashed

1 stick margarine

1 t vanilla

2 eggs

1 c sugar

pinch of salt

Topping

1/2 c pecans - chopped

1 c brown sugar

1/3 c flour

2/3 cup melted margarine

(can add 1/2 cup shredded coconut)

Instructions

Beat souffle' ingredients together. Place in greased pan or oven proof dish.

Spread topping over the mix and bake 30 min. at 35o degrees.

Note

I always add extra pecans, I usually use real butter and I never add coconut.

When I need to make double of triple batches (depending on how many people will be there) I try to cut back on the butter some.

I took this "Creative Quiz" this morning. Found it on Bay Side to Mountain Side. It was a fun, quick little quiz. Thought I was more creative than that, however the blurb sounded good so guess I'll keep it. Take it and let me know how you did!

You Are 66% Creative

You are beyond creative. You are a true artist - even if it's not in the conventional sense of the word. You love creating for its own sake, and you find yourself quite inspired at times.

How Creative Are You?

Stampin' Up Night (Cards for the Troops)

The monthly meeting of the Stampin' Up card making club I belong to was held yesterday evening. Four of us attended. Instead of learning a new technique or working with a new stamp set we made Christmas cards to send to troops who are recovering from injuries. We worked in an assembly line to put together 20 cards. The inside was sponged with red and green, stamped with a verse and signed. The envelopes were decorated as well. We had a lot of fun chatting and catching up as we worked. Plenty of snacks were eaten and sweet drank. Can't beat a good, cold glass of sweet tea.

After we finished the cards we played a game I had never heard of: One Hundred. It was simple, quick, and fun. To play 100 you need a die, a pencil and each person needs a piece of paper. Each person rolls the die and the one with the highest number rolls again. this is "THE NUMBER." You take turns rolling the die and when a person rolls "THE NUMBER" she grabs the pencil and starts writing numbers from one on up while the others continue to roll the die. You must write fast because as soon as one of the others roll "THE NUMBER" they will grab the pencil from you and begin writing. Continue in this fashion, don't slow down on rolling the die. The first person who writes all the numbers from 1 to 100 wins.