Years Ago

I'm stealing this idea from Laura, who stole it from someone else. But I thought it would be fun!

30 Years Ago -
February 1979 - I was almost 4 years old and had been living in Ashdown for about two years maybe. My peditrician was Dr. Rorie - who was a little scary to me. But my favorite doc was Dr. Hunter - my urologist. I remember driving in our old red & white Volkswagen bus to Dr. Hunter's office. I'd go to sleep on the 20-minute drive. Mom & I would eat the Pitt Grill sometimes. Some days, we'd go across the street and eat lunch with Laura in the school cafeteria with the BIG kids. Some days we'd picnic on the playground, or on the back steps of Mrs. Dulaney's house next door. Then we'd crawl into Mom & Dad's bed and take a nap. Mom always woke up before me! :-) Then I'd spend the rest of the afternoon waiting on Laura to come home - one time I even climbed up in the kitchen windowsill for some reason. Then we'd wait for Dad to come home. We had a dog, Tippy, and cats Midnight & Tabby (I think). Mom stayed at home and Dad worked at the Okay Cement Plant. He carpooled to work with Mr. Miller and Mr. Gathright. I think he had an old blue car. His boots always had a white dust on them. My grandparents lived in Ashdown (Dad's parents) and Hope (Mom's parents). My great-aunt lived in Ashdown too (Aunt Bessye and Uncle Bo) and we liked playing at their houses - mostly their extra bedrooms and closets - and they let us watch TV more! Laura and I were still sharing a bedroom. It was blue with two-colored blue shag carpet.

25 Years Ago -
February 1984 - I was in the third grade at Burke Street Elementary, in Mrs. Stoker's class. We lived right across the street from the school, and Mom taught 1st grade. I would get a lot of "tummy aches" and "headaches" because I was bored, and didn't want to do all of the "Jobs" we had to do in the mornings. I think I was sick for Valentine's Day and missed wearing my white knee socks with hearts on them.

20 Years Ago -
February 1989 - I was in the 8th grade at Ashdown Junior High, playing clarinet in the band. I had Mrs. Williamson for history, Mrs. Perkins for speech, Mrs. Pyron for English (she insisted we use only PENS), Mr. Poole for band, and some others. Laura was finally driving, and could be my transportation, thus relieving me of riding the bus. I was sick a lot that year. I had mono right after Thankgiving, the flu, and strep throat twice. I had glasses and braces. So I'm painting a lovely picture of myself; hence, the reason for NOT including one on here (check out Laura's blog post if you're just dying to see what I looked like).

15 Years Ago -
February 1994 - I was a freshman at Harding! My roommate was Dana and by then we only had one suitemate - Rachel. Nancy had moved off campus (lucky duck). My job that spring for cleaning the bathroom was to clean the toilet and shower I think. I had an 8:00 Bible class - old testament with Ross Cochran. I drove a blue Ford Escort.

10 Years Ago -
February 1999 - I had been working for Extension (the short version of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service) in Pike County for about a year and a half. I lived in a nice basement apartment two blocks from work, the Post Office, the bank, etc. and only a block from church. Mrs. Twyla lived upstairs and owned the house. I had cable and a carport too. By this time I was also driving my new(to me) red Dodge Avenger, and driving to DFW for week-ends with my college friend(s), or going to LR to visit Laura & John. I enjoyed walking at the city park, the diamond mine, the neighborhood, and at the lake. I sat with Cotton & Jo Ray at church. I often spent week-ends with Mom, and she even let me do laundry.

5 Years Ago -
February 2004 - I had been living in Searcy for a couple of years. Laura was pregnant with Ethan, and I enjoyed babysitting Emily when I had the chance. I often thought that Laura & John's social life was way more exciting than mine. I loved living so close to them (just blocks!). My best friend Elissa and our Moms were planning a vacation to Savannah in April and I was researching vehicles to buy. Still had my red car, but eventually bought a blue Honda CR-V. I wasn't dating anyone that I remember.

1 Year Ago -
February 2008 - I was driving that Honda CR-V and it was almost paid for!! I was in grad school finally - taking the Principles of Learning & Teaching class with Penny McGlawn. I hosted my new Bunco group that month.

1 Week Ago -
I was driving home from Ashdown and it was raining cats and dogs. We had actually packed up some stuff of Mom's and some guys from church came & moved some of the big stuff to storage. I had met Bingley, hung out with the kids, Mom, Laura, and Patti. Oh, and spent the morning on Saturday at the Honda dealership (I had run over a raccoon driving in Friday night).

Yesterday -
February 7, 2009 - I worked ALL day at our child care provider training. I left my house just after 7am and got home around 4pm. I had really wanted to go to the store, but didn't feel like it after I got home and got comfy. I had the rest of the banana nut Cheerios with the vanilla soy milk leftover from the training. Then I realized I had no more cereal for breakfast today. Oh well. I finished watching "America's Sweethearts" (I had rented it and watched about half of it on Friday night). And I went to bed early.

Today -
That little sore throat from yesterday, which I thought was from talking too much and not drinking enough water, turned into more of a cold today. I read the last book of the Harold Bell Wright trilogy that Mom gave me last year - God & the Groceryman. It was really good. I need to studying for a test tomorrow. I did work a little - sent out some emails so I wouldn't forget to do that tomorrow. Need a new shower curtain and I've got my eye on one at Target.com. I've done laundry also. But mostly took medicine and wrapped up in blankets.

my little crockpot experiment

So, if you haven't found the "crock pot blog" you should! It's linked on Laura's blog or go here. This lady, Stephanie, is using her crockpot every day for a year. She has some really neat recipes (including making shrinky-dinks in the crockpot instead of the oven). You can search pretty easily for what you're looking for - vegetarian, light & healthy, chicken, side dishes, etc. Some of the breakfast stuff looks pretty good too. I tried out several recipes last week and thought I'd share my results. One of the reasons - I'm doing a lesson on crock pot cooking next month and thought I'd do a little "research." I think I just wanted to cook something!

The absolute best one was the "creamy crock pot risotto!" I've made risotto the usual way and it takes time and effort (but is well worth it). But this stuff is easy AND yummy!!!! YUMYUMYUM. Even my coworker Keith (I'd guess he was a meat & potatoes man, who usually looks at my cooking rather skeptically) loved it and had me email the recipe to his wife. I didn't use the chopped garlic - I was lazy and used garlic powder (and not as much as called for).

Next I tried out the Jalapeno Corn Pudding because I figured it would go well with the leftover BBQ, beans, & not-much-left-potato salad from lunch. I prepared it pretty much the way she said, but I would probably use a little less jalapeno to suit my tastes - I didn't chop it up either because I was in a hurry. I didn't find any of the frozen roasted corn, no surprise there.

I made Vegetarian No-Noodle Crock Pot Lasagna on Thursday. I knew by then that I'd want some veggies instead of the steady diet of meat, starch, and ice cream. I don't have the larger size crock pot recommended for this recipe, but I improvised. Quite a bit. I used all of the pasta sauce, about half the ricotta cheese, half of the other cheeses, half an eggplant, 2 squash, half the mushrooms, half the spinach. This was pretty good, but most people didn't want to try it and it made a lot. I'd try this again, and tweak a bit more. I just layered and layered, very hurriedly, but I still really liked it.

Mom & Patti came for the week-end, so I took my crock pot home and made Mediterranean Chicken Crockpot on Saturday (I figured the weather would be bad and we'd want to stay home for dinner). So they picked up salad at Harp's (what a chore!) and I cooked brown rice to go with this. I did finally find frozen artichoke hearts at Harp's (in the organic frozen foods). They weren't cheap and Stephanie says you can just use the canned/jarred ones also. We decided that this one needed something else - maybe onion, more seasoning, salt, etc. It was tasty and it got better after sitting in the frig (or maybe I was just hungry and didn't have anything else to eat and put enough salt on it). One of the reasons I picked this one though - easy and no chopping or anything! Just open and dump it in! AND, I used my last crockpot liner which really helped with clean up.

Fair-ly Well

Well, the fair is over for another year. Things I liked about this year:
--seeing Lou get SO VERY excited about "Elvis" and getting to eat with him
--having one of our 4-Hers win the Fair Queen contest and do a great job as Queen
--the Dove ice cream that I ate way too much of
--the BBQ running out before I was sick of it
--the cookies Willie brought!!!!
--getting to see people
--seeing people so excited about their ribbons
--hearing the applause for Brian's "mutton-busting" skills
--watching the kids get their animals ready
--riding around on the golf cart and Kubota thingys
--having internet, a printer, soft drinks, and a comfy couch at the new fair office
--eating lunch on the bleachers with Mom & Patti - the breeze, food, and company were really nice.

I'm really trying to remember the good instead of the chewing out I got this afternoon, the resentment I feel at having to do some of the things I do, the exhaustion and tears, the feeling that I'm not doing anything really worthwhile out there, the pressure to make people happy while knowing I won't ever succeed. I know I'm not perfect, my patience (never great to begin with) wears very thin, and I am human and make mistakes. I never try to hurt people, or forget them intentionally, but I do. I keep thinking, "if they only knew....." while wishing that I could drop it all, or at least parts! One of my bosses, Martha Ray, came by on Friday. She always said she looked for the fun. She said you just have to do some things and you might as well enjoy it along the way. I wish I could have done better at that this week instead of venting. It seems like that if I vent, I feel better but I'm sure it comes across that all I do is complain which is not what I want! I hear enough complaints from others, and I'm sure the people I vent to feel the same way. To err is human? sigh. such is life. I know, I should work on my attitude!!!!!!!!!

Alone

I really needed to hear Noel's lesson this morning "Never Alone." I guess I needed the reminder than even though I may be lonely at time, I'm never alone.

I won't be alone much this week, that's for sure. The White County Fair is this week! People have asked what I do out there all week. Basically, I'm not in charge of anything, I don't tell people what to do. I'm there as a support or advisor, to work with the many volunteers out there, and try to keep the peace and make people happy. I do lots of little things - we have a "worker area" and I hosed down the bathroom with bleach, washed out all the kitchen drawers of the little mouse droppings, cleaned dishes, cleaned counters, etc. I also make lots of coffee, make sure that the donuts are handy, do paperwork, and get lunches ready. I help with the Fair Queen Contest (no, it's not a pageant they tell me) - put on the reception, work with my Extension Homemaker ladies, coordinate with people, eat cookies, drink punch, smooze, direct, and help the judges. Not to mention loading my car with two wicker screens, a trophy, a tiara, a sash, chair covers, food, a change of clothes, a step stool, my file box, parade signs, coolers, etc. I'm also attempting to try out four crock pot recipes this week - creamy crockpot risotto (Tuesday), jalapeno corn pudding (Wednesday), Mediterraean Chicken (Thursday), and Vegetarian No-Noodle lasagna (Friday).

So, check out the schedule:
Monday - 4-H Poultry Chain Sale (need any chickens?!?) and Fair Queen Contest
Tuesday - Talent showcase, check in exhibits like jelly & quilts, FREE night
Wednesday - judging of those jelly jars and quilts, dairy show, gospel night
Thursday - Senior Day (free lunch, entertainment, and free admission for the older folks), Cody Slaughter (young Elvis impersonator - really good!), Bullriding
Friday - Kid's Day, Livestock Auction, Kentucky Headhunters, Rodeo
Saturday - armband day for carnival (I think), demolition derby, rodeo, last day to buy a stomach bomb (polish sausage) or a funnel cake.

New Post (gasp!!)

Highlights since the last post:

I finished my summer school classes!!! And I made all A's!!!!!!!!! Never had a 4.0 before, unless you count that one semester in high school. I enjoyed all 8 hours this summer and learned a lot.

I got the "Pampering Package" at Serenity Day Spa on Aug. 1 (the morning I left on vacation). It was WONDERFUL!!!! We started off with a paraffin treatment on my hands and feet, then moved to the "scalp treatment" which was pretty relaxing. Then she wrapped my head and hands with warm towels and let me just relax. She finished up with an excellent massage. AHHHHHHHHHH. I highly recommend it. I was so relaxed.....Dena recommended that I go home and take a warm bath with epsom salts. I needed to clean the tub anyway, so I did that. I was lucky to get the packing finished!

VACATION NOTES:

I left Searcy that day about 6:00 p.m. for my much-anticipated vacation. My friend Elissa, her parents (George & Sue), and I were going to San Francisco.

Friday evening - My plan was to drive to Memphis, park near the airport, shuttle over to airport, and take cab to the train station. I was running a little later than I planned, but made good time. I made a wrong turn looking for the FastPark place. Got the cab, and made it to the train station. I knew that we'd have to bus over to the train (sink hole at the station!). It's just a little after 9:00 p.m. and I think the train doesn't leave til 10:40 p.m. so I'm doing great! I carry my luggage up the stairs and find the little kiosk to get my ticket. I'm a little nervous, not having done this before. I get my reservation number, and start getting my ticket. Only......I notice something about a 9:15 time......about then, an employee tells me, "we're leaving in about 2 minutes." WHAT?!?! I get my ticket, frantically look around, and then my mind went blank. I finally asked him where do I go? He calmly tells me to go down to the buses. Oh yeah. Duh. But then, I still had all my luggage....(I planned to check one bag). SO I went downstairs to the buses and asked one of drivers what to do. He was really nice and just suggested that I wait on the train guy. Anyway, I made it to the train with all my luggage. Elissa met me on the stairs and helped me get up (E, G, & S got on in New Orleans, and we were on a Superliner train with two levels). Talk about leg room!!!!! If you want lots of leg room, take a train. There was SO much more space than planes. The seats reclined quite a bit, and we even had a foot rest. AND plug-ins. We got caught up and finally dozed off. When we woke in the morning, we were almost to Chicago! Mr. George graciously got up, and got breakfast AND brought it back (4 cups of coffee, 4 cups of cereal with milk, and some danishes!!).

In Chicago, I was able to check my other bag, and we put the rest of stuff in a rental locker so we could go explore the city during our layover. We got to go up to the top of the Sears Tower! That was about all we had time to do but it was really neat. A great view. We picked up lunch on the way to the station. There were a lot of people waiting (hint: if you're older, or have kids or are basically anything other than the average traveler, you get to load first). The nice thing about train travel is you get to pick out your seats if you're the originating city. We got settled in and enjoyed the ride, leaving Chicago about 2 pm on Saturday.

Chicago skyline

The Sears Tower from the street

There are lots and lots of farms along the way - corn and soybeans mostly. The scenery was really interesting. We got into Iowa that evening, Nebraska that night. We hit Colorado Sunday morning. By then we were running a little late and had to wait to get into the Denver station. We were in Denver about 30 minutes or so, so we were able to get off the train and go into the station. It was very interesting - the "old time" train station look.
Volunteers from the National Park system got on the train and gave some interesting history along the way. Heading up into the Rocky Mountains were really interesting. The Moffat Tunnel was....dark. :-) We decided that Glenwood Springs would have been a good stopover. I think we all enjoyed this day's scenery. We followed a river most of the way this afternoon - and the river runners must have gotten a message to "moon" the trains because most of them did!

We made it into Utah the evening. Talk about empty and desolate. We finally broke down and ate in the Dining Car this evening. At least it was more interesting than the scenery. It was a good experience. It sure beat the Lower Level Lounge and Todd (the LLL attendent). Todd would get on the intercom and encourage people to visit the LLL - and he'd say it with a deep, seedy kind of voice. The food there wasn't bad though - we especially enjoyed the cheese and cracker tray.

Monday morning - Nevada! More scenic that Utah. We had reservations for dinner in SF that night, but we were running behind schedule and weren't sure we'd have time. So we rescheduled dinner at Morton's, and made reservations in the hotel instead. We enjoyed the Nevada mountains, and made it to California about lunchtime. We were getting close when we had to stop and wait. We had to cross a body of water, but a tanker had to pass (the bridge had to be raised for the tanker so we had to wait - tankers go rather slow.....). We finally made it to Emeryville on Monday evening!!!!!!!!

There was a bit of confusion here. The train stops in Emeryville and they had shuttles/buses that go into SF. But we weren't sure about luggage. Turns out, you have to get your luggage, then put it on the bus. We weren't sure where the bus would stop, so we just got a cab. Well, we had to get a van because we had so much luggage (trains let you carry a lot more luggage!). We were packed into the van too. We got to a hotel, and partially unloaded, only to figure out that this wasn't OUR hotel (the names were similar). We finally got to our hotel!!! The Beefeater doorman was huge - and carried a lot of luggage. More confusion on the rooms for tonight, but I didn't care as long as I got a shower! We cleaned up and ate Italian in the hotel. We had expected something quiet, but it was rather loud. We were hungry though, so the bruscetta hit the spot and dinner soon followed.

Tuesday – Mrs. Sue’s birthday! We walked down a few blocks and got our transportation lined up (a 7-day pass for the bus/cable cars/street cars/etc.). We took a street car down to the Ferry Building where we thoroughly enjoyed the market – tons of fresh veggies, fresh fruits, and other foods. The figs were delish! We got some fresh sourdough bread and some cheeses also. We had a little picnic behind the building, sitting on a bench and watching the bay. We ate dinner on Pier 39 at the Crab House. The Eyrichs enjoyed fresh crab, while I enjoyed a crab enchilada. Mine didn’t take long to eat, so I went outside to get pictures of the amazing sunset!!

A cable carThe farmer's market

Sunset from Pier 39

Wednesday – We got out and about this morning. A bus picked us up for day of touring. We got to the office, where we loaded a smaller bus for the morning tour. We headed out to Muir Woods to see the magnificent redwoods. We walked the trail and took tons of pictures, and then visited the shop. We loaded back up and drove to Sausalito where we had just enough time to eat our fish & chips and get some ice cream. Yummy! Back to the tour office, where we loaded up on a bigger bus for the afternoon tour of SF. I’m not sure how much we got out of the first part though – I think we all dozed off. We toured the SF area and got some great views of the Golden Gate Bridge from both sides. We made it back to the hotel in time to get ready for dinner at Morton’s Steakhouse. And what a dinner it was!! The chopped salad was just divine – the best salad ever. The steak was delicious and very tender. We got some sides to share – asparagus, potatoes, etc. We shared two desserts – a soufflé and a way-too-good chocolate dessert. We walked back, and checked out the bookstore at the corner.

From the SF side of GG Bridge

From the Sausalito Side of the GG Bridge

The redwoods at Muir Woods

The fog rolling in - what a sight!

A famous "photo spot" in the city - historic homes, city skyline

Panoramic Shot from the Sausalito side

Thursday – We rented a car for the next few days. Since Elissa was in charge, I knew we’d have something good and more than likely a convertible. She had researched rental companies to find a convertible big enough for the 4 of us and we ended up with a nice black PT Cruiser. The only thing it lacked was four doors. The two doors got old crawling in and out. Anyway, we hit the road, with the Eyrichs Tom-Tom GPS, for Napa Valley. We enjoyed the lovely drive and found the train station with time to spare. So we hit McDonald’s for a snack/late breakfast. We got back on the train, and enjoyed a leisurely train ride through the Valley. The vineyards were so pretty and scenic. We enjoyed a fruit and cheese tray and some dessert. Afterwards, we hit the road again – this time to the Jelly Belly Factory!! We barely made it for the last tour but we did get to tour. We got to wear little Jelly Belly hats (everyone has to wear them) and we got a bag of Jelly Bellys at the end. Then, of course, we had to peruse the gift shop!!! Belly Flops are the ones that don’t quite pass inspection but are still good, so I got a back of those. Way too tempting…… We hadn’t had Chinese food yet, so we found a Chinese place for dinner…and had so much food that we took half of it back with us.

Napa Valley

Friday was the day for our driving down the coast…..but before we left, we had to eat breakfast/brunch at Sears Fine Foods. It got great reviews, was an established restaurant, and right across the street. I had the Swedish pancakes with Lignonberries!!! Yummy!!! After Tom-Tom took us on a little detour, we made it to Hwy. 1 - what beautiful scenery!!!!! It was breathtaking. We stopped at several points along the way for pictures. We ate dinner at a little picnic spot – we took our leftover Chinese, leftover cheeses, fruits, veggies, etc. and we enjoyed our chilly, breezy dinner! We parked the car and headed back to the hotel, but decided to try the diner across the street. We had heard they had good malts. And boy, they sure did!! Hwy. 1 - south of the Bay Area


Our happy group and our cool car!

Saturday – after looking at the menu at the diner, we decided to go back there for breakfast. Yummy! We took the car out for another drive. It was an experience navigating the city on a Saturday. We got pulled over for driving in the bus lane, couldn’t turn left anywhere, and got all mixed up before we finally made it to Lombard Street for the drive down “the crookest street.” It was crooked all right. We drove around a bit more before giving the car back! Elissa and I took it back to the rental company, and walked back to the hotel (about 6 blocks, only one of which was really uphill!). We had more adventure getting back to Pier 39 on the street cars. We walked around a bit and ate Mexican before heading over to another pier for our evening cruise to Alcatraz. We stood in line a while before boarding, and enjoyed a nice cruise over to island. We had a great tour (even got to see & hear them open/close the prison doors) and got some great pictures. It’s a very neat place – eerie, interesting, and chilly. We were pretty tired by then!

Lombard Street Alcatraz from the ferryThe Cell BlockNice pix from the "rock"

I finished packing and set my alarm for way-too-early. I had a shuttle to the airport and made it in good time. But I didn’t have time for breakfast or coffee before I got on the plane! I made do on the plane with the “breakfast cookies” and a cup of coffee. And more of the cookies, pretzels, juice, and more coffee. I ate when I got to Atlanta and made it home that evening.

HOME AGAIN!

I reluctantly went back to work. And worked.

School started – I have two classes this semester. Anatomical & biomechanical kinesiology and Research Methods.

I had dinner at Eagleview with the ICHF (supports the Nigerian Christian Hospital) and learned a lot. I got a book from Grace Farrar and it was really good.

Went to NLR – got two new pairs of shoes at Sports Authority (one was on clearance), got a few things at Sam’s, and then ate dinner at Cracker Barrel.

The fair is September 8-13!

Limas, Learnings, and Leanings

I'm taking a little break from the drudge of writing APA-style research paper, annotated bibliography, and the like. I'm really sick of it. But I'm sure it will be worth it when I get that raise.....just keep thinking.....

So I found some baby lima beans in my freezer. And since I don't want to drop this research paper to go out for food....I cooked them. I threw in a chicken bouillon cube, and they are quite yummy. They were actually better than my "throw something together" quinoa salad. And the aforementioned frozen sloppy joes.

I'm looking forward to the week-end. I'll be done with school (YEAH!!! for the summer anyway), Supper Club (Christmas in July) will have been pulled off by the skin of my teeth, I'll hopefully see some Ka Ra Te friends, and Mom, Laura, Emily, and I will be celebrating Mom's birthday! Togetherness and cake - what more could we want?!

My education class has been fun and I still have one more big project to do for it. (WHY am I blogging instead of working?!?! Oh yeah - my brain needs a break) My other class is abstinence education programming. I've got personal experience on that one. But reading all this research makes me think - more parents need to be actively involved in the lives of their children (and research backs that up). And those kids need to be educated on it all - no matter your beliefs. I hope they choose abstinence, but if they don't, they at least need enough information to protect themselves and learn to make healthy choices (some studies show that even comprehensive sex ed shows increases in abstinence). I don't have kids, and I'm not saying what I'd do if I had them. But I have thought about it and I would hope that I would be brave enough to talk to my kids about, yes, SEX throughout their life span. I don't mean all the details - just what they are ready for at an appropriate age. I know it's scary because I've heard some conversations about this very thing. But if you just ignore it, hope it will go away, or put it off until what you consider the last minute.....what wrong information will children get in the meantime? Studies show that children get most of the information from friends or the internet. So what are they learning? Wouldn't you rather them learn from you? Most people learn in small doses. So if you gradually add information, in a way that doesn't frighten or embarrass, wouldn't that be better than one long, red-faced "talk?" It sounds better to me. But then, what do I know?

Black & Blue and in between

The Searcy Community Band presented a rousing patriotic tribute on Thursday, July 3rd at Spring Park. For the first time, I actually heard most of the parts!! And it all seemed to come together pretty well, with the exception of some wrong notes. It was fun. My biggest problem is not new – it was my main problem growing up with piano and clarinet – PRACTICE!! But another clarinet player offered to practice together in August since I’ll miss some of the practices. Whew.

I went to Wally World after the concert to pick up essentials for the “Tucker Invasion” week-end. Laura suggested keeping it simple – so I planned a Ham & Rice Salad and sloppy joes. The weather was really nice Thursday night – not hot and a little breeze. However, by the time I got to WM (Wal-Mart), the breeze had really picked up and the clouds had rolled in. I briefly wondered if I should have brought my umbrella…..and I should have! I heard lots of thunder inside, and saw the growing line of people and carts by the door. But I finally just decided to run for it – it wasn’t too bad by then. And it had stopped completely when I got home.

On July 4th, I got up and ate a bowl of cereal before putting on some a t-shirt, jeans, and flip flops to pick blueberries. I knew, since it had rained the night before, that I’d probably get wet. I didn’t plan on getting thoroughly drenched and muddy – and I don’t remember being that muddy and wet in a long time. I had to cross some dirt to get to the berries and it was soft. So soft, in fact, that I sank into the mud and lost my flip-flops! I went ahead and picked and picked and picked. I found a branch and dug one shoe out. Then I jumped over the mud moat, and dug the other shoe out. Can you say wet & muddy?!?!? I found a water hose and hosed my feet and shoes off before heading home and into the shower!

I put some of the berries into the freezer, and then made a blueberry cobbler (light!) with the rest. I cleaned house, cooked rice, and relaxed before the Tuckers arrived. We met at the Brick Oven Pizza for dinner, and then went over to Harding for the fireworks. The kids had fun with the carnival stuff and the adults had fun catching up with friends. We sat with the Adams family and enjoyed the show.

Saturday John went on a bike ride (they had to wait for the rain to stop) while we hung out. He texted and told us that Willie had invited us over for lunch. When he got back, he took the kids and Laura & I went to Harp’s. We ran into Willie & Jake, and Flee Patton. We headed over to Willie & Kim’s house with the cobbler and enjoyed hamburgers and freshly-made guacamole! The kids bowled on their WII and I filled in while Emily ate her cobbler. That was fun! Laura tried out the FIT also before we headed home to rest. Laura & I made sloppy joes for dinner but John went home. We ran into Rena Howard & her family at church on Sunday then ate the Ham & Rice Salad for lunch. Laura and the kids packed up and left me with a very quiet house.

Fun Moments:
~Emily hugging me and saying, “I love you Aunt Katie.” – multiple times!
~Laura wielding my Pampered Chef Spatula.
~The kids fighting over my great toys: the exercise ball, my megaphone from 6th grade, and pillows (note to self: get some more toys!).
~Ethan pooping the potty! ~The blueberry cobbler and Mexican Coke.
~Bowling on WII
~Watching Jake and Clifford.
~Emily’s creativeness – from her telling everyone about her pet baby snail Amanda to her artwork of amoebas
~Ethan talking about anything
~Chatting with Laura & going to the grocery store not once but twice and finding Mexican Coke for Big John

Back to work on Monday! Fun Fun. After work, I went to WM to see about finding some clothes – mostly things I could take on vacation. I tried on several things but ended by buying two pair of capris – khaki and black. Then I went back to Anita’s to pick blackberries. WOW – talk about ripe and ready. I picked about an hour and got a bucket full – enough to freeze about 1 ½ gallons, and I saved out enough for a small cobbler. I also fixed up the leftover sloppy joes to freeze, so now my freezer is nice & full.