'tude

The past few mornings Ella has been hard to rouse from bed. She is a huge pill if I go in and wake her up but she's generally OK if she wakes up on her own. This causes me to resort to sly tactics to get her to come around.

The past two mornings I have turned on the hall light to cast some light in her room (without being so mean as turning on the light in her room!). She has proven to be not so much a fan of the whole light trick.

Which brings me to this morning.

When I went into the living room this morning I turned on the living room light and then the TV. Shortly after I hear footsteps in her room and see her march out into the hall. Her hair is a mess and her expression is worse. She shoots me daggers and goes over to the light switch in the hall (which is off, mind you). Ella flips in on, recoils in the light, flips it off and marches back to bed.

I'm thinking 'Whoa! What an attitude!' and then 'Ha ha, smarty pants! That light wasn't on!'. Then I say 'I know you're awake, Ella Grace. Get up.'

I'm such a loving mother. And where in the hell did she get that 'tude? I didn't expect that crap until she was a teenager!

Princess Dance

Good grief, y'all, how could I have gone so long without posting a pic of my little E? She loves this gown that Grandmama gave her for Christmas and she tells us stories about the princesses that are on it. Ella also likes to dance around the living room in it and sing made up songs!

Wild hair from lots of dancing

Lucky 7

Count me in

12 million and one, please

Calci-Yum

YUM. I have just discovered the wealth of nutrients and yummyness that is chocolate milk! (I don't normally drink milk, for whatever reason...) But this is fresh from the cows right down the road and mixed up in the dairy bar in the building next door.

Oh-so-delish!

Soap Box

I have the weirdest subject to bring up to readers of my dear blog. I thought of it, quickly dismissed it and then went back to it with genuine interest.

What kind of soap do you use?

(I know it seems silly, but I really got to wondering about it.) Do you have two soaps in the shower, one for the girl and one for the guy, like me? Or have you settled on one that isn't too girly/masculine?

For the past however many years I have insisted on having my own Caress/Oil of Olay soap so that I would have sufficiently girly smelling skin. Not that Dial smells-like-a-doctors-office junk that David likes. But just recently I decided that this was silly (not to mention making two soap crud messes in the shower) and went on a hunt for a happy medium soap. After much deliberation in the Wal-Mart soap aisle and sniffing multiple boxes, I have come to Lever 2000. Pretty good fit, I think.

Tell me what you think.

**I already know that I'm nuts for creating a whole post on this, so you can spare me that comment!**

Update: After taking an informal office survey, I have determined that most marrieds use two different soaps. See, I'm not so weird after all! It has sparked quite the conversation in our little office, though!

Kitchen Magic

Since I'm not one to be shy about trumpeting my culinary pursuits, I present to you Homemade White Bread.



YUM.

This is the first time that I have ever tried white bread (and only the second time with homemade bread) and it was fabulous! I chalk it all up to a wonderfully easy recipe that I found on allrecipes.com. Not only did it come out looking beautiful, it smelled and tasted great. I used it Sunday morning and made some French Toast and then some delish garlic cheese toast that afternoon.

It's not quite the white bread sandwich loaf that you get from the grocery store but it is minus all of the preservatives and has a wonderful 'from the bakery' feel.

If you feel so inclined:

Crusty White Bread

Prep Time: 25 Minutes
Cook Time: 25 Minutes
Ready In: 2 Hours 30 Minutes
Yields: 24 servings

INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 cups water
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons margarine,
softened
6 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon salt

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a small mixing bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in the warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast mixture with the milk, the butter or margarine, 4 cups of the flour and the salt; stir until well combined. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and supple, about 8 minutes.

3. Lightly oil a large mixing bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and put in a warm place to rise until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

5. Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and form into loaves. Place the loaves into two lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pans. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes.

6. Mist loaves with water and bake at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) oven for 20 to 30 minutes or until the loaves are golden brown and the bottom of a loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

I halved mine and didn't really have to adjust any of the times. If you take this link you can read what some of the reviewers of this recipe had to say. One even said that she used all purpose flour and it turned out great.

Desert No More

I know that I have been walking through the lonely, hot and dry desert of bloggerdom lately, and I'm sorry. I'm prepared to pepper you with many reasons for my lack of posting but I won't. What I will do is offer up this picture of me as penance. Surely you can get a good laugh out of it and forget all about my recent neglect?!

Here's me, the height of class and style: strap dangling, beer hugging after tossing an empty in the bucket. This is lake livin' in the South. Fo' sho'!

TIME

This was in one of my recent TIME magazines and I thought it was pretty darn clever. Blogger won't allow me to post it any bigger than this but if you click on the image it will open big for you.

I wish...

Seen at preschool on big 4 leaf clovers made out of construction paper:

Other kids' clovers (and wishes)

I wish... I had a car.
I wish... I had a snake.

Ella's

I wish... Santa would bring me some presents.

What in the world?! Was my child jilted at Christmas? Or is she just plain greedy?!

Catch Up

Recovering from Friday's activities is proving harder than the actual event! Things are really busy at work so I only have time to quickly post these two pictures that I have had hanging around.

I think pictures like this should be put on Mommy applications! "Are you willing to play barrettes and let a three year old do your hair?"

Proof of Ella Grace's OCD. These are the ants that go with her Ants in the Pants game. She lined them all up and by color too! (OCD, or is that autismn?!)

Bull Sale Madness

Today is the crazy day for me so all you get is this pic of crazy E.

E likes the bubbly, but her mom and dad may go for some frothy, cold and refreshing once today is over!

Say it ain't snow

This is what the little weather warning indicator looked like last night on TV. I know it's not the best picture but check out the SIX different colors on the map! I have never seen one quite so colorful... we had a storm warning, storm watch, tornado warning, tornado watch, flooding advisory and blowing snow advisory. Geez louise! (Fortunately, we were in the blowing snow advisory.)




Which lead to this, this morning. Can't see much, can you?!



Some heavy, wet snow piled high on the bare tree limbs.

This might all be well and good except for the fact that tomorrow is one of the biggest days for our department (and me!) where we have over 1,000 visitors for Cattlemen's Day and a Bull Sale. Boo snow!

Downhill Slide

A big huge Happy Birthday goes out to my sister Marisa! She turns 30 today (gasp!) and is officially on the downhill slide. I couldn't be happier to post a special Happy Birthday message to her today since she was so kind to me on my birthday and posted quite possibly the worst baby picture of me. Ever. What's the saying about payback being hell?!

Awww... what a sweet litle girl!

Who was given beer as a toddler. (PBR, at that!) This explains so much!

Who grew to love the beach and water.

Who could never keep her eyes open in pictures.

Who could make some pretty funny faces.


Who loves Ella almost as much as me.


Who was the most beautiful bride.

Happy Birthday Sissy!

2/27

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to Grandaddy!

Happy Birthday to you!

YEA!!

Big 8-9! (You don't look a day over 70!)

Rodeo Cowgirl

This weekend was the KSU Rodeo and that means a great big time for Miss Ella Grace. We went Friday and Saturday night and she had a blast. I got her all cowgirled up for the big Saturday night show - I LOVE this vest on her!

Each time I go to a rodeo I am reminded of why I really, really like it.

OK, here comes my soapbox:

Whether it's at the college level or in the pros, each contestant competes individually. They pay to enter each event and the only paycheck they get is one that they earn based on their performance. (Pros get sponsorship money, however.) Even though the competition is individual, there is a real sense of comraderie. At the Friday night show one contestant's rope got caught under his horse's leg and caused it to get real nervous and freak out. Four other competitors who were on the floor saw this and came running out to help the roper and his horse.

I also like the fact that each contestant has to provide their own horse, tack, rigging, etc. and has to get themselves (and said horse, tack or rigging) to the rodeo themselves. To me that creates a certain amount of responsibility that members of other teams may lack.

Also, one other thing that I really like is that at the beginning of every rodeo I have ever been to the announcer says a prayer. Public prayer?! You bet.

I'll step down from the box now... I think I've been here long enough!

Here and There

Gosh, y'all, I am so sorry for my lack of posting lately... It seems as if there isn't much going on (or at least interesting enough to post about)!

A few random tidbits:

Grandaddy had been back in the hospital to undergo two more surgeries but is back home now and is doing better than he has been in the past month and a half. Yippeee!

This weekend David broke out the chess board and challenged me to a game. Ugh. I haven't played since I was pregnant (and I thought the mental stimulation would somehow make Ella smarter... I might have been onto something there)! Oh, and that was the same time that I actually learned how to play so needless to say I was a bit rusty. I have publicly declared my need to prove my intelligence to David and chess DOES NOT do it! The queen is the most powerful piece on the board, as she should be, and that makes me happy.

Andria was the only blogger friend who answered my Icebox Showdown and she did it with gusto! I did receive a submission from anonymus:


Anyone got an idea whose super clean, super new fridge this may be?! Thank you to these two for not letting my showdown fall flat on its face. The rest of you should be ashamed of yourselves! :)

Fat Tuesday

Happy Mardi Gras, everybody!

I have been to New Orleans once and just loved it. I hope to make it there for Mardi Gras at least once before I die. Beignets, red beans and rice, jazz music and parler-ing some Francais: oui, oui!

Laissez les bon temps rouler! (Let the good times roll!)

Update

I was hoping for a seventh inning homer and boy did we get one! We got one more proposal fulfilled - hot damn! How very cool that we got three of the four fully fulfilled and the last one is almost half! Way to go, team!

I know that we have some very generous readers and that is a wonderful feeling for me. I hope that all of you who donated also have the wonderful feeling of knowing that you help enrich the education of some deserving kids!

Since I donated to the TIME magazine one, I got this email from the teacher in that classroom when it got fulfilled (and Grandaddy did too since I donated in his honor):

Thank you so much for your willingness to help my students. I've told them that we will be getting Time Magazine for Kids and we will be able to use them in both reading and social studies class. They are all very excited. My students and I are very fortunate to be able to count on wonderful people like you to help make learning more fun. Thanks again.
Sincerely, Myra Creech

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Let's Hear it for Jo!

Today is the birthday of one of the best friends a girl could ask for, Angie Jo!

Yea Angie, turning the big 3-0! Yikes!

To show my true love for some Angie Jo, I attempted my very first ever angel food cake last night. Angel food cake happens to be Angie's fave so I spent a little (lot) time a whippin' some egg whites. We'll have to see what the good word is when I make delivery today!

Angie is the proud mama of Miss Mallory

Not Candy and Flowers

I saw this article on msn.com and felt it was worth sharing. It's certainly not your typical candy and flowers...!

Zoos Cashing in on Valentine's With Sex Tours