Before, and during the party.

The sofa is ready.

The fireplace is ready.

The table is ready.

The dessert is ready.

The fry bread is ready.

The fixins are ready.

The whole spread is ready.

The people are happy.

So happy.

So, I made Navajo Tacos for dinner.  Navajo Tacos are pretty much like regular tacos except you put the fixins on fry bread instead of on chips or in taco shells.  I made the fry bread using a recipe from The Pioneer Woman.  I am not very good at making fry bread.  I should have made them flatter and bigger.  They are supposed to fold into a pseudo-taco shell shape that you can hold in your hand, but these were too small so we used knife and fork. 

And, I didn't use ground beef, I used ground bison.  Bison (American Buffalo) is a bit sweeter than beef, much leaner than beef, and better for you.  Since I was using bison, I thought maybe I should go with a combination I saw on the food channel- bison ribs with huckleberry bbq sauce.   I bought some huckleberry chutney and some huckleberry bbq sauce and mixed them to make my own huckleberry salsa.  It was pretty stinkin' good if I do say so myself.

While I was making all those changes to regular tacos, I decided on shredded cabbage instead of shredded lettuce.  I like the crunchiness of cabbage.  Lettuce just gets all wilty on hot taco meat.  Besides, sometimes people serve pulled pork sandwiches with cole slaw on the sandwich instead of on the side. Why not on tacos?  Cabbage rules!

For dessert I made chocolate chip pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting.  So. Very. Easy.

1 box spice cake mix (don't add anything they say on the box, just use the dry mix).  1 15 oz. can of pumpkin.  1 cup semi-sweet choc chips.  Mix.  Bake according to the directions on the box.

1 can cream cheese frosting (I think it was Pillsbury.)  Put a few choc chips on the top.  Done.  

We were going to sit out by the fire pit and talk over old times, but it started raining and we voted to stay in.  It was a great evening.

After the party

 I enjoy cleaning up after a party or get-together.  I know, some people groan and moan and hate dealing with the mess, but I like it.  To me, it's relaxing.  Sorting leftovers, rinsing dishes...  I use that time to wind down, collect my thoughts, reminisce about the good time we just had, and thank God for my friends who made the mess(es). 

I had some folks over tonight for dinner.  These are the people (outside my family) that I have known the longest.  We don't see each other on a daily basis, but we have had some fun times the past 25 or so years and tonight was no exception.

We ate, we talked, we laughed, we played games, and we shared some struggles.  We prayed together, we ate some more, we shared pictures, and we told stories.  It was good.

I'll post the food pics tomorrow.  Right now I have to go set all my clocks back an hour.  :->

Happy "Fall Back" Day!   

(the end of Daylight Saving Time is my favorite day of the year.)

Tis the season!

To do some math!  Here's a nice video of a college professor explaining some math to his students:

I hope the math didn't scare you too much!
Have a nice day!

Baseball should not be played in October

My morning wake-up radio station people keep talking about the World Series.  What?  Is baseball still being played?  Now?  It's football season.  It's cold out.  Baseball players don't move around enough to stay warm.  They have to wear so many layers of shirts that they can't pitch well.  It's raining.  Baseball players are delicate.  They don't play when it rains- they have "rain delays".  They're probably afraid they're going to melt. They're so dainty.

Whose idea was it to have such a long season?  Who can keep track of their team from April to now?  They should be done in September.  And the World Series (which really doesn't involve the whole world) should be 5 games in September.  Done.

I've decided I have too short of an attention span to be a real baseball fan.

Thought you should know.

A little home improvement.

Our laundry room was begging for help.  When I bought the house 11 years ago, I was thrilled to have an inside laundry room instead of one in the garage.  I put in a set of shelves I had, put the vacuum attachments on the wall, hung a broom organizer, and then started using the back wall to mark kiddo's growth chart.

Through the years, the room has become a collection hall of stuff- kitchen stuff, linen closet stuff, garage stuff, outside stuff, cleaning stuff, dog stuff... you get the idea.

Then there was a leak.  I think it was something to do with the washer connection to the water.  It was awful.  I was dropping towels all over and bemoaning my new laminate floor and muttering about mold and mildew, mold and mildew!

My neighbor came over and helped me move the washer and dry out the floor.  A few years later, the washer overflowed.  Most likely it was not quite balanced and I put too much in it.  Water nightmares all over again.  I mopped up and moved the washer away from the back wall where I pulled out the soggy baseboards and placed a space heater and dehumidifier for awhile.  We kept using the washer in that position which was really hard to work around, but I was scared to push it back to the wall in case of more leaks that I couldn't reach.  I also removed the door because it was taking up space in the room. 

After making do for about a year, I used this summer at home to finally fix the problem.  I called my insurance company and they sent ProServ out to diagnose and/or fix the dampness.  They detected a tiny bit of mold that they cleaned out for free (YAY!), so I didn't file a claim.

Then I moved everything out of the room and started from scratch.  That's what you are supposed to do when you re-do a room.  (Everything landed in the dining room or living room and some of it is still there- yikes!)

I started with new paint.  Almost Heavenly Blue from WalMart.  Love it.  Then my neighbor installed new baseboards and I put up another wire shelf.  I know, some people hate the wire shelves but they were the cheapest quickest thing and I think they work well for what I want.  They are visually light and airy which is important for a small room.  I also decided that the room would only be about laundry and a few kitchen supplies- not random stuff.  I labeled all my white baskets with the planned contents, and corralled the cleaning supplies.  Before I painted over kiddo's growth chart, I made a giant "ruler" out of a 6 foot 1 x 4 and then copied all the data onto it.  Lastly, I re-hung the door and put the brooms on the back of it with a simple over-the-door clothes hook.

Now it is a bright, welcoming, efficient place to deal with our laundry.  I can hang clothes out of the way, the hamper rolls nicely, and I know exactly where everything is.  I had no idea that labels would make such a difference!  I might still put some decor on the walls, but for now it is exactly what we need.

Total cost?  About $20 for paint and $40 for shelves.  I used baskets I already had and made labels with my scrapbooking supplies.  Oh, I bought a metal pail from Goodwill for $.99.  It's my new lint bucket.

Here's a look at the befores:

The washer is pulled out from the wall- about 15 inches.

ServPro cleaned it up and I was able to replace the original laminate floor with my neighbor's help.

And here are the afters:

The growth chart just leans against the wall.  I can easily move it if we ever get a different house.

Back against the wall where it belongs!

Those baskets are labeled towels and candles.
The towels are old towels used for cleaning and for drying off the dog when he gets wet outside.
The gray dishtub is used to corral Windex, Spray 'n Wash, etc.

The door is back and helping hold the Swiffer,  floor squeegee, and window washing stuff.

I love Tide Pods.  They help kiddo do the laundry without having to measure or spill liquid.  
The powder is Oxy.  Can't live without Oxy...

No doubt as to what is in there.

I have four baskets labeled with the seasons.  These hold- are you ready for this?-  dishtowels for each season.  Yeah.  I found out I have about 4 dozen dishtowels.  That's 48, people.  48 dishtowels for a person who doesn't even like being in the kitchen that much.  48.  (About half of those are Christmasy.  You can't use up 24 Christmas towels in one month... hello?)  Apparently, that's pretty much how I decorate my kitchen- seasonal dishtowels that rotate with the calendar.  It's inexpensive, but I had no idea how many I had or how they pile up!
I have to start re-gifting these babies...

Our triple hamper helps kiddo sort the clothes.  I used paint chips to label the sections- lights, darks, and reds.  

It's a pleasure to do laundry now.  We can even shut the door now and block out the noise from the machines.  Next project?  Probably the garage...

Field trips, part 2

In July, we took my folks down the gorge to the Interpretive Center Museum.  These are the scrapbook layouts I made of our great day in the gorge.

And now for something completely different...

Kiddo and I have some weird inside jokes.  I'm not going to share them all with you, because then they wouldn't be inside jokes anymore, but I thought you might enjoy this.  Or, you might find it kinda disturbing.  Your choice.

Anyway, a few years ago, she noticed that there was a Barbie doll on the roof of a house that we pass a few times a week.  The house is two stories, so it would be almost impossible for a kid that lives there to throw the doll onto the roof, except that the house is located in a bit of a valley and a road and sidewalk are directly behind it.  We figured that someone who was walking along the sidewalk just tossed that Barbie over there and the homeowners have no idea it is there.

Summer 2010.    It looks like she is in a rather precarious position.

We started checking the roof every time we went past the house, and sure enough, it just stayed right there.  Somehow, we decided we would yell out "Nekkid Barbie" every time we went by.  (And yes, "nekkid" is a word.  In Texan it means "naked".  Our pastor in Texas used to use it from the pulpit, "The man and his wife were both nekkid and knew no shame."  It's in Genesis.  Look it up.)

After a few weeks of noticing, we started predicting.  We thought that maybe a good fall rain storm or wind storm might just whisk that baby right off that roof.  Nope, she was still there the next summer- although she had slid considerably lower and closer to the gutters.

Summer 2011.   Still precarious but about two feet lower than the year before.

Well, now this was getting interesting!  We thought maybe we should make some bets regarding the date of the ultimate demise of dear Barbie, but neither of us are good gamblers so we just make half-hearted suggestions without committing any money to the deal.  We also discussed driving down the road to the house and knocking on the door to inform the homeowners that there was a nekkid Barbie on their roof.  Still haven't done that.  I'm waiting till she hits the gutter because until then she is doing no harm and she is providing entertainment.

This summer, we rarely drove by the nekkid Barbie site, and when we did I was sans camera, so it was fall when we finally caught another picture of her.  She's turning gray and brown now, and has slid about a foot lower than last summer.  She's closer to the edge of the roof, so after a good rain storm, or a bit of wind, she might end up in the rain gutter.  Homeowners hate things clogging up their rain gutters, so I will keep an eye on it and go tell the owners pretty soon.

Fall 2012.   It's amazing what little it takes to entertain us.
I predict she might be sliding even more during this recent hit of rain.
Poor Barbie.  What a way to go.

I'll update with new pictures as soon as there is something to show.  For now, you can go about your lives as before.