Jean: I read your post and thought, "hmmm, maybe Jean should put "Old McDonald Had a Farm" on Bob's phone and play it for him like they do the Lexus commercials as a surprise for the tractor out in the yard!
It is in the low 50's this day and all is well. I fixed a nice brunch of boiled eggs, red grapefruit sections and toast. Sure hit the spot for some reason this day. Will is out back making a nice frame for a lady that works at the museum to put a horse picture her grandfather drew for her years ago. She had never had it framed and found it in some things recently so now she will have a nice frame for it. Of course he has a couple supervisors for Beanie and Cecil are right under foot as he is working. Ole Ragg Mopp is snoozing out on the couch in his "spot." Since the rain left some moisture in the air when the morning train went by which is over a mile away it sounded like it was going down our alley. Moisture sure makes the sound travel. When Will gets up in the morning he turns on our Christmas lights we have in a potted tree and around our window and the Kincade tree and my lighted houses. It looks so cheery when I get up a bit later. I love this time of the year. I only have christmas tree lights around the roofs of 3 of the houses but that is how it will stay this year. Will said we can make a run over to the big city after the holidays and see if Michaels, the craft store, still has them. If they do I can get them at a discounted price. Since it is a seasonal thing they probably will need the space for something else. I was showing Will the plastic folder WW sells to put the Pocket Guide in that I like to put my 3 month tracker in and it is just a quarter of an inch too small. It will snap but I want it to fit better so he volunteered to make me a nice leather one.
DONNA FAYE Have you ever made your own pizza and had it just the way you wanted it? It is fun to make but so much easier to just call for delivery. We like the little hole in the wall type places and have found the "best" of some items there. The best, bar none, burger is in a little place in Ponka City OK. The very best place for pizza is in Ventura CA. The best BBQ beef is in Jackson Hole WY. The very best ever burritos is at Maggie's out on the avenue in Ventura CA who also has the best carnitas tacos. The best pulled pork sandwiches are to be found in Lindsay TX. So if you ever travel in those areas I know where the "best" places to eat are.
JEAN Does Bob use all of those tractors or just a collector. We used to have a bunch of miniature tractors put out by Alice Chalmers because we had a friend that worked there. Will would love to have a tractor but our friend in Texas where we are going to retire to has one. Just one though. I am not sending out cards this year. I waited too long to order the ones I really wanted so I may order earlier next year. Not many folks are sending them out this year because postage is so stinkin' high. AH so your flashing red neils now. Did you have them put any holiday decorations on them? I like the little trees and candy canes, etc. they paint on nails this season. I am doing mine clear with some snowflakes on them. That is if I can find my holiday nail decorations...they should be with my polish ~ I just haven't looked yet.
SUSAN I'll have Will look for that book on his sites where he gets such fabulous discounts. I gave him the information and he said, "After the first of the new year" which is fine with me since it only goes on sale the last of this year. I have a lot of the WW cookbooks and this will be another to add to my arsenal. I wonder if they will be making a big ring binder book like they did for the Momentum program. Will found those in the book store when he was prowling around in there. I have 3 of the ring binder WW books. Two are for the Momentum and the other one for the Core program. The Core one is "WW All-time Favorites" which has over 200 best-ever recipes from the WW test kitchens. The two Momentum program ones are "Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook" and Weight Watchers in 20 Minutes. I imagine that a new ring binder book will be coming out with the Points Plus program in it.
Everyone have a lovely afternoon. Type at y'all later.
Maggie -- It is still raining here, but up to 46 degrees! It just feels damp and chilling inside and out. I just fixed a hot cup of tea to drink before I leave for bell practice. Bob, or his farmer friend, do use all of the tractors. His friend has converted to being an Oliver fan rather than the Allis brand of tractors he owns. He is close (?) to retiring in a few years so know he won't be buying any more tractors. Bob has a whole hutch, in his office, full of Oliver toy tractors and implements, many are "to scale" and with all the appropriate parts in place. He has an OLD Oliver wall clock that hung in his grandpa's/dad's garage. It still works too. I have no clue where we will put all of his office menagerie when he retires. I'm hoping he will sell some online. We haven't gotten nearly the Christmas cards that we normally do. With the S L L O O O W W W W postal service, who knows when they might be delivered, if at all. I didn't think to have a decoration put on my nails. If the polish doesn't last I may go back next week and do that.
"Gma" -- It would be cute to have music to go with the tractor. I don't see how the tractor will get here before Christmas. Bob has a couple customers with trailers, but it will depend on when they can go, or if he could borrow a trailer and go himself.
I'm going to change back into my jeans and head for church. See you later!
Good morning to you all. It is raining something fierce here this morning, but I think it is going to gradually drop off. It is very mild here so much so that we slept with the fans on last night. Kind of weird weather even for here so close to Christmas.
I finished my J P Beaumont book and it was really good. I am down to the decreases and pick ups on my project so it won't be long and it will be done too and then I can wrap it, go and get a couple other things to go with it and it will be all ready. I will then go back to working on my sweaters and getting them done.
I have been a busy girl this morning, I cleaned out the fridge and took out the trash, unloaded the dishwasher and am going upstairs in awhile and dust and clean bathrooms. We want to shampoo downstairs this weekend since the guy with the roofing tracked mud all across the carpets and up the stairs. I found roofing nails on the deck a couple days ago so who knows if it is going to leak again or not. I left the bowl and towel on the floor upstairs waiting for this rain to see if it was going to leak again. From what the guy said, the roof is a mess and needs total replacement. You can't legally withhold association payments in this state so you are stuck with what they will and won't do pretty much.
I put together the cutest bracelet for my best friend for her birthday online yesterday while I was goofing around. Like I have said before she and I have been best friends for 45 years now, since 7th grade music class where we met. She is such a doll and I thought she would like a bracelet that is all colors of blue or pink and hearts and best friend beads and stuff like that. She is like a sister to me and I love her like one so I want to do something really special for her next year.
Susan: I get beautiful ornaments from the boys and put them in a bag here in the kitchen and sooner or later will take them out to the storage where I have all my Christmas stuff. One of these days I will have this house the way I want then can put up all my stuff. I love the look of it, but it is a lot of work if no one else will ever see it and we either do Christmas at Kelly's or are up in Indiana. Our little condo just doesn't have room for anything.
Maggie: You would only get an argument about one food and that is the pulled pork. I think the best pulled pork is right here in Memphis. I may be prejudiced but Memphis BBQ is the best pork bbq. We don't eat it much as it is pretty high in calories and such, but we do like it. We have a great mom and pop place just across the street here where we always get our smoked turkey at Thanksgiving. He is quite elderly but still a lovely Christian man who is at the restaurant everyday. The food is glorious.
Jean: Jack would not want something quite so big for Christmas. I think he would probably want more computer junk is my guess. We really don't buy each other presents as we use the money for our vacations every year. I am going to be buying his luggage for Christmas for him. He picked it out and it is this bright, bright yellow and black. Mine is going to be pink with my monogram on it. We like the duffle style bags so are getting a couple big ones of those and a carry on to take our hygiene, meds and set of clothes and swimsuit and such as that is what they recommend since your bags don't get to your room for several hours. Kind of cool to be able to take as much luggage as you need and not have to pay extra for the privilege. Comes from driving instead of flying. They released a study that Memphis has the highest airline prices in the country. BIG surprise. Delta almost has a monopoly here now that they bought NWA and NWA was a hub here in Memphis. It is awful to fly out of here too. Hard to get direct flights and you would think being in the middle of the country it would be easy.
Well gals, enough blabbing. I need to eat breakfast. have a grand day all. Faye
Good Morning, Flowers! The wind is blowing, it's cloudy, and "feels like" 15 degrees. I've done a couple loads of laundry and decluttered the kitchen . . . again. I have WW in a little bit, know that won't be pretty with all the holiday eating this past week. We're leaving for Sioux Falls early this afternoon. I want to stop at the mall before the grandkids' program at 6.
"Gma" -- I'll trade weather with you! I hope your roof is fixed and you won't have another leak to contend with. I think we are flying Delta this time. We flew Delta back from AZ many years ago and wondered if the plane would make it. It was OLD and a bucket of bolts! I was really nervous and I don't usually get that way when flying. I wish the airlines would wise up and install wider seats! I need to buy a new piece of luggage since mine was a mess last time we flew. It looks like they dragged it down the runway behind the plane.
I need to change clothes and head out. Enjoy the rest of your day! I won't be home till way past my bedtime tonight.
It is a chilly day of 37 and not expected to get over 40 degrees this day in the Heartland. I don't have much to do this day except to round up all the ingredients for our spaghetti dinner this night. Since we won't be having our guests in to eat till 7 pm I have lots of time to get prepared for sure. I have a couple of french bread bagguetts in the freezer I do need to get out and cook and spagetti sauce to get bubbling on the stove. After I get off here this day I will go and chop the celery, mushrooms and onion that I will be using in the sauce. I leave them in bite sized chunks which makes the sauce nice and lumpy with meat balls and veggies. But like I said there is no hurry to get things moving for the dinner.
I made a "thank you" card this morning for our guest for he brought us a lovely un-sliced ham. I will, after I get though here, go cut it up and get most of it in the freezer. I'll cut some of it into bite sized chuncks to use in several dishes I can make and slice the rest thick to have same for other dinnner type things. We will have lots of ham in the freezer. I'll use my machine that sucks the air out of the bags and seals them to do this ham so we use the other one first. This appliance that sucks the air out and heat seals the bag sure makes the food last longer when frozen. Our guest also brought us a bakery box with 6 donuts in it and we, of course we had some. Will left the box on the coffee table in the front room and this morning he asked me, "Did you polish off the donuts?" Absolutely not! Well he found the empty box on the floor and asked me that before he accuesed the dogs and cat of partaking of our leavings. Probably was Beanie for he will eat anything. Anything. I didn't want anymore anyway nor did Will. If Paul is still with us after the first of the year I am going to have to tell him kindly to NOT bring anymore donuts or pie or anything of that sort for us. If he wants some ~ fine ~ but don't give us any for we are going to knuckle down and buckle down on our weight loss efforts. Besides I had to take an alka-seltzer after that donut for it got to me. I am not used to that sort of the thing and I don't want to teach my system to "ask" for it either. I realize he is just trying to be nice and contribute. He could lose some weight himself. He will be gone next week for the baby girl will be born next week by cicerian. All is well with mother and child.
We have a wedding celebration party to go to on Saturday which is about an hour away. They requested "no gifts." But I really do want to give them something and since she already has 3 of my houses I am thinking of making them one of the ones with the bay window and has a matching gazabo and give it to them later. I know what she has so this won't be a duplicate. He is in the service and has made several trips fighting for us and has the Medal of Honor which was recently presented to him. We would certainly not want to miss their reception.
DONNA FAYESounds like with the amount of activity you have done this day that your moving about nicely and not sitting in your chair in pain. That is so good isn't it. I do hope he did get your roof patched so the rain doesn't come in some more. I have a real good cookbook called America's Best BBQ by Ardie A. Davis phB & Chef Paul Kirk CWC, PhB, BSAS that has some excellent recipes from Americas best smokehouses, pits, shacks, rib joints, roadhouses, and restaurants. It is full of good food and how to make it. A champion BBQ winner is going to be back in town just to make deliveries this friday and Will has ordered Burnt Ends which are a flavorful, well cooked type of brisket. We love the Burnt Ends. What I really like about this book is that it tells about some of the history of the eating joints and gives their best recipes for meat and the rubs used and side dishes, etc. It has really colorful pictures of people and places and food in it also. I would gladly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys BBQ.
JEAN Have a safe trip. I know you will enjoy that program. Drive safely on those winter roads and watch out for the "other guy." Those programs are always so fun this time of the year to attend. You are going to be one tired Magnolia if you won't get home past bedtime. Bet you sleep well tonight. Don't stress about weigh in today. Lets make a conserted effort to make a good weight loss this coming year. If we keep our FOCUS we can show a good loss in 2012. Yes we can.
Everyone have a lovely afternoon. I am off to the kitchen now to get some lunch and chop the veggies for the sauce. Type at y'all later
Maggie -- I did go to WW but didn't weigh in this morning. I should have, I know. I would have a hard time with donuts and sweet things in the house. Did Beanie look at all guilty about the missing donuts? We made the 5 hour road trip for a 20 minute program! The kids sang (more like yelled) the traditional carols and did the traditional skit. Ian had a speaking part as a shepherd and Zowie was an angel with tinsel in her hair. Sioux Falls has no snow either so other than the wind it was ok.
Good Morning! It's another cloudy and cold 15 degree day, but NO wind is blowing right now. The sun is trying to peek through so I hope it appears sometime today! I've folded a load of undies and have another load in the washer. We have an open house at one of Bob's customers tonight. It's held in a machine shed so not fancy. Lots of area farm families and tons of food will be there. It's a tradition started by the grandparents many years ago.
I need to write some more cards and finish DECORATING the tree today! Enjoy your day and whatever you are doing!
It is a chilly day this day in the Heartland. The temps will range from 24 to 47 degrees. Something sure had the dogs uneasy last night. Probably a skunk in the yard. Who knows but it distrubed my sleep. They are usually so quiet when they are inside. The animals are all ram-bunk-chious this morning. The Schwan man just came but we certainly don't need anything. I made a huge amount of spaghetti and sauce yesterday and so we will have it another day for sure for it really turned out good.
I got two surprises yesterday. First off I wanted a new WW pocket guide and e-mailed the local leader and asked if I could get one from her since it is a give-a-way and she said she would have to check on if she could give me one. I just thought if she could give me one I would have Will pick it up next Monday night. I wrote back and said to "not bother on my account" for I had sources out in CA & elsewhere I could have one mailed to me for I do know that WW has different rules in different states. I went on out to the kitchen and started making my spaghetti sauce and didn’t get back to my office till late so I didn’t receive her e-mail saying she would drop off the booklet at my house. In the middle of taking the spaghetti noodles off the stove Will came to the kitchen and said there was someone there to see me and I said send her into the kitchen. She came in with the Meet Points Plus 2012 and the Living Points Plus 2012 booklets along with the pocket guide I had asked about earlier. Brought them to my house. Actually brought them to my house.
The other surprise I had was Will bought me a new cookbook at the museum book store. The title is The Pioneer Village Cookbook. It has "reliable receipts & curious remedies in it" and is by Ann Chandonnet. Inside there are two pages of pioneer cooking terms which are helpful even though the recipes are written in our modern way. It gave an illustration on how a recipe written in 1736 and I will type it out here just as it is in the book.
"TO MAKE CHERRY TARTS
Stone your Cherries, lay them in the Tarts, with abundance of Sugar and Cinnamon, Cordecidron and Orange Peill, close up the Tarts, and send them to the Oven.
-- Mrs. McLintock’s Receipts for Cookery and Pastry Work, 1763."
The cook was expected to know a great deal concerning pastry, sweetening and oven temperature. It is a fun book with lots of history and recipes I can read and follow.
I have the neatest little fold out thingie which is "The Night Sky" put out by the Waterford Press. It is an introduction to prominent stars and constellations. It is so neat for the star charts glow in the dark and the pamphlet is chock full of information about all the stars and other things and it is intended to serve as a star finder. I can imagine I got this when we were in Montana, the state with the "big sky." I think I will put it with our camping gear for when we are "out there" we tend to look at the stars mostly then. I like to try and figure out what I am looking at.
JEAN It's OK if you didn't weigh in. WW has a pass for us when we don't want to weigh in and that's a good thing. They understand that sometimes we just don't want to. Hope it isn't too chilly in that machine shed for the party which sounds like fun. What a nice tradition to keep going. I too have laundry to fold. It comes upstairs in a basket and I dump it out on the bed and fold & put it all away.
All Y'all have a lovely day this chilly day ~ winter really begins on the 22nd of this month and already has a good start. Type at y'll later.
Good morning ladies. A bit of a late start here as I was up at 1 AM with this female stuff and didn't go back to sleep until Jack left for work. Thank goodness for Advil and heat pads. Just one more month!
Here is Fortune in the surprise project, though if my dd peeks in here before we have Christmas Eve dinner with her it won't be a surprise. I am going to get some catnip toys for their cat, but this sweater is for their yorkie, Marty. Fortune was a love and let me yank off his, put on this one, sit still while I took pics and then take it back off and put his back on. He seemed to like this new one, but I told him he couldn't keep it as it was a Christmas present for Marty so I think he understood and was ok with it! Jack loves it because it is Navy colors, and said I should put a big "N" on it, but I nixed that idea! I do like the colors and Marty is "gold" instead of "blue" like Fortune so I think the colors are perfect for him and he is about the same size as Fortune so it should fit him perfectly and be nice and warm for him. I am going to go back to knitting my sweaters now.
Boy so much for our balmy days. It is in the 30's and rainy here today and the house is all cold again. Bummer! Hopefully, Jack won't have to work outside today.
I have to make a batch of those cookies Jack loves tomorrow and keep him out of them because they are for his plant's Christmas lunch on Thursday. I told him I would make some other stuff too if he wanted but he said the cookies were fine. I know they always gobble up whatever I send so I am sure they will eat all of these too and there won't be stuff brought home. I am just going to make and freeze them as they freeze really well. We are doing rug shampooing this weekend so will work the cookies in sometime this weekend I guess.
Jean: Ahh well, it is the grandkids so what can you do???? I appreciated the band concert being just an hour and it was in this church so it wasn't sitting on those hard metal chairs, but nice cushy pews too. Jackson starts kindergarten this next fall and then they will have the same experiences. I just hate we won't get to be a part of it like we were with Thomas's. Maybe if we know in time we can schedule a visit and go to at least a few. I too am doing laundry this morning, towels and undies. Seems like we use an awful lot of towels and such as I seem to be washing them all the time. Sounds like a good time as long as it isn't too cold in the machine shed. Nothing like good ole farmer's wives cooking, but then "it ain't WW!"
Maggie: Oh my gosh, that is funny. Fortune would have eaten them if they were within easy reach, but if he had to jump onto the coffee table or anything like that he would have left them alone. I caught him once yanking my sandwich off my tray table when I went back into the kitchen for something, but it sits next to my recliner with all my knitting stuff so he just had to walk over and yank so it was my fault. He loves people food, but then don't all dogs. I have finally gotten him back on dry dog food and though he is not chowing down on it, he eats it everyday and I imagine when he realizes that "that is all you get buster" he will go ahead and eat it. It should slim him down and it is made for senior dogs so will help him with his joints and such. I can't believe he is 12 years old already. He is still pretty spry, but he did hurt himself last night as he was climbing on us and put his back paw in the drink hole that sits between our recliners and I think twisted it a bit. Freaked me out, but he was ok in a couple minutes.
Well it is almost 10 already so I guess I better hop to things. I have already missed breakfast so will eat a banana and just wait for lunch I guess. Have a lovely weekend all. Faye
Christmas party, New Year's Eve party or Super Bowl this is a great dip (if you love hot wings just not the calories)
Buffalo Chicken Dip
10 either canned or your own chicken finely chopped
8 oz lowfat or ff cream cheese
1/2 c hot sauce your choice
1/2 c lowfat or ff ranch dressing or you can use the same amount of a bleu cheese dressing
1 C shredded ff or 2% cheese
Microwave cream cheese until soft, stir in all ingredients making sure chicken is broken up well, put into a baking dish sprayed with Pam and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes Serve with tortilla chips, potato chips, pretzels, crackers even fresh veggies
(I don't have new pts break down so you ladies will have to run it through your program with regards to serving size)
Maggie -- I'm glad you were able to get the latest WW books. It was nice of the leader to deliver them to you. I'll bet the old cookbook is interesting! I have one that was my Grandma's and there are things in there I've never heard of. The farmer has multiple heaters in this shed, and remnant carpet pieces on the floor. Bob said he stores his machinery in there otherwise.
"Gma" -- I hope you are feeling better as the day has gone along. Fortune's fur looks so soft in the picture! The sweater is beautiful and I'm sure Marty will enjoy wearing it. It's nice of you to bake cookies for Jack to share at work. I think anything homemade is most welcome because people just don't bake and cook like they used to. Thanks for sharing the recipe -- it sounds like a tasty one!
Good morning to you all. I think Maggie and I posted at the same time yesterday because I surely didn't see it when I posted yesterday. It is cold again this morning and the heat is coming on and off. I am chilled but to turn it up anymore would make the upstairs way too hot for Jack to sleep. I guess a blanket is in order.
I am going to tear out what I have finished of my wrap and start over. I decided I didn't like it and am going to do something else with the yarn. I don't know what yet, but I am going to find a pattern for it this morning.
Maggie: What a cool cookbook to have. I love those old historical things with stories and such and a cookbook would be so fun to look at as women cooked by "feel" more than cooks do nowadays. Except for baking, I am a cook by feel kind of gal myself.
Jean: Almost all of the men out at the plant are at least 10 years younger than Jack and I imagine most of their wives work. Besides that, most working mothers and such of this generation are not big on baking and such. They buy what they want already made. They don't have time and aren't interested for the most part. I think it takes the control out of our hands and we end up eating junk frankly. Anyway, I always enjoy making stuff for those guys out there because they appreciate it and scarf it down. It is a nice ego boost for me! Hope you got your cards and decorating finished. We are going to shampoo carpets today and I am making those cookies today I think. I have the cream cheese, butter and eggs sitting out to get to room temperature and I am going to go in and mix the oatmeal, brickle and chocolate chips together when I get done here.
I am ready for spring! It has been so cloudy and such here and it gets depressing. I don't think I would like to live in a place like Seattle where it rains a lot and seems to be cloudy so much of the time. People must be permanently depressed out there!
Well gals, I am going to go. I want to work on some knitting before Jack gets up this morning. Have a nice Saturday all. Faye]
Good Morning, Flowers! The sun is playing hide 'n seek this morning, and it's a cold 23 degrees with an 8mph wind. The weatherman says we will have a "brown" Christmas. I'm positive that we will make up for it in January and February. I've been to the grocery store for some oj, bread, and milk; ended up spending $52 just by picking up a few things as I passed by the displays. I need to make my Christmas menu and go early next week.
"Gma" -- I had to at your heat being off and on. Are you going to use a different yarn and pattern for the wrap? I hope you weren't almost done and then decided you didn't like it. That's usually my m.o.! I've been known to buy things and then when I get them home don't like them at all and wonder why in the world I ever bought them in the first place. I can remember when our kids were still in school, there were a few times we were to bring treats and working mothers brought store bought cookies. Oreos were the most popular ones! Bob still likes Oreos, so I buy them every once in awhile. Guess he is a kid at heart.
I have laundry going and need to unload the dishwasher. I hope you all enjoy your day today!
Wonderful Cold Wednesday
GOOD EARLY AFTERNOON MAGNOLIAS 
Of course he has a couple supervisors for Beanie and Cecil are right under foot as he is working. Ole Ragg Mopp is snoozing out on the couch in his "spot." Since the rain left some moisture in the air when the morning train went by which is over a mile away it sounded like it was going down our alley. Moisture sure makes the sound travel. When Will gets up in the morning he turns on our Christmas lights we have in a potted tree and around our window and the Kincade tree and my lighted houses. It looks so cheery when I get up a bit later. I love this time of the year. I only have christmas tree lights around the roofs of 3 of the houses but that is how it will stay this year. Will said we can make a run over to the big city after the holidays and see if Michaels, the craft store, still has them. If they do I can get them at a discounted price. 
Since it is a seasonal thing they probably will need the space for something else. I was showing Will the plastic folder WW sells to put the Pocket Guide in that I like to put my 3 month tracker in and it is just a quarter of an inch too small. It will snap but I want it to fit better so he volunteered to make me a nice leather one.
Type at y'all later. 
I didn't think to have a decoration put on my nails. If the polish doesn't last I may go back next week and do that. 
I've done a couple loads of laundry and decluttered the kitchen . . . again. I have WW in a little bit, know that won't be pretty with all the holiday eating this past week. 
We're leaving for Sioux Falls early this afternoon. I want to stop at the mall before the grandkids' program at 6.
I hope your roof is fixed and you won't have another leak to contend with. I think we are flying Delta this time. We flew Delta back from AZ many years ago and wondered if the plane would make it. It was OLD and a bucket of bolts! I was really nervous and I don't usually get that way when flying. I wish the airlines would wise up and install wider seats! 
I need to buy a new piece of luggage since mine was a mess last time we flew. It looks like they dragged it down the runway behind the plane. 
I should have, I know. I would have a hard time with donuts and sweet things in the house. 
the tree today! Enjoy your day and whatever you are doing! 
because people just don't bake and cook like they used to. Thanks for sharing the recipe -- it sounds like a tasty one!
I need to make my Christmas menu and go early next week.
