Baby, It's Cold Outside!

I just wanted to let everyone know, I LOVE ELECTRICITY!!!!! After losing power for 6½ days in January and now 2 days, I have a not so secret love affair going with everything electric right now! Don't worry, I'll calm down and start conserving again. Just lemme enjoy the warmth!
The tree branches were falling everywhere.

Look how close this branch came to my Honda! I moved it as soon as I moved the branches out of the way but LJ took it to the Post Office to get the mail and lost my keys for me. Oh Joy. She found them. After she was at work. In HER purse. A day later. I hope she put them back in my purse so I can drive to school this a.m.

STAY WARM!!! Hug your sweetie!

Cute as Pie!

J and C were here last weekend and I got most of my grandgirlee fix (1 is covered in snow in NY and I haven't seen her since August~ sniffle) I was included in a Nana shower at school. My friend Laura became a grandmother for the first time coincidentally on the same day that Baby J was born. Hers was an emergency C-sect. Anyhow, the teacher whose place I took is a Grandma Pro and gifted "me" with a big bucket of sidewalk chalk for H and me to play with. I have been lugging this stuff around since the shower in early November but circumstances (like weather) has not allowed us to participate.

So this Saturday, even tho' the wind could have thrown us in the lake, Nana and her girlee got to

P-L-A-Y!! BTW, she can name every one of those shapes. Yep, she's a genius!

Baby J supervised:

After dark Auntie LJ and H made cookies! YUMMY!Look! I keep telling ya she's PERFECT!

Okay, the pie part!! My students are making pies from scratch this week. A few used pie filling, they had the option. But the crusts are all from scratch.

Arent' they beautiful?

Apple pie from scratch. The "I heart U" cutouts are precious!

German Chocolate Pie!!! An update on this pie. It had wonderful anticipation. It was creamy and beautiful when cut. That first bite... hmmm. Something was amiss. Second bite: SALT! There was too much salt. If you eat anymore you will need an I.V. drip to rehydrate! Apparently in reading the recipe the 1/8 tsp of salt turned into 1/8 CUP, yes CUP. Hubby and I did the math last night and that comes out to 48X the salt called for in the recipe. YIKES!! Like I said before, it was pretty. Students are learning to pay more attention to directions!

Pumpkin!

I think this is Cinnamon apple. Beautiful! They are so creative! It had 1 Tbsp of cinnamon (Red HOTS) candies crushed up and sprinkled in. Very yummy and it was as gorgeous in person as here in the photo. However, when sprinkling sugar on top of the crust the student realized she grabbed the SALT and not the sugar. It was hilarious watching the whole lab group trying to blow that salt OFF the top of the crust. They then did sprinkle sugar and unless you knew about the added salt, you probably would not have noticed in the tasting. Wouldn't this be pretty for Christmas or save it as an idea for Valentine's Day (individual tarts in heart shaped pans?)

Blueberry

...and Blackberry

And finally strawberry rhubarb. I don't think any of them has ever had rhubarb before and you shoulda seen their faces when they sampled the frozen rhubarb before putting in the pie... HA! This was the pie with the most leftovers. The students did not really care for the taste and texture. Tried to pawn it off on other kitchen groups but no takers.


The students were aghast when I told them yesterday that I would need a little teensy 2-inch sample slice of each pie. They don't want to share. I "have" to taste it to grade it! I usually don't but this time... needless to say, I'm not taking any lunch today. I'm eatin' PIE!
The red is the update editing Saturday morning. I did indeed have pie for lunch. The rest of the teachers laughed at me in the lunch room but I enjoyed it. The pie slices from 7th hour Foods class I brought home to share with hubby. He helped me gobble them up. And it did help me score their projects.

Get ready, get set, the Holidays have begun!

We spent Thanksgiving up at son's with new Baby J in Columbia. It was a small gathering but nice and quiet too. They weren't too thrilled at my table decor. Sorry I didn't get a photo after the silverware and food was added, but you get the gist. Okay, it was a little "loud" but festive!

This is H's camera smile: Whadya think?

Nana brought her a donut from the hotel's continental breakfast. Mmmmmmm!

And then her comment was "Mess!"

Unfortuneatly, I received a call Thanksgiving morning that my mom's fall on Monday had indeed caused a fracture, of her pelvis. So while we were 250 miles away, she was transported to the hospital and admitted. Well her BP has gone sky high and she is dehydrated and confused so she was transferred to ICU and is still there this evening. Please pray. She does not care to discuss things of God so it is frustrating to consider how frightening this must be for her.

We had a light dusting of snow Saturday morning. Made for a cozy snuggle in.

Have a great week!

She's here!!!

Grandgirlee #3 arrived on Thursday! A new miracle from God. She is PERFECT!!!
I was there in the room for the birth. She was born on my father's birthday ~ ~ How cool is that? And, my close friend became a grandmother for the first time the SAME DAY! Oh, the wonderment... Nana is the best job in the world!!!

The Tale of a Dog!

(This is not a sad story, it has a happily ever after ending)

Romeo!!!

Named thus b/c LJ wanted to be able to stand out on the front porch and yell across the fields, "Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore art thou Romeo?"

Our Doofus Dog

I guess we rescued Romeo. Soon to be daughter-in-law C asked if we wanted another Golden. Romeo's siblings were apparently being mauled by the parents. Would we take a puppy? Of course LJ wanted him immediately!!! Of course. Always the soft touch for an animal. And who could resist a furball? I thought it would be a few week since the puppy was only about 4 or so weeks old, but because the pups were one by one being killed by the parents, Romeo arrived sooner than we thought. In fact, C's mom brought Romeo to the bridal shower!!! Surprise!!! He was a little unsure of course. Looks sad huh?

We already had Charlie! I don't think he knew what to make of Romeo... usurper?But they got along great... Charlie kept watch over Romeo and Romeo gave Charlie lots of company. We DID notice that Charlie started turning gray.... The young'll do that to ya!

Poor Charlie!

Romeo grew and grew...

Always finding trouble of some sort:

But SOOOOO loveable!!!Romeo loved it at our house. 100's of acres to roam. Ooooo yeah, cows to chase. Romeo LOVES cow tails. He is mesmerized by them. He'd go out in the field and stand behind a cow trying to catch the tail. Cows got annoyed but that never stopped Romeo!

He also liked cars... not chasing cars, but running in FRONT of them. Um, he lost... T was driving, er trying to drive, and Romeo got in front of the car and T ran over him. sigh. Broken leg, pelvis, hip, and TAIL!!!
He has stopped running in front of cars.

But no matter what kind of trouble Romeo got in, LJ and C fought over whose end was what, depending upon which end did the deed.

When we knew we were going to move to this new house, we were warned that unpenned dogs are frowned upon. Romeo never learned many manners, so we were concerned with bringing him here. He is still a wild child. We worried and worried and asked many people if they knew of anyone who would have a good home for Romeo.

The whole point of this post is that Romeo found his boy...

Our Youth Pastor's son helped us move and he was introduced to Romeo. He begged his parents for a few weeks to adopt Romeo and they relented and said yes, so Romeo now has a new home.

Best of all, he is getting much more attention than we were ever able to afford him. He has gone hunting with Phil, the Youth Pastor, even sleeping IN Phil's sleeping bag! And last weekend the Youth had a Paint Ball War out at the church property. Romeo yelped and howled as the kids pelted him with paintballs, never leaving Phil's side. I think he gave up Phil's hiding place. We drive by from time to time and see Romeo playing outside. He is a good dog.

We miss you Romeo!!! But we're glad you found yourself a boy and a new family!

This IS my costume!

This is what I wore all day for Halloween!!!

I really don't do costumes but when I found this apron I couldn't resist. Wore it at school (I'm the FOODS teacher remember) and then to Mom's nursing facility. Got lots of chuckles, especially when I asked if I look like I've lost weight!! HA!

Here are just a few pics around our place the other morning. This first pic is standing right by our dock looking toward the spillway. If you read the post regarding the old resort, the big ol' pool was below the spillway, fed by a spring well and BRRRRRR! Beyond that is the valley and the traintracks. We don't hear much train whistling, only certain engineers, but we sure hear the the rumbling of the engines as they go by. Almost every hour on the hour. We're still not used to it, but even when we were way out in the country, 8 miles from the tracks, we could hear the whistle if it was still and quiet. The paddleboat came with the house, we're kinda sharing it with our friends who sold us the place.

This is from the shoreline looking up at the house. The house is deceptive from the front... looks kinda small but it's big by our standards. Our bedroom is upstairs to the left with all the windows. Our bathroom is the recessed set of windows further to the left, and there is a spa deck beyond that. Hubby just got it drained and set up and we haven't ventured out yet. Tonite dear?

This is looking the other direction from before. The house is up the hill to the right. You can barely see the end of the lake curving to the right and that's where the dam is. The lake is only 14-17 acres, according to who you are talking to. S'okay by me!This is Pug. She is supposed to be a good mouser. HA! She's a hussy who keeps birthin' babies. She's supposed to be keeping the squirrels at bay (they are everywhere since we are surrounded by oak trees) but she would rather cat around instead.

This is a squirrel. Kinda in your face standoff, eh? The lions are guarding the entrance to our driveway. Do you think Pug is concerned about the squirrel?

Finally~~ we are supposed to be off to church right now (shame on me for sitting here). It's the first Sunday of the month aka "Potluck Sunday" or "Church Dinner". Here're my meager contributions: baked pasta (still needs the cheese melted on top but I've learned from years past that if I put it on ahead of time, someone will stir it and then there are globs of cheese glumped throughout and no one will eat it), cole slaw, and a pan of lemon squares (can't find my square baking dish so it looks like a pie and someone will probably cut it like a pie and all will think it's a pie but I know it's lemon squares). Have a great Sunday!!!

Hurry to the Party!!!

Melissa over a The Inpired Room is having a fantabulous 100th Post Party click_here and we're all invited!! Hurry and visit by Monday to enter the drawing. Then wander around and try to take in all the Eye Candy while you are there. Luxurious.