Tuesday Ten - 10 things you cannot live w/o in fridge/pantry

What 10 things do you feel you cannot live without in your refrigerator or pantry?

1. coke
2. fruits/veggies
3. better than bouillon - chicken and beef
4. fresh garlic
5. coke
6. tortilla chips (scoops)
7. rotel
8. campbell's chunky chicken noodle soup
9. cooking wine (white, sherry, marsala)
10. olive oil

if i could add a #11 -- it would be COKE!!! i'm a coke-drinker like most smokers smoke -- i alwas have a hidden one tucked away in case some idiot drinks my last one. my kids always knew better than to take the last one, too! i'm limiting myself pretty strictly to 1-2 cans a day -- depending upon the stress level of
the time.

one really nice thing for us on groceries, though, is that we have our own beef butchered from my family's farm and we buy chicken in bulk when it's on sale. right now, not another package would fit in our 6' chest freezer. makes shopping and meal planning much easier!

last summer, i saw a scary thing . . . the bottom of the freezer. i kind of panicked, but my brother called a few days later stating that he needed to haul a couple steers to the butcher market, so it just was perfect timing. thanks to our excessive gardening, we also have some fantastic home-canned greenbeans, tomatoes, jalapenos, and more. hopefully we will have a much more gardener's dream summer this year instead of like the last 3 years.

funny how limiting these things to 10 makes a person stop and think about what is important. not that i succeeded to the limit, but i did spend a lot of time thinking about what i did and didn't really need to make the list!

Tuesday Ten - 10 commercials i love

Tuesday Ten - 1/25 - opposites now -- the top 10 commercials that i lOVE to watch.

1. Etrade babies, but especially the one who says "let me show me my surprise face" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=HqVBKO_QM3o&NR=1) or the other one that says "apparently riding the dog is frowned upon in this establishment!" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0GsNhLt9Ds&feature=relmfu)

2. volkswagon - the force - child as darth vader, who thinks he started the car w/ "the force" while his father hit the start button from inside the house. so cute = so hilarious! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glKCFzpPHhw

3. heinekin entry video -- http://www.adweek.com/video/advertising-branding/heineken-entrance-132935

4. toyota accord video "COG" -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ve4M4UsJQo absolutely amazing! especially when you read about the filming of it and that it was ALL done in one take w/ NO editing. of course, it took several hundred tries!

5. hershey's kisses -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09-WlGhfIG8, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca5wvawBil0&feature=related, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHUNLaYw6qc

6. coca-cola ads - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1NnyE6DDnQ, or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRbQ-y-FxTg, plus any other videos of coca-cola listed on youtube.

7. amazon kindle - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsPF1_tovQw&feature=related, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYUVpjrzvXc, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6wWy9DwgPQ&feature=related.

8. TMNT (teenager mutant ninja turles for those of you not old enough to know!). Pizza Hut -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZSBuf64_u0

9. flo in progressive commercials -- she just cracks me up! i love the new snapshot commercial - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk8yNKWpG2s

10. geico little piggy ad - makes me laugh every time! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F_G2zp-opg

BONUS --

11. cheetos party at construction site -- just saw it for the first time tonight and he really made me laugh! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxWpU2IIzXI, especially when he says, "i can still see you." and the cheetah replies == hilarious!

12. budweiser ads - especially the ones w/ the team of horses pulling the wagon -- even the one where the team of horses knelt in honor of the missing world trade center. that one made me cry, and it has never been shown on tv again as an advertisement. it might have been included in a "best of commercials" type show, but budweiser only released it once for advertisement and paying honor. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXn8BZCNX2Q, a cutie one w/ a baby horse learning his position - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK0zRVzvtB4&feature=related, hank trying out for the team - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLtjVuXOBQk&feature=related, horses playing football - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNqtNBMfa0E&feature=related, men and their dogs - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OZ4NAynH70&feature=related, replay horse football - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgSKwpw2buI&feature=related, clydesdale donkey - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD6ghskNKa8&feature=related, lamb streaker (hilarious!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb3fhsfs6ZU, and probably MANY more than i listed here!

Tuesday Ten - 10 television commercials i don't like

guess i couldn't stop at 10 . . . and i didn't even mention the jcpenney ad for 2.2.12 where people were just screaming "NOOOOOOOO!" that one drove me nuts, but at least i knew that 2.2.12 would be the end of it!

1. suburu ad - says "When you're responsible for this much of the team, you need a car you can count on" pisses me off! makes me feel like they are saying that people w/ more children in the car deserve a more dependable car instead of people w/ just one child or w/ no children!

2. all virgin mobil ads - just stupid overall, like pigs eating their dead friend, full-grown man being carried in a baby strap by another full-grown man, shipping the kid in a pet crate for an airline flight.

3. 21st century where they destroy or damage 2 cars w/ identical stuff

4. all t-mobil ads - especially when the outfit worn by the chick directs the eyes to her boobs and her crotch.

5. ads w/ keith stone w/ progressive ad

6. ads w/ nationwide "too happy" host that talks about vanishing deductibles - "nationwide is on your side"

7. state farm singing ads "like a good neighbor, state farm is there in your office." and then the people are teleported to the office and away from danger.

8. J G Wentworth - opera style singing of "i have a long-term settlement, but i need cash now!"

9. i'm a phoenix . . .

10. old spice commercial w/ the black man narrating and acts like he is so cool.

11. h and r block second look

12. happy bob after he took medication for erectile dysfunction

13. dish network, the group of people (both old and young) who start dancing when they find out their deal on their service.

14. commercials by the guy who did the "slap chop", who was also arrested for beating his girlfriend, and now has another one for a kitchen gadget.

BONUS --- all ads about erectile dysfunction, tampons/pads commercials, douche commercials, hemorhoid commercials, menopause commercials, stomach medicine, i am constantly criticizing the ads, even talking to the tv to express my views and feelings about their pathetic commercial!

Rules and Expectations of Tuesday Ten

ok, there are very few rules on this game (writing prompt) for tuesday ten --

a new challenge will be issued each tuesday morning.

answer or list your 10 things from that week's prompt and post them to the group before the following monday night at 11:59 p.m. CST.

you can choose to do these or not, but there are several positive outcomes --

* you have something fun to write about
* it should be fairly quick and easy
* you have no commitment to make -- participate only when it strikes your mood or interest
* you have a specific topic to focus on
* you have 7 full days to get it done
* it might give you the motivation to write more regularly
* it might inspire you w/ an idea to write something else about
* there are NO wrong answers!
* it helps us in getting to know each other and for new members to get to know us
* you might want to print it out or write it out in your journal, too
* it provides you a post to publish on your blog AND to the bluehaze group.
* it makes great fun to go back and look at later in life
* it keeps your brain thinking and remembering, so you should remember things longer later in life based on how much time you spend remembering
* it can cause you to remember details or times in life that you had already forgotten
* it's a challenge to provoke your mind and spend some time remembering
* your children would probably LOVE to come across these lists of things you loved/liked or hated/disliked in your life now at some point later in life
* it encourages critical thinking skills and decision making processes

i'm sure there are more reasons than i listed, but what makes it work for me is that it is short, it gives me something to think about when i have free mind time, and i think it's something my kids will really enjoy when they are older and/or i'm already gone from life.

i decided for myself, that i'm going to do the 10 advertisements that i love watching the most, too. see? this tuesday ten has already tricked me into writing more!

have fun, get creative, and get busy! remember, we all were promising to do more artwork and more journaling this year. we also said that we would hold each other accountable in accomplishing that goal (in a good way, of course!)

i will randomly send out a little something in the mail to someone who posted that week. i'll change it up, though, so you won't know how i'm picking the winner until after you all have posted your list of 10. that doesn't mean you have to participate -- it just means that you can only get the prize for that week if you were participating in that week.

have fun w/ it and feel free to comment on each other's list. i'm sure we'll find a scenario where something someone loves is something someone else hates.

please be respectful when responding. also remember, the majority of people love to have feedback, critique, or questions on their posts.

i reserve the right (as group owner and moderator) to change and/or amend the "rules" if we have problems w/ member interactions or as necessary.

thank you all! i'll be looking for your post!!!

an dochas and the haran irish dancers

it's another "salina weekend" for my daughter, which means there are 3 little girls who need cared for on friday until daddy is off work. the problem w/ that scenario, though, is that they typically want to extend their stays to include overnight (if not the whole weekend!).

so mommy made her plans to go to salina while i made our plans to attend "an dochas and the haran irish dancers" at pittsburg memorial auditorium. little rain was at uncle kirk's house, helping "work on the farm," which i thought worked out great as she would probably lose interest in the show before it was over.

i tried to get daddy (lucas) to meet up w/ us at the show, but he didn't seem to have much interest in going. it was just going to be grandpa, raven, riahna, and me for the evening. we started off w/ dinner at cafe del rio (which riahna and rain call "del wios") and then on to the show. the little girls acted SO grownup and proper -- they were impressive! they were excited to go see the dancers and knew they would like the show. the tickets were assigned seating and good seats on the floor at memorial auditorium.

the girls had both been fighting a cold, but as the evening wore on -- they just started to wilt. raven, especially, was showing signs of not feeling up to her best. the performance was really good and lots of fun, but she just couldn't make it until the end. she was running a fever, her head was hurting, her throat was hurting, and she was coughing. she had asked a couple times to leave and go home, but we encouraged her to try to stay.

after about 50 minutes of performance, we decided to leave. we knew there was no intermission, so we figured we had made it most of the way through the show. raven was just miserable. we called daddy and gave him the news -- your little girls are coming home tonight (instead of staying all night at our house) and they are sick. i'm sure that made for a long weekend for him!

during the show, riahna was seated in my lap where she could get a better view of the dancers. there was a little boy about her age seated a couple seats over from us. he did everything he could to get her attention -- but she wouldn't look at him. i could tell from her rigid body that she knew he was trying to get her attention, and she was extra attentive to the show. he snapped his fingers, he waved at her, he wriggled around in his seat, he clapped his hands, and even danced w/ stomping feet. nothing worked.

to an outsider, it would look like he had made no impression on her at all. by the time he was stomping his feet, his mother was doing what she could to get his attention to make him sit still and be quiet. the second that he turned away to see what his mother wanted, riahna quit watching the show to watch him. as soon as he turned to watch her again, she was riveted to the show again. this went on for about 8 minutes, and it was quite comical. poor little boy never knew that he had gained her attention, and that little ornery girl had done a very slick job of playing hard to get! it was really quite entertaining to watch!


an dochas and the haran irish dancers provided a great experience and a good evening of entertainment. i am so glad that we decided to see this show and take the little girls to experience it. the funny thing was that most of the songs were about drinking and dying, but they were performed w/ lots of fun and gusto!

a "special" breakfast

great snow day breakfast recipe -- cinnamon french toast bake (taken from the show 'from the kitchens of pillsbury w/ brigitte nguyen). this show, done from various product test kitchens, gives a person some great ideas for using the brand name products in a different way.

here's one that we use for special mornings when we want to enjoy some time together, but i don't feel that i can take a bunch of time out to fix breakfast (usually b/c i'm fixing the lunch meal for the whole family or something like that!).

cinnamon french toast bake

1/4 cup butter or margarine
2 - 12 oz cans cinnamon rolls
6 eggs
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cup maple syrup
icing from the cinnamon roll packages
powdered sugar - optional

1. prehead oven to 375.
2. pour butter into 9 x 13 baking dish.
3. cut cinnamon rolls into 4 pieces each.
4. put cut pieces into buttered dish - 2 layers.
5. beat eggs, cream, cinnamon & vanilla.
6. pour over roll pieces in butter.
7. sprinkle pecans on top.
8. drizzle syrup over top.
9. bake 24 - 28 minutes until brown.
10. drizzle w/ warmed icing from cinnamon roll package.
11. dust w/ powdered sugar, if desired.

we like ours served while hot, w/ a drizzle of heavy cream over it. the leftovers save well and easily reheat in the microwave. makes a great midnight snack or a leftover breakfast.

planning out my life

i've made lots of new years resolutions over the years. this year, i decided to make fewer resolutions and be more determined about monitoring the achievement and getting the results.

one of the big things for me is to have a calendar to help keep me organized. it also helps me remember what i have covered in classes, when assignments are do, when to return papers, etc., when to pay bills, when paychecks arrive, plus all the normal calendar entries.

one of my resolutions this year was to make a conscious effort to make more artwork, to be more active in my art groups, and to keep posting stuff to my blogs (and not just fb!).

i made a special trip to joplin to shop for calendars. i knew what i wanted, but there was nothing there like that. one that i kind of liked was $60! i decided on one that was $20 and not really what i wanted, but at least it was purple!

as i have gotten older, too, i've thought of what i want my children and grandchildren to know about me some day. i thought this would be a great time to start incorporating my everyday life into what they might want to know. so, i am doing the best that i can to do some artwork EVERY day in my calendar that has to do w/ what's going on in my everyday life.

plus, i like this calendar better now that i thought i would, so i kept the sticker from the front to help me to find the same thing next year. a litte time every day (or most days) to try and do a little artwork (no matter how little) for my personal enjoyment now and for someone's enjoyment some time in the future when they look back in time.

my ulterior motive in working on this calendar in this manner is to help convince jerry that i need that "colossal journal" (that has the colossal price tag) so i can "document" things in our life for our kids and grandkids to look back on some day! wish me luck and we'll see how that goes!

a day of dance

the little girls dance at jody phillips dance company, and they LOVE dance. on saturday, they had a full day a dance activities -- getting ready, practice at the studio, practice at the gym, a break for lunch, meet up an hour before performance, organize and practice performance again, line up, wait on the half-time, and then perform.

raven is 7 and this is her 4th year of dance. riahna is 5 and this is her 2nd year of dance. they really like all the dress up stuff, the glitter/glamour, the make-up, the actual dancing, and usually the performing. they are always showing off their dance moves when they are out to visit. sometimes, mommy (summer) even gets up and shows off her moves w/ them!

overall, it was a great experience. ALL of the dancers did a great job, but it was a long day for a lot of those little ones. raven really gets in to her music and dancing and does the full movement -- you can tell she really enjoys what she is doing. riahna likes the dance and is good, but she often gets distracted by what all is going on around her.

as it turned out today, riahna was too tired to dance at the performance and she just sat down on the floor and watched the others. i think mommy is a little upset w/ her and saying that this video clip will be going into her senior video, but those things happen. besides, she'll probably do more irritating things than this before graduating high school!

funny thing is that as a grandparent, it doesn't bother me. if it had been my kid, i would've wanted to choke her. either it's age, or life, or experience, or something, but those things just don't matter as much any more!

keeping it up

well, i'm less than a month into the new year, but i am doing fairly well at keeping up w/ the things that i'm trying to do -- blogging more regularly, creating and posting more artwork, writing or creating artwork each day, documenting life by journaling in my calendar.

so, if you look in my calendar, it will look like a picture book of appointments, activities, achievements, goals, and other updates. pictures inspired by the weather, doodles inspired by work or other activity of that day, logos for movies we're watching, etc. this is something that i think my family (grandchildren) will be interested to see some day.

i also agreed to post the "pay it forward 2011" on facebook, where the first 5 people to sign up on my list would get a handmade gift from me. i think i actually have 6 people on my list, but that's all good. i found out a couple days that i have a "pay it forward" gift waiting in my mailbox at work tomorrow. i'm so excited to see it that i can't hardly wait.

now, my dilemna -- do i make a return gift for each person whose list i am on, do i send them a thank you card through the mail, or do i just thank them online and post how excited i was to get their gift, etc.? i feel somewhat obligated to make them a gift, but i don't want to step on any toes. suggestions and comments are certainly appreciated here! i guess i'll just play it by ear right now and see how it goes!

seems like forever

i'll make no secrets about it -- i didn't vote for obama and i've got no respect for him. i had little respect for him before he took office, but if it could be measured . . . it would be running in the big negative numbers!

i'm posting this countdown ticker to my blog, just to remind me of how much longer we will be burdened w/ the poor decision made by a large amount of people. funny how people are NOT bragging about their choice now!

i've already purchased my "obama's last day" t-shirt so i can start sharing my celebration w/ others early. to the obama-fans -- live it up, b/c his pratices will be coming to an abrupt halt!

topic posted - graceful envelope 2011

ok, the 2011 topic is posted for the graceful envelope contest, sponsored by the washington calligraphers guild. the current flyer is posted here -- http://www.calligraphersguild.org/PDF/2011GracefulEnvelopeFlier.pdf

i am planning to create an envelope for this, and i would like to challenge anyone who likes to be creative to join me. all the expense would be a stamp and your creative time/energy. who knows who might have the winning idea for this topic!

anyone interested in participating can see more information here -- http://www.calligraphersguild.org/envelope.html

they also have several years of winning submissions posted for all age groups!

it IS official!

it is now official! my "50 x 50" list has now been changed to a "60 x 60" list. this change has come about for multiple reasons, but mainly b/c i realized that i was staring down the barrel of turning 50 (in 5 years) with way too many things to get done!

some (or many) of the things that i wanted to accomplish before i turned 50 have not happened as quickly as i wanted due to financial reasons or health reasons. by adding more time to my list, i was also able to add some new ideas to my list, too.

previously, i had trouble filling up the list of 50 things that i wanted to accomplish, but now my list is up to #55. still leaves me a littls time to add new things as they might arise in life AND i can always mark something off if my interests have changed. ultimately, the goal is to complete all these wonderful things by the time i'm 60 and have a scrapbook about them.

wish me luck!!!

time to get on it again!

well, as w/ many people and things, the new year provides the perfect time for self-evaluation and resolutions. i haven't written on here in quite a while, allowing the views of others to impact what i would write about. it has now come about in my life that these viewsopinions mean nothing to me, so why make changes in life because of them?

i originally started this blog to record some stories from my childhood for my children to have. also, i wanted an outlet for my creativity, my personal celebrations, and a little family bragging. this blog is for my friends and my family -- period. if you don't fall into one of those categories, you might as well get lost. i don't need your blessing and you don't need mine. no need for anyone to get confused about that point.

there have been LOTS of events in the last 5 years that i haven't posted b/c of someone else's views or feelings. i'll be making those up now some time, to make this a more relevant accounting of life and events -- both mine and ours.

2011 hand prints - family

well, we've missed a couple years of getting our handprints stamped on new year's day . . . but we got back on it this year! we had scott here and summer/lucas/raven/riahna/rain as well as jerry and me. i will get these "autographed" by the participants -- probably on superbowl day.

i think this is such a neat way to document and visualize how much the kids (including my own grown children) have grown and how our family has grown in size (inclusiong and reproduction)! i have a few other pages of these where we all fit on the one page. we could've squeezed it all in this year, but it was more easily created and viewed w/ being a little spread out.

wow! new recipe!!!

tonight i tried a new recipe for dinner, and it was truly fantastic! i've been trying new things specifically to try and work more veggies into our diet and to keep the variety. fantastic!!!

this dinner made a full meal for 2 adults w/ enough leftovers for another meal for 1 person. this will be perfect for jerry, since i have night class tomorrow night! to make this recipe go further, use 16 oz pasta as the recipe originally called for. i knew that since it was just for the 2 of us, we didn't need such a large amount to serve or of leftovers from a 1# pasta batch.

sweet and sour noodles

* salt
* 8 oz pasta
* 1 lb chicken or pork, sliced very thin
* 2 leeks, thinly sliced and cleaned
* 2 handfuls shitake mushrooms - sliced
* 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
* 2" piece ginger root, minced
* 1/3 c dark soy sauce
* 2 T agave syrup or honey
* 1 lime, zest and juice
* hot sauce to taste
* 2 c shredded lettuce (romaine or iceberg)
* cilantro or basil for garnish

bring a pot of water to a boil for the pasta. add salt and cook pasta to al dente.

when the pasta goes into the water, heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat. add the chicken or pork, brown and transfer to a plate.

add the leeks and mushrooms to the skillet and stir fry for 2 minutes. add the garlic and ginger and cook for a minute more. stir in the agave syrup or honey, lime zest and juice and hot sauce, to taste.

in a large serving bowl, toss the veggies with the meat, noodles and lettuce to combine.

garnish with cilantro or basil and serve with lime wedges alongside.

farmers' market

this is our new project this year -- farmers' market in pittsburg. we're doing this project together w/ summer and lucas and family. the little girls are great help w/ projects like this! sometimes that's true and sometimes that's not true, but they still believe it to be true. if you are ever in doubt, they will certainly give you instructions on what you should be doing or involve you in a dirt clod fight!

we've had a garden each year for the last 3 years, but this year we made our garden bigger with the intention of having some produce to sell at farmers' market. it seems like each year we have more than we can use of something, and sometimes we have more than we can find homes for use! by planning to do this, it insured that we had what we needed and hopefully some extra.

i can tomatoes, salsa, greenbeans, jalapenos, pickles, relish, and find uses for the other produce in cooking or meal prep. this year, i've put about 30 bags of zucchini in the freezer to make zucchini bread. it's already cooked and measured out in the needed amount. i've picked some blackberries and put in the freezer. i told a friend the other day that i'm in a "feeding the freezer" frenzy! if we don't start eating some of this stuff soon -- there won't be any room for the beef that we're wanting to butcher soon!

so this year we planted our garden of the things that we like to use, and we just planted extra. that way if that crop was just ok, we still had what we wanted to use. if the crop was bountiful -- we had enough to sell at farmers' market.

as you can see from the picture, the crop has been bountiful so far. we still have a ton of tomatoes that need to ripen, but they seem to be taking their own sweet time about getting there! we also have tons more gourds, a few more canteloupe, new zuchhini planted and growing, and turnips growing.

this picture is from farmers' market this morning. we had birdhouse gourds, green peppers, canteloupes, red tomatoes, husky gold tomatoes, sweet tangerine tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, cherry tomatoes (sugar snack, sun gold, and italian ice), zucchini, basil, and mint.

summer made a batch of fresh pesto (basil and olive oil) and served samples on some italian bread. lots of people tried samples and then bought basil to make their own. we sold out of basil very quickly, but we still handed out samples. we laughed and called it a "teaser" for next week so people would come back!

i think next week summer's going to make pesto again, and we're going to make and serve mint tea. we've been having mint-flavored tea a lot lately -- very refreshing!

so now you know that friday nights at our house are spent picking, carrying, washing, sorting, packing, and planning for what's going to farmers' market on saturday mornings. we have garden work time another couple nights a week, but friday night seems to be the most involved. we're planning to do this again next year, except we're planning it bigger and better!

come see us at farmers' market!

watermelon from our garden

so far, here is our prize winner (for us!) -- a 21 pound watermelon from our garden. we haven't grown very many watermelon and haven't grown them for farmers' market, but just for us.

jerry has been just dying to pick this one and checks it each time we're outside. i used to laugh at my grandpa burger for checking his watermelon patch several times a day, but now i know why! they really change from morning to evening.

we cut this watermelon for our dessert last night when summer, lucas, riahna, and rain were here. it was very good, but would've gone passed its prime if we had waited much longer. now we have about 30 or so more out there that we need to be getting picked!

anyone like watermelon? now you know what we'll be serving for the next week or so at our house!

it's always something

well, life goes on as usual -- but things are changing for some! ever notice how someone seems to make a major life change (like quitting a solid job in the chosen career field for returning to school to work on another degree in the same career field) and then brushes it off as if it was something he or she just wanted to do?

typically, that's a load of BS and usually that person made this decision with some help from someone else -- like the boss who didn't rehire the person, like the special someone who doesn't call back, or like the schoolboard that non-renews a contract. as a university instructor, i know this is a common storyline that people use to cover up some major life-altering screw-up that affected far more people than the idiot who made the original stupid decisions that resulted in the "life-style changes".

in today's economy, only a fool would give up a career to go back to school to try and get a higher degree to get a higher position in the same field at some later time. the bad thing is that with a non-renew on the record, the higher position is not likely to ever follow. after all, administrators talk and someone will eventually tell what it was that brought about the non-renewal. people don't forget it when their child has been put in danger by the careless and heartless actions of someone else.

if the person making the idiotic decisions was in a teaching position when the stupid decisions possibly harmed a child and/or family, no level of achievement or higher degree would make that ugly situation disappear when that person later is job-hunting. after all, who would that person use as job references? co-workers? parents? former students? or maybe administrators? what would they have to say of that person or about the scenario.

while some people might think these things are better left in the closet -- i think some things are much better left out of the courtroom! i know that if my children had even been in that position where they were put into danger by the thoughtless and careless acts of someoneone else -- there would be no need to file charges and no need to take up the valuable time of the court system. that lets you know my family's views on child abuse!!!

the BIG tomato

well, summer is almost over and we have spent much of our time gardening and preserving! we've had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year, but here is the "monster tomato" from our garden so far -- 1 lb and 1 oz. i knew there would be some sceptics in the family, so i've taken a picture of the tomato on the kitchen scales as proof! we've had many tomatoes that weighed in at almost a pound, but just not quite.

so far, we've canned 70 qts of tomatoes & 24 pints of jalapenos, and we've frozen 15 qts of sweet corn and 56 qts of apple sauce. we still have more tomatoes and jalapenos coming on, cucumbers picked to make pickles, and more zucchini than we can keep up w/ giving away!

we have over 30 canteloupes coming on (and have already picked 3) and have about 20 watermelons on the vine. the way we have it figured -- the canteloupes and the watermelons will probably all be ready at the same time! if that happens, i'm not really sure what we'll do w/ all that produce!

we have had SO much fun watching our garden and watching the grandchildren "helping" in the garden. then grandpa started making all these rules like "no throwing dirt" and "no kicking dirt" and pretty soon it'll be "no having fun"!

i told jerry if he wasn't careful, no one would be going to the garden w/ him if he had all those rules! it's rather hard for me to enforce rules on the grandkids when i'm not willing to follow them myself! but, i guess i could just throw a rotten tomato instead??? i'm sure that would be just ducky -- don't you think?

evelyn's quilt for auction

the elliott reunion is coming up very soon, and evelyn has her quilt ready for the auction. the auction is the fundraiser to support the reunion expenses that may occur in preparing the reunion gathering. this year, evelyn has designed a family quilt (with jennifer and janie and joleen's help) that notes this reunion was held in missouri, has a block for the elliott parents, and a block for each of the children (evelyn and her siblings). this is also a memorable reunion because it's the first time the reunion has been anywhere except nebraska.

this is quite an amazing quilt and very meaningful to the family members. jerry and i have already decided what we are willing to bid for this treasure and we're hoping that we come away the proud winners. we understand that we might not be, but we're going to give it a run for the money!

bidders must be present to bid and/or win any auction items. be prepared and be forewarned!