Trip to Texas

George and I took a little trip to Texas this past weekend....Amarillo to be exact.... At one point I saw this cool reflection in my side window....so I turned around to get a photo of it....

On the way there we made a pit stop in Tulsa to have lunch at Costa Azule with my old boss, Tom. This is a photo of downtown Tulsa (where I used to work) as we were crossing the bridge over the Arkansas River.

We went to a wedding celebration for Dusty and Susie Johnston.... We had a great time visiting on Friday night, went sight seeing on Saturday and to the wedding reception on Saturday evening.

The sight seeing consisted of Cadillac Ranch and Palo Duro Canyon....
Here I have just added our names to the cars... and here's views of the row of cars from the front and back...I have shots of each one.......



This is a shot at the canyon..I have tons but my computer is uploading slow...so I'm just posting the one.... It was beautiful.

The Day of the Father

Today is Father's Day.... we invited our Dad's to come to our house for lunch today. We had a small gathering...... My family...Dad (Tommy), Mom (June) & Thomas..... George's family (some of it).... Henry, Rita and Matt....and Russell was home....We had a nice long visit and plenty of food for lunch....

This is me and my Dad (Tommy)..... we're sitting on my deck in the new chairs that Henry got for Father's Day. I reverted to childhood and made my Dad's gift....a scrapbook of his family.
Here's our parents... in order ...... Henry, Tommy, June & Rita... for a while today we had a really nice breeze on the deck and used the canopy to block the sun...but we took advantage of the air conditioning for a large part of the day.....

This is my brother, Thomas. He's a great guy....I often wish I had the outgoing personality that he has...but, alas....I just do not.

And....here's George....kicked back waiting to open his Father's Day gift and watching golf (why????? oh why?????? I'll never know).....
I hope our Dad's enjoyed the day and know how much we do really love and appreciate them. I know we enjoyed it a lot!

Happy Fathers' Day to all.

The search is over....

One fine day in the town of Heber Springs, AR, Suellen and I had a meeting....after the meeting, we stopped at a coffee shop for a little refreshment.... On the wall of this lovely little shop was a ceramic flat vase with a ceramic flower. Instant love....I knew that I MUST HAVE ONE! The nice young man that was running the coffee shop did not know where it came from because his mom decorated for him (Great job MOM)... So..... I took it off the wall to find out any infor that might be on the back....it happened to have lots of info.... Ganz Bella Casa Kathryn Youngs.....all these words were on the back....so....what could stop me from finding it!!!!

Well...guess what stopped me.... I couldn't find them anywhere...found lots of Bella Casa...lots of Kathryn Youngs but not this actual item.....I searched eBay...bought a half vase but still not what I really really wanted...... then...the depression set in (haha...just kidding).....but I kept checking occasionally.......

Well.... guess what.... Low and behold, Betty and I went to Heber Springs last Friday (great place for a girly trip)..... while hitting the lovely little shops on Main street we ventured off just about 1/2 block to The Pickett Fence and a book store that is close by..... We were wandering through the Pickett Fence shop and suddenly out of no-where.....I saw it.... hanging on the wall in front of me....the vase and flower....I know the shop owner thought I was insane....I squealed...and grabbed it off the wall like it was the last of the most popular christmas toys and the only thing on your kids wish list.... Then I rounded the corner and found more!!!! I was in shopping heaven..... my friend Suellen had wanted one too...but in the moment I just wasn't positive that she would still want one....Isn't texting awesome... in a matter of a few minutes I knew that she wanted one too....

So today, I took her's to the office....now Karla has ordered one from that shop for herself too..... and maybe a little something else as well....

Here's the photo....it' hangs in my scapping corner in the study!

A smile like that

It sure was nice to see this smile today. George is pretty happy with his mule... and I'm very glad. He is a rather quiet man but he's been pretty expressive with his enthusiasm of this mule....

Russell (sporting his crazy summer doo) rode Hat for a little while today...after he was done he said "this is better than a 4-wheeler)....George really liked that ;-)
Did you notice that Russell and Hat have the same hair style....haha... and no, I did not dress Russell...That is entirely his OWN style.

I meant to take some photos of George on the ride today but left the camera in the truck....oh well... another time......

Way to go HAT.

Hat

Well, George finally picked out a mule to add to our collection of animals. Today we went to Missouri to look at a mule named Hat. He is a very nice, large sorel mule. We went out for a couple hours of riding...I rode a very sweet mare named Dandy...I assure you she was a dream! Makes me hope for what Goldie can be.

Anyway, George is pretty happy with Hat so far....He's rather excited to have him...here's a peek....
George & Hat

George & Hat

Hat up close....

And a body shot of Hat....

Perfect Rice

Ok, I got another subtle hint from my friend Kim about a recipe....
Who can't make rice....it's so easy...hahahaha yeah right! I have never been able to make really good rice...it's always hard or sticky.....so after I drooled over Kenda's perfect rice at work, she decided to give me the recipe.....

Here it is....

Perfect Rice!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees....

In a baking dish (casserole dish with lid) put....

1 cup white rice
2 cups water
some oil or butter
salt

Bake covered for 45 minutes at 350....
Remove from oven and fluff a bit.....

I've made it twice since she gave me the recipe and I never made rice...my husband always made our rice (I really do love rice).

Give it a try....how much easier could it be.... put it in the oven and forget it.

Lemon Parmesan Pasta

My friend Kim threw out some rather large hints that I should post this recipe on my blog for all of my little blog reading friends to enjoy....trust me...enjoy is the word for this dish...along with simple and quick...amazingly easy...who knew something so easy would be so good....

Lemon Parmesan Pasta
Makes 3 1/2 cups.....takes 10 minutes
Cook 8 oz of angel hair pasta & drain
Toss with:
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1/4 cup shredded parmesan
2 teaspoons minced lemon zest
salt and pepper to taste

That's it....

Now.... last night I sauteed some mushrooms in butter and stirred them in and gave the pasta an extra squeeze of lemon juice from that lemon that I got the zest from....and boy was that yummy too!

So...give it a try...and play around with it some....it's superb just following the recipe.....

Enjoy! oh...and by the way...that recipe came from the Cuisine at Home June 20006 magazine...

Shrooms

George has a "little" project going on in a box under the house....he's growing button mushrooms...well...here's an example....hehehe...Now that he's grown this monster button mushroom, he's checking them a little more often so that he can harvest them at a more "button mushroom" size..... :-)


He thought comparing his hand to the mushroom would give you an idea of the actual size of the mushroom.



I sauteed this lovely mushroom tonight and added it to our lemon parm pasta....YUMMO!