Camera Critters and Scrumptious Sunday

Rusty and Bob, sharing!
Misty Dawn hosts Camera Critters. Please visit for a lot more great critter photos.

Mozzarella Meat Pie

1 lb. ground meat

1.4 C chopped onion

1.4 C chopped green pepper

1/4 C sliced mushrooms

1.2 tsp. oregano

salt and pepper to taste

1 small can tomato paste

4 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

1 can crescent rolls

Brown ground beef and drain off the fat. Add onion, green pepper and mushrooms. Cook until tender. Add spices, tomato paste and 1/2 of the cheese. Stir well.

Spray a pie plate with Pam and spread crescent roll pieces on the bottom and sides to form a crust. Add meat mixture and sprinkle on left over cheese. Bake at 375* for approx. 20 min.

I usually use the whole 1/4 C in the meat then sprinkle extra over the top. Probably too much cheese, what do you think?

Scrumptious Sunday is hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks!

Join in or visit, the recipes are scrumptious!

Camera Critters and Scrumptious Sunday

This is one if the critters that gives Rusty such a hard time in the back yard. This one sat there for awhile barking and fussing at Rusty while Rusty had fits on the ground.

Misty Dawn hosts Camera Critters.
Please visit for a lot more great critter photos.

COLESLAW

2 1/2 c. shredded cabbage

1 c. shredded carrot

1 sm. red onion, cut in half, thinly sliced and separated (or to taste)

1/2 c. dairy sour cream

2 tbsp. vinegar

1 tbsp. water

Layer cabbage, carrot and onion in a salad bowl. Cover surface with plastic wrap. Chill.

To make dressing, stir together sour cream, vinegar and sugar. Pour into a container with

a tight lid and chill. At picnic time, pour dressing over vegetables in the bowl.

Toss to mix well. Makes 6 servings.

Scrumptious Sunday is hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks!
Join in or visit, the recipes are scrumptious!

Busy, Busy, Busy (& A New Camera!)

Wow! That last week of school sure is busy! The kids last day was Friday and our last day was Saturday. That included three meetings I had to attend: 1) the GT Committee met to go over the stories submitted and score them. 2) The second grade teachers met to sort the kids into seven new classes for their third grade year. 3) The big district meeting was held at the Jr. High as usual. The retirees were honored, people with 5, 20, 15, 20, 25, and 30 years with the district were honored with pins. Two of the 30 year people were from our campus. In 3 years I'll have my 25 year pin.

Last week we kept my niece's standard poodle while she and her fiance went to Las Vegas to be married. His name is Dragon and he is the sweetest dog. He and Rusty got along fine, but Rusty had to remind him sometimes that this is actually Rusty's home so he was top dog. She came and picked him up on Sunday.













Speaking of Sunday that was the day of David's family reunion. We all met at Salmon Lake Park. It isn't too far away, just about a 30 minute drive. Click on the link, click on Rental Photos then scroll down to Family Reunion Buildings and you will see a picture of the Crazy Horse Saloon building where our family meets almost every year. We took Ethan with us and he had a great time. The lake there is spring fed and he spent a lot of time swimming, and I spent a lot of time on the shore watching him. We all brought simple food. David and his cousins went through a lot of old photos and a good time was had by all.



Here is a portion of the lake.









May 26th was my birthday and, as promised, David got a new camera for me. A Rebel XTI! The store was having a "special" where you could get 75-300mm lens with the camera kit, so of course I had to get that. I got a case and two rechargeable batteries and a 4gb card because it was "on sale." Now I've never filled up the 1gb cards I have in my Kodak so why I thought I had to have the 4gb is beyond me, but there you have it.




Now I have a little free time to read up on this and try taking pictures!

Camera Critters and Scrumptious Sunday

This is my little dog, Rusty, posing for me in a local park. He is a good dog and will "stay" so I've been having some fun posing him. On his blog he is hoping to be America's Next Top Dog Idol.

Misty Dawn hosts Camera Critters.

Please visit for a lot more great critter photos.

Buttermilk Pie

1 1/2 cups of white sugar

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 t lemon juice

3T flour

1/2 cup butter (or margarine)

2 t vanilla extract

1 9-inch, unbaked and chilled pie shell

Beat the eggs thoroughly and add to the sugar and flour. Add 1/2 cup butter, belted, and one cut buttermilk. Mix well then fold in 2 t vanilla extract and 1 t of lemon juice. Pour into the pie shell. Bake at 350* for 35 minutes. Resist opening the door.

Scrumptious Sunday is hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks!

Join in or visit, the recipes are scrumptious!

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.....

Snow!

It snowed here yesterday! Here in east Texas. It was snowing when I looked out the window a little before 7:00 am and kept on snowing till after 9:30. I was a "little under the weather" so was at home. I napped a lot so don't know exactly when it stopped. It was completely gone by 1.

My father, who is 83, said that when he was a kid here it used to snow 3 or 4 times in the winter with enough snow to play in, make snowmen, have snowball fights, do all the things kids love to do with snow. I found that interesting as we rarely get snow now and when we do it doesn't stick. This snow was very wet so wasn't good snowball snow.


It piled up on the grass and on the vehicles. As you can see it didn't stick on the pavement.
It piled up on this little garden toad. He sure looks cold.

Rusty saw snow for the first time. He sniffed and sniffed. Then he bounced around and played some. Finally, his feet got cold and he ran to the house to get in.

Things I Love About My Pets - A List

Things I Love About My Pets - A List

1. Rusty is sooo happy to see me come home after work. It makes me warm inside to see his little wagging tail (such as it) and know he is truly happy to see me.

2. I love it when Jenny, my old white cat, sits in my lap and purrs. Or when she crawls up on my side when I'm sleeping and purrs. Of course she wakes me up a little, but, well, she's purring.....

3. Bob is sweet when he sits on the arm of the couch by me. He is not a lap cat but likes to be near.

4. When Dallas comes in he always wants pats before he goes to check the cat food bowl.

5. Rusty loves to play tug of war and it is fun to watch his simple joy in this game.

6. I like the way Dallas talks. He is a very vocal cat and lets you know what he wants. He says, very loudly "CHOOOOOOOOWWWWW" when he is hungry. He says "OOOOOOUUUUT" when he wants out. If I'm not quick enough he says, even louder, "OOOOOOUT NOOOOOOOOOW." If he wants pats he walks down the hall calling "MEEEEEEow."

7. Rusty makes me laugh when he jumps in my lap with his Nylabone and shoves it in my hand for me to hold while he chews it.

8. It is funny to watch Rusty snuffle Dallas' face. Dallas puts up with it and has never swatted Rusty.

9. They are so much comfort and company.

10. Bear and Rusty love their treats so. Rusty is fairly easy to teach tricks to due in part to his love of treats. It is fun to have Rusty practice his tricks.

11. Rusty sleeps on my lap when we are watching TV. If Jenny isn't already there. Then, if he really wants on my lap he sits on the ottoman and whines till she is so irritated she leaves.

12. I love the way Rusty twists his head back and forth when I am talking to him.

13. All of these things make for a fairly entertaining day.

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.

Silly Picture Entry

I am posting this silly picture as an entry in a give away at ....and the rest is history. Julie is giving away a $20 dollar gift certificate to Amazon. And besides that, I love sharing pictures of Rusty even though everyone else has about had enough!

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.

First Monday!

Today the dear husband and I had a lot of fun or got a lot of exercise. Or maybe both. We got up and had breakfast at the Birds Egg Cafe, Wanda's place. I'm planning to say more about her at a later time. We then went back home, picked up Rusty and went to Canton to First Monday. If you live around here you know it's great fun. Acres and acres and acres of places to shop. What's not to like? Part of it is like a giant flea market. The pavilions have mostly new things to sell. The variety is infinite. The weather was perfect.The temp was in the low 70's with some wind. Wonderful!

We walked for around that place for about 4 hours. I bought three books for 50 cents each. Not just mass market paperback size, but the trade book size. I added a pair of large Shawnee style Smiley pig salt and pepper shakers to my collection. They are just there to hold a place until I can get the real ones. They are cute and if I don't tell anyone no one will know they are fake. Unless you tell someone!

We got two bottles of balsamic vinegar and two kinds of flavored pastas.

Tangerines were purchased from a farmers type market. Rusty got a pound of home made dog biscuits. He liked that shop! Almost forgot to mention the peanut brittle, yum.

Rusty was so good! He didn't pull his lead (too much.) He didn't dive for other dogs. He didn't bark even at yappy little dogs that barked at him. He usually doesn't get to go because of the heat. We see other people with their dogs there in the dead of summer and they look so miserable. The dogs, not the people. As I write this he is laying on the floor beside me dead to the world. He is just worn out!

Slowing Down, Gearing Up

Wow, I caught my breath today. It has been a busy week! As I said before I picked up my niece, her husband and the baby for New Year's Eve. We had a great time. Below is a picture of my niece and great-niece. Aren't they cute!

On New Years Day we decided to have a movie marathon so we went to rent some. We picked up popcorn and cokes as well. We stopped back by my friends house to pick up the camera I left there the night before, visited for awhile then came on home. As it was New Year's Day we had to have some traditional good luck foods: black eyed peas. My husband grilled chicken and we had black eyed peas and cornbread. No one wanted cabbage so I didn't fix that. I would have been the only one eating it. We played Skip-Bo for awhile then went back to the den for the movies.

We saved Happy Feet for the baby the next day. I took my niece & family to the new Pizza Hut Bistro for dinner and made it back home by six in time for the movie. The local nieces and greats were invited over. That was a total of 6 little kids - OH MY. Rusty and the cats had to stay in our bedroom, it overwhelmed them. We had plenty of popcorn, cokes, sweet tea, and other snacks. The kids enjoyed the movie for the most part. Part of their time was spent with Uncle David in the computer room talking and watching him work.

Thursday morning we got up, finished another movie and got ready to go. We went to Tyler for breakfast at IHoP. Lots of coffee & yummy food. After a bit of shopping I took them on home.

On the way back home I stopped at Hobby Lobby where I got a great sunset picture from the parking lot, and some stamping paper & ink from the store. Them on to Barnes & Noble for a Vinte Vanilla Latte. Love it, gotta have it. Also picked up another new book. This one is March by Geraldine Brooks.

Today I cleaned up the house. I'm about tired of cleaning. :) David and I ate out with some close friends at the Ranch House and went to the show to see The Water Horse. I wish I could get a copy of the little poster they were handing out to the kids. It would be great in my classroom. I always read The Mysterious Tadpole by Steven Kellogg to my class when we discuss thinking about the story as you listen or read, and for studying illustrators as well as real & make believe & well, lots of other stuff. This would be great for comparisons.

Have to get back in gear! Vacation is about up. School starts back up on Monday!

Notes From Children

I just love getting notes from little kids! This one is from my precious great-niece! She created it at her nannies house where we all were for Christmas. As you can tell, it is now on my refrigerator and it will stay there for awhile (a year?) before it goes into the file cabinet. She is in first grade in the school where I teach and is always so cute when we happen to cross paths.

Rusty now shares ;) my love of notes from youngsters because he recently got a Christmas card from one of my students. I posted it on his blog, but will re -post it here. The little boy created it especially for Rusty, drew and colored bones on the front. So cute.

They all know Rusty because I have him as the wallpaper on my computer at school. I also found a stamp that is of a Yorkie and it looks just like Rusty. I use it everyday on their folders. They have started calling it their "Rusty," as in :

"Do I get a Rusty today?"

"I want my Rusty upside down!"

"I'm making a pattern with my Rustys!"

"I didn't get my Rusty!"

"He doesn't get a Rusty! He was in trouble in PE."

OK, I'm still working on the tattling thing, but you get the drift. They have fun with it.