Back to the grind!

Monday, Monday...(la, la, la, la)

Only 3 more weeks till Christmas break - LOL!

Hope you survived Monday with a smile!

Had lots of requests or inquiries about the "Snow Dipped Dung Balls" - hee hee! Here's a pic... they are rejects of the No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies... cookies that were too gooey and didn't set firm. So I rolled them into balls and dipped them in powdered sugar! Woo-lah! "Snow-dipped Dung Balls"! They're good - just ugly ! Hope that helps for an explanation!

At our house, putting up the Christmas lights has traditionally been led by our oldest son - Andy Hayes. Andy is in Alabama attending college and won't be here until Christmas day - SO! The tradition has been handed down to Alex - the 2nd son - who was all to eager to accept the job! We both (KV and I) were leery of allowing Alex on the house - especially our new house - the pitch is SO STEEP on this roof - I helped one year and was so sore - had trouble walking for 3 days (LOL!)! But he is 13 or will be on Tuesday... SO! Saturday was deemed - Christmas Lights Day; before the cold front hits. Even Aric got to help some with the lights - won't be long before this title is handed down to him - OMG! Here's some pics from this event!

Hey Andy Hayes! We THINK of you often, but now we SEE you often... Donna S. has put up a whole bunch of photos that she has taken in a store's windows downtown and YOURS is up there! Remember the "Blue Eyes" from your Sr. 07 pics? We get to see it every time we go through downtown! Too cool!

These pics are for Fitz... he's such a guru! Hee hee! Still on the brink of buying a TV and getting cable ( this has been a long time dilemma for us! We haven't had cable for almost 6 years). If we get a new TV - then we've got to get rid of the oak entertainment center that we bought 14 years ago... (one of my favorite pieces of furniture; sniff - sniff!) and rearrange the whole den area - which is okay! I've wanted to include the fireplace as a focal point of the room - and can do this along with placing the new TV over on the other side of the room - next to the fireplace. BUT... see those glass bricks... that's from the master bathroom into the den - weird, huh! The TV now is on the west side; fireplace on the east. So, not sure I'm in for a CHANGE that big... any suggestions? This is where the pics come in for Fitz - he wanted pictures to "visualize" our den's layout - Good Luck!

CA - hope you had a great day for your birthday! You were in our thoughts today, Little Bro! Gosh, you're getting old! LOL!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great tomorrow! My baby boy Alex will be an "official" teenager of 13 - argh! WOW! Where has the time gone? Hug the ones you love!

Things learned through the Thanksgiving Break!

Can't believe the Thanksgiving break is almost over...

How fast time flies!

Here are some things that I have learned throughout this break!

FAMILY is #1! I have enjoyed each and every minute with my family. We have BOTH families in the same town - so we do not travel; which is nice to just stay HOME. It's such an enjoyment not making a schedule and just relaxing at home! We all enjoyed the break and taking "a break" from our busy schedule!

That my favorite side dish for Thanksgiving - the classic "BROCCOLI & RICE" casserole can be made with spinach. Okay! How bad is my eyesight these days... I bought, defrost and starting cooking the frozen chopped spinach into this recipe and didn't notice it until the SMELL wasn't the same - argh! BUT - lesson learned! My husband ate and LOVED this dish - he hates broccoli... hmmmm! New classic favorite now, huh!

That I can't make the "No Bake Oatmeal Cookies" correctly TWO times in a row! I LOVE these cookies and hardly can make them where they harden up the right way! Made these cookies last week and they were perfect - this week they turned into the "Snow-dipped Dung Balls" - but still tasted great! Also made peanut patties that didn't work either... good but a chewy-gooey mixture... maybe the rainy Sunday weather effected my cooking - hmmm!

That there IS a reason for piercing baked potatoes when cooking them - they EXPLODE if you don't! BOOM! Learned this the hard way... I always pierce them until Friday.... when making a Baked Potato Soup and needing a couple of baked potatoes... I forgot to pierce them - WOW - do exploded potatoes make a mess...

And last but not least - Dorothy was right -

There's no place like HOME!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving break! Enjoy the last day - thanks for stopping by! Hug the ones you love!

New House Guest!

This week, we are baby (dog) sitting for KV's Aunt Rosie as she is on a CRUISE! "Missy" is a sweet, SMALL dog and she has came in and taken control of all of us - including our LARGE (wimpy) Dalamatian "Dallas" - check out these pics! Dallas is such a sissy that when Missy took over Dallas' large bed pillow - she resorted to Missy's very small bed pillow - LOL!

Recently, I taught a ladies Bible class over "Gifting vs Giving" (did she pick it out JUST FOR ME or what? - LOL!) I always learn more when I teach! To bribe my

ladies... I served a hot drink, as they came into class, (it was a cool, fall night) - also GIVING a gift to illustrate the lesson - but the ladies LOVED this drink! It was a store box mix that was combined with apple cider and served warm. This flavor was new to me - "Orange-Cinnamon"! If you are in the mood for something warm and comforting - this is it! Try it!

Our Career Club is hosting a conference this next week and we had to provide some door prizes. I made 4 all-occasion cards along with a matching box-bag for one of my door prizes. Do you think this is an appropriate gift for a "door prize" - would you like this as a gift and could use it? I'll include pics of the cards... Thanks for your input! (Hey Steph - I'm using my very beautiful ribbon...! Love it!)

This Sunday, our church is putting together Food Sacks to give out to the community on Sunday night. We're taking the boys today to the grocery store to help with

selecting and buying the items for this event - trying to teach "sharing" - (trying...) Wish us luck - I get so discouraged when shopping and spend most of the time saying "NO! You can NOT have a toy..." and that's EVERY time we go to a store - argh! Maybe, I should be learning PATIENCE along with that, huh! (hint, hint!)

Okay! This weekend - if you were going to the movies... would it be New Moon or The Blind Side? (So far... at CHS - boys want BS and girls want NM - go figure?!)

Hope you are off to a GREAT weekend! TGIF! Thanks for stopping by! We're going to clean out our garage Saturday - we've been blessed with A LOT of JUNQUE... LOL! Have a good one! Hug the ones you love!

Remember Lemon Coolers? (cookies)

Do you remember these type of cookies?

I can, from my childhood - they were my favorite! We always called them "Lemon Coolers"?! Here's a great recipe that is ALMOST these cookies for this week's recipe swap! ENJOY! Let me know what you think... is it a copycat recipe? Hmmm!

Lemon Cooler Cookies
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup shortening
1 tablespoon water
1 egg
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
**1/2 teaspoon Unsweetened lemonade "Kool-aide" (** secret ingredient!!)
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cream together sugars, shortening, egg, vanilla, and salt in
a large bowl. Add the flour and baking powder. Add 1 tablespoon of water and
continue mixing until dough forms a ball. Roll dough into 3/4-inch balls and flatten slightly onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until cookies are light brown. As cookies bake, combine 1 cup powdered sugar with the lemonade
drink mix in a large plastic bag and shake thoroughly to mix. When the cookies are removed from the oven and while they are hot, add 4 or 5 at a time to the bag and shake it until the cookies are well coated. Repeat with the remaining cookies.

Hope your week is going well - next week THANKSGIVING!  Yahoo!  Ready for some "time out" of school!  How about you?  Thanks for stopping by today!  Hug the ones you love!  Until next time...  

 

Ging's 1st Geocaching Trip!

Hello!  Hope you are enjoying this wonderful Fall weather -FALL is here!  The leaves are BEAUTIFUL!  This weekend was our 4-H District Food Show competition in Vernon.  Of course, we mapped out  some geocaches to find along the way.  My mom - aka "The Ging" came with us!  She has heard of our adventures, but now she is an actual "Geocacher"! LOL

If you are ever in Vernon, TX - we highly recommend visiting the Red River Valley Museum - who knew??  It had a geocache planted by it and so we decided to go in - WOW!  It's NOT your typical small town museum... GO!  You'll be glad you did!  Now we're trying to figure out how to get our 4-Her's and even my art classes back up there - it has SO MUCH that you will be surprised to find it in Vernon - a HUGE Polar Bear is just one of the things that will "wow" you  - here's a link to this museum - and grab the geocache while your there!!

Both boys did well at the Food Show - Aric left with 1st place in the Junior division in the Nutritious Snack section - he's definitely having a winning streak this year... "Lil' toot!".  We're proud of both of 'em!

        

After eating out at Bara's and Braum's, we hit several geocaches!  The Ging watched the first 

couple a times, and by the end of the day - she was jumping out with the rest of us and trying to find the geocache!  It was great fun!  We even had three "virtual" geocaches - learning something new EVERY day!  For more info on "Geocaching" - here's the official site!

Hope your weekend was great and you are ready for a FANTASTIC week!  Yahoo!  Thanks for stopping by!  Hug the ones you love! 

 

Comfort Food

For this week's recipe swap, decided to use a classic "Comfort Food" recipe... Chicken Casserole. It's one of our favorites that just makes you feel cozy when you eat it! It's a very common, but a GREAT casserole!

Chicken Casserole

2 Cups Diced Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
1 Box of Stove Top Stuffing
1 Can Cream Of Chicken Soup
1 Can Chicken Broth
2-3 cups of Cheddar Cheese; shredded
1 Tablespoons Minced Fresh Garlic
1-2 tsp. Ground Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Black Pepper
Saltine or Ritz Crackers For Top Of Casserole; crushed
Mix all of the above ingredients except your crackers in a large bowl and mix well. Pour into a greased casserole dish. Sprinkle the top of your casserole with the crackers crumbled up well. Bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees. Enjoy!

Hope you are having a great week. I am much better! Thank you so much for all the cards, notes of concern, phone calls and just being nice to me. My chiropractor is helping me out so much! I've been seeing Dr. Nall since March of this year, and my scoliosis has improved so much. (He was out of town this last weekend... figures, huh!) I even slept the night through last night - WOW! He's taken a "crippled" woman from Sunday and now I can move so much better by Wednesday... it's amazing. Now I'm not healed - just better! LOL!

Thanks for stopping by! Hug the ones you love! Have a great "rest of the week"!