Arizona race

Ryan and Jared are headed to Arizona for the Parker 425 Off Road race. Their friend Adam is racing his buggy and Ryan and Jared are a part of his pit crew. Adam got first start, so that sounds favorable. Hope they do well and get some good publicity for Rock and Roll Offroad.

Why didn't I think of that?

Someone invented a brownie pan that is perfect for my family! When I make brownies, we all cut around the edges for the chewy part and leave the middle for last. I have made brownies in a muffin tin for really about the same effect though.

Thank Heaven for little miracles!

Nikolaos Sakkas (Νικολαος Σακκας) was born today in Meteora Greece. Proud parents are Mara and Arthur. More details as they come.
Congratulations!

My second little great nephew to be born within the week! This birth makes for 6 birthdays in our family in one week. Wow, thats a lot of birthdays! (Mike 22, new nephew Brayden 23, Maurine and Robin 24, Mason 27 and now Nikolaos on the 28th!) Janice's mother is law, Maxine's birthday is today too!

Honeymoon route

I started haphazardly cleaning out my junk room and the second box that I opened, I found an excuse to come back to the computer and post this (instead of continuing with my cleaning).


This is a map of Mom and Dad's honeymoon trip. In Dad's handwriting at the bottom of the page it says "Honeymoon Route of Len & Edna 3,500 miles Proverbs 3:6"

They started in Ault, Colorado and made a round trip, stopping in Santa Ana where Dad's father and stepmother lived. In one of their old photos, (I will have to find it) this map was posted on the wall by the kitchen or living room door like a decoration.

In case you are wondering the scripture says: Proverbs 3:6 NIV In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Finally!

I finally finished reading 'The Pillars fo the Earth' by Ken Follett all 973 pages of it. It was a good book, but I think the Reader's Digest Condensed version would be more enjoyable. Kinda like a preacher that takes 2 hours for what he could have/should have said in 30 minutes.

~~~Introducing Brayden James~~~

Fresh from heaven.... little Brayden James, my new great-nephew was born today. Proud parents, Jessica and Steven were all aglow as was new grandma Diann, new aunt Lora Nicole and great grandma Kay!

He looks a lot like Ray, his great-grandfather! He was 7 lbs. 8 oz. and 21 inches long with some brown hair. So cute!

Hopefully I will be reporting on Mara and Arthur's little arrival soon. I haven't heard from her in a while so maybe little Nick will be here soon.

Mike's birthday was yesterday and Maurine and Robins is tomorrow. We have lots of family birthdays in one week. Mara, will little Nick come this week too?

Breakfast Club

Thanks to a newspaper column by Sharon Randall, and my friend Patty's idea, a group of my friends and I have started a breakfast club. Every Thursday morning we get up early and meet somewhere to grab a bite to eat and visit, something we all find little time to do these days. For me, it is on a day where I can normally sleep in because the doctor is in surgery, but I bypass my extra hours sleep for a nice visit with my shopping buddies. These are the same three girls that have been going shopping in the Dallas area so maybe we will have time to plan more shopping expeditions too!

A model daughter!

Kara found her picture in yet another hairstyle magazine. Her friend Amy did the hair and Kara is the model.

Doors Galore~

You never realize how many doors you have in your house until you decide to replace them. Many years ago, a little strong willed boy named Ryan, kicked holes in several of our hollow panel doors. I remember one time in particular, when he was about 5, decked out in his cowboy boots, and big sister Kara would not let him in her room. Ryan proceeded to kick the door and promptly made a big hole! Tonight, many years later, Ryan is helping Mike replace the doors. I was Mike's helper for a while, but I was I extremely grateful when Ryan showed up to help.

Oh, and for the record, we were inspired to buy doors today because Home Depot had a big sale, or so we thought. They were out of the size we needed so we went to Lowe's where we found that Home Depots sale price was Lowe's regular price!

~~~ Sneak Preview ~~~

I have been working on a collection of Mom's recipes, but I have put in on the back burner because I was having trouble getting motivated with the holidays and also I was not able to find paper and stickers for scrapbooking that were exclusively for cooking.

On our trip to the Dallas area last weekend, I found a store in Colleyville called the Scrapbook Pad. It had the largest area of cooking related supplies that I have found. Hopefully, I will have time to get started on this again. It was to have been a Christmas gift for 2007, but now, maybe it will be released by Christmas '09! I don't want any pressure! Angela has offered to type up some of the recipes for me to help me get this back on track. Thanks Angela!

30 years later

Wedding ~1978 Style!

Crystal as my flower girl and Eric as the ring bearer! Aren't they cute!

We had a great time on our 30th anniversary! We went to Frisco and stayed the night at a nice hotel and we ate at La Hacienda Ranch, my favorite metroplex restaurant. We had breakfast at the Original Pancake House. Their buttermilk pancakes were delicious and I really didn't think I even liked pancakes that well, but these were amazing. We watched the movie, The Bucket List. We wondered if it would be good after hearing about all the bad reviews that it got, but when the movie ended the audience broke out in applause. It was a real fun movie!

We also went to the IMAX in Colleyville and watched Beowulf in 3-D. It was real neat. The special effects were so good. Then to top it all off, we went to McBride's steak house downtown, the same place we have gone for the last 30 years and had dinner tonight. What a nice anniversary weekend.

Easy and delicious!

I made this tonight from a recipe out of Rachel Ray's magazine. It is one from Angela Martin, the blonde lady from the TV show The Office. She is originally from Archer City, right down the road from us.

Apple Dumplings

Flour, for dusting
One 8 oz can crescent rolls
1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled,
cored and cut into 8 wedges
1 stick (4 oz) butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup Mountain Dew

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a surface dusted with flour, unfold the rolls. Place an apple wedge on the wide edge of each piece of dough and roll up: place the dumplings in an 8-inch square baking dish.

In a saucepan, melt butter with the sugar and cinnamon over medium heat: stir in the Mountain Dew. Pour the mixture on the dumplings. Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and bake 15 minutes longer.

Unbelievably good!

As an aside: When we were kids, Mountain Dew was not sold here, but we looked forward to our summer trips to Colorado where you could buy good ole' Mountain Dew!

January 9th

Yesterday came and went quietly but it will forever be a special day. It was Mom's birthday. The day of the year that I remember her the most because it was exclusively her day. I am forever thankful that God blessed me with such a sweet mother.

Here is her High School photo.

New Grandma!

There is a new grandma in town! ....but Robin is the real grandma, I'm just the "work" grandma. This is little Kendall Reece, my co-worker Ericka's little one. She brought her by today and I got to hold her. She is just precious! She is now 3 weeks old with lots of black hair.

A Talented Guy

Mike's Uncle John is an artist in Oklahoma City. He has lots of interesting art, paintings, sculpture, etc. You can view some of his artwork at the JRB Art Gallery's website.

Spice up your life!

I tried this at a Christmas party and it was so good that I made it for our Christmas get- together. (I doubled the recipe)

Cranberry Salsa

1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
1/2 red onion, finely chopped (Be careful, if the onion is real strong, use less)
1 med jalapeno-chopped
1 bunch cilantro
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 T. lime juice

Mix all together Cover. Refrigerate.
Enjoy! Cranberries are a good antioxidant!