Mystery Trip #3 - Seismic Style!

On Saturday, after an early morning flag football pictures and game, after a birthday party - we grabbed the boys and headed for Oklahoma!  This was to be our "Mystery Trip #3"!  Destination was Meers, Oklahoma - located up in the Wichita Mountains around Lawton, Ok.

We download several geocaches into the gps -  that were located on our designated route.  We found 4 out of 9; next trip we're downloading and printing out the information to take with us!  We're missing out on the exact details of where the caches are located... but we still found some really neat located caches - and even picked up a "travel bug" cache!  That's where you log in where this bug was found and then you place it in another cache... for someone else to find! For more information on GEOCACHING - click here!  It's a fun and cheap adventure... LOL!

We had the perfect day for traveling!  The scenic route of 

the Wichita Mountains was so pretty!  We saw Longhorns and Buffalo roaming in the National Resevior.  Dinner was to be at the  famous Meers Restaurant- best known for their Meersburgers! We arrived around 5 PM. After waiting about 25 minutes, (we beat the rush - when leaving, the line was out the door!) We finally got to tour and sit down in the old gold miner's hang-out.  We order the "Seismic Meersburger" that feed all four of us along with Texas Toothpicks (fried onions and jalapeno strips), "American" fries and fried okra - WOW!  For dessert - homemade ice cream with Cherry cobbler and some fried peaches!  YUM - Yes!  Our fat/sugar intake was extreme!

    

    

Next on the list, was to drive to the top of Scott Mountain located just a couple of miles from Meers.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  Perfect at sunset!  This location was busy!  Lots of people doing the same thing that we were.  This was the boys first "mountain" to peak - a "nail-biting" experience as we drove UP... my mother-in-law would have freaked out!  It's a very pretty view!  Lawton is in the background and also a large wind farm can be seen!

    

  

We were very tired when returning home, but it was a great trip.  We just needed to get away and do something together as a family.  We were on a budget - and this area was just in our "backyard", so to speak... traveling only about 2 hours away!  So for a short drive and under $100 - we completed our Mystery Trip #3 - Seismic Style!  Today, I'm rushing to grade papers, catch up on the boys' piano, homework and wash all the clothes before the week starts up!  But it's all good!

Hope you had a great weekend!  Hug the ones you love!  Thanks for stopping by!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

My students have been collecting, saving and voting with SONIC tags for our local art project for the last two weeks in school.  With the help of EVERYONE in the community 

Our project has been FUNDED! 

 

Thank you so much for your help!  We live in a GREAT town!  Love SMALL TOWNS!

We will soon be creating, designing, painting and mounting

 up our sign for Bobcat Spirit on our school's baseball pressbox - will post pictures when project is complete!  Thank you again!  Here's more info of our project here!

Here are some pictures from our CHS "GENDER BENDER" Day this week - "Holy Cow" - what a day!  All I can say is our students have SPIRIT on "Spirit Dress Up Day"!  Go Bobcats!  LOL!

    


      

Hope you have a GREAT WEEK.  We've got a MYSTERY TRIP planned for the boys tomorrow - and it's still a secret... more on the next post!  Thanks for stopping by!  Hug the ones you love!

    

Cook... do I have TIME to cook?

A home-cooked meal is almost a thing in the past... so it seems! Help! - Betty Crocker - where are you?   It's so hard to find the time to cook (and energy!)  After working all day, coming home to stand up another hour and cook, eat and clean - is SO difficult.  And that's IF I've got the ingredients at home to cook with...  been there - done that?  How do you do it?  I've got to find the time, energy and plan to cook more - argh!  Another thing to add to my list of "To Do's"

Hope you are having a great week!  We traveled to Iowa Park for a Tuesday football game this week!  It was the PERFECT evening for football!  Cool - but not cold!  Alex's B-Team won - he even got to be the captain and meet out in the middle for the coin toss - so exciting.  And he even TACKLED a player... he's been very weary to actually have contact - this is our first year of tackle ball!  Too funny - love this kid!  We are enjoying watching him play!

    

Here's this week's recipe swap - a simple casserole!  My kids LOVE this!  Along with a salad and garlic toast - we're done!  I'm trying to cook more and this recipe is one of our favorite!

Taco Twist Bake

1 lb. ground beef

1 pkg. Taco Seasoning

2 cans (8 oz ea) Tomato Sauce

1 pkg (8 oz) Spiral Pasta

1 cup Sour Cream

2 cups Cheddar Cheese; shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a skillet, brown ground beef; drain.  Mix in Taco Seasoning by package directions.  Cook spiral pasta, as directed.  Combine the taco meat and tomato sauce together and bring to a boil.  Meanwhile, combine cooked pasta and sour cream; place in a greased casserole dish.  Sprinkle 1 cup of cheese on pasta.  Top with meat mixture.  Bake, uncovered for 25 minutes.  Sprinkle with remaining cup of cheese.  Bake 5 minutes longer or until the cheese is melted.  Yield 4-6 servings!  Enjoy! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Hug the ones you love!

Having a busy week!

Hope you had a GREAT week!  

We had a busy one - whew!  

Love, love, love the weekends!  

Here's some pictures from the week!  The CJHS pep-rallies and games are usually on Thursdays - Alex plays  in the percussion during the rallies and on the 7th grade Bobkitten team!  This week they played Fritch. Go #85!  

    

Aric started Flag Football and his first game was today - Saturday!  He is on the RAIDERS this year!  Go #11!

  

We survived the 1st concession stand at Fair Park Stadium - the Bobcat's 1st home game - OMG!  How I forgot what a long day it can be...  got home at 11 PM 

- too pooped to party!  No extreme emergencies - not after the ice man's machines broke so we had to haul ice in from TxDot, Candy man was running late - BG saved the day by running to WF on Thursday to buy candy; and right at the last minute someone "jimmied" the door on the home side stand and we had to break in and take the door knob off to get inside - argh!  But NO STRESS!  LOL!  We have great people working with us - and we made it through! One down - three more to go!

Included in this post is a video from this morning - Aric snagged a flag right in front of us... during his flag football game and the Ging got it on video - she was so excited! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great weekend!  HUG the ones you love!  

Too hot to handle Recipe!

This recipe maybe "too hot to handle" - so use hamburger pickle slices instead for some old fashion "pick-a-loes" - these are perfect with ketchup!  This week's recipe swap is for Fried Jalapenos (or pickles!). First tried them as "Fire Bites" at TGIF, (I think...) and loved them!   Fixed a batch this last weekend - KV ate the jalapenos and the boys ate the pickles -

Fried Jalapenos / Pickles

1 egg; beaten

3 cups flour (+ 1 Tblsp)

1 cup Milk

1 Tbls Worcestershire sauce

6 drops Hot Sauce

1 tsp Salt

3/4 tsp Pepper

12 oz. of jalapenos (pickled nacho slices)

(or hamburger sliced dill pickles)

Salt

Pepper

Vegetable oil

Heat oil (like frying up french fries - 350 degrees or in a "Fry Daddy" machine).  Combine egg, 1 Tbsp. flour, milk, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce; Set aside.  Put the 3 cups of flour, along with the salt and pepper in a large gallon plastic bag (makes for easier clean-up!)  Drop the drained jalapeno slices or pickles in the milk mixture and then add to the flour mixture.  Toss in bag until pieces are coated with flour mixture.  Deep fry until the fried pieces float to the surface and drain.  Season with salt and pepper.  Serve with ketchup or cheese dip or ranch or ...!  Enjoy!

Yep!  We, in the South, will fry up anything... hee hee!  Have you tried the Schwann's Fried Greenbeans - OMG!  They were good - perfect with grilled cheeseburgers!  Alex had a friend over who absolutely HATES vegetables and he LIKED these! WOW!  Try 'em - let us know what you think!  Hope you are having a great week!  Hang in there - the weekend is coming! LOL!  HUG the ones you love!