Tuesday, June 26, 2012

I'm melting! Melting! Oh - what a world - what a world!

'Ohhh - you cursed brat! Look what you've done! I'm melting! Melting! Oh - what a world - what a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness!? Ohhh! Look out! Look out! I'm going. Ohhhh! Ohhhhhh...'.

Yep! That's me I'm the wicked witch, that's exactly how I feel in this heat, WICKED!
I just spoke, on the phone, with the ManWhoHoldsMyHeart and he had just looked up the upcoming forecast for the holiday week, MORE of the same!! 107 today, tomorrow 110, then 109, then 102, 101,.... If only body fat would melt in these temps, good could come of such an evil! Bawaahahaha (you know that's my evil laugh) Ahhhh!

Ok I must move on if I keep on this subject I shall truly go insane! Last week when a front came through and it was a cool evening, ~~~~~~~~wavy lines indicate dream state with distant memory ~~~~~~~~~~~~ha ha~~~~~~~ I baked!! Three loaves of banana bread==2 with walnuts and one with chocolate chips, mixed up two batches of cookie dough==one chocolate chip with coconut and oatmeal that I baked just cookie sheets of  said cookie, the other a whole wheat snickerdoodles still in dough form in the freezer. And a Cherry Pie! I asked TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart what he would like since I was in a baking mood and he said "cherry pie" then he proceeded to stretch out on the couch for his after supper, evening power nap, just resting my eyes snooze (our days start early here the alarm goes off at 5:20 AM)! So I made a special cherry pie with his name on it!!! I couldn't wait for him to wake up later and ask "So what did you decide to make?" and I replied "Oh, there's a pie in the oven with your name on it!!!!!!!!!" Hehehe
It was great! I get my jollys in little ways!!!!!
The little dark spots on the pie are from the vanilla sugar I sprinkled on top. They are seeds from the vanilla bean. I also made some homemade vanilla (just cut a slit in vanilla beans and drop in a bottle of good vodka) with beans too!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Belated Father's Day Wishes


TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart         TheOther#1Son
                 and Anna

We had a great weekend! TheOther#1Son came home to give both his parents a little special treatment! He was on his way up to Wisconsion on Mother's Day, so this was some belated TLC for me and for his dad, on Father's Day weekend! His additional mother's day treat for me was that he washed and hung his own laundry on the line!!!! He was packin' an extra large laundry basket that overflowed and a large duffle!!! XD
We had fried chicken (he loves chicken legs), mashed potatoes, gravy and corn for supper on Friday evening when he arrived. On Saturday morning he and I made corned beef hash (a father's day tradition), eggs and toast with a side of catalope (it was only fair, needed to be riper) for breakfast. It was a hot day so we spent time in the pool and sitting on the deck under the umbrella consuming cool beverages and talking. I made cold chicken sandwiches for lunch, yummy! :P  For supper TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart grilled steaks (on his new charcoal grill) along with garlic bread,  I made a fresh greens salad (the lettuce was from our garden), mushrooms in garlic butter and red wine to top the steak and I reheated the lefover mashed potatoes! We tried to stay up late but the heat, the swimming and the sun made us crash early.
Sunday morning I made a breakfast sweet treat from puff pastry and cherry pie filling and we ate that out back, on the deck, along with fresh hot coffee! Nice morning! TheOther#1Son had to leave at 11 but didn't get away till noon, he needed to get back to Manhattan to his office to study and plan for this weeks classes. He's in the masters program for mathmatics, with his eye on a doctorate degree!!
TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart also had cards and phone calls from DD and #1Son, both live many, many miles away so their visits will have to wait for future dates. We have the best kids in the whole wide world, I'm so glad they're OURS!

Second chance

I've had these photos saved on desk top for a few days + a few more, finally getting them posted and written about, directed purposely to K, TheOther#1Son's best girl! Last year when she graduated from KSU and had to leave Manhattan for nursing school up in Wisconsin, and TheOther#1Son had to move also to a studio apartment, they no longer had a balcony to grow their potted plants, that they started earlier in the spring. So we inherited a tomato plant and various other potted plants :) But it was a hot dry summer and the hopeful tomato blossoms only yielded a few small tomatos and then died. (I think the roots cooked in the pot) Well they jokingly said they would have to rethink leaving any future grandkids with us as we "killed their tomato plant". I think though the above photo will help to redeem our image as caring grands!! The above flower is also one of the plants left in our care and it has not only lived over the winter, it has grown so well it had to be divided (yep it flourished in our care! wink, wink) with a portion returned to the original pot and the division portion planted in a second larger pot!!!!!!! So.......are we back on the list K? I'll bet we got moved to the TOP!!! XD

Thursday, June 7, 2012

First sighting of the season!

LIGHTENING BUGS
Woohoo I love seeing lightening bugs across the grassy areas of the pasture! Last evening TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart and I took a walk after sunset down the driveway and there in the low lying areas were the little twinkle lights of summer!!! I look forward to their appearance every summer season, it takes me back to being a kid and chasing those glowing little bugs around the yard and trying to catch a few. We use to place lots in a jar and just watch it glow then release them later! Also and this one I'm not so proud of now, was where we use to catch and pinch off the glow part and place it on our ring finger to show off like a sparkly ring. Soooo sorry to all those lightening bug ancestors :(
Another favorite is the cicada! I just love the evening BUZZZ of those guys. While I haven't yet heard their sound, my cousin living in the eastern part of the state, has, so I'm hopeful our time is coming soon. It's really helps that our trees in the yard have grown taller to draw more closer to the house, better to enjoy while sitting on the back deck!

***the first cicadas arrived on July 5th****

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

June and the Full Moon

It was #1Son's 29th birthday on Monday!! Happy Birthday again #1Son! It was great visiting with you sure do miss your face though! Did you get your DQ cake?
It's still dry, dry, dry here and I'm getting very concerned, for the grasses, in the pasture, needed to feed the cows. The grass in the yard crackles under my feet and usually that doesn't happen until late July. I'm trying to keep positive about our rain chances but it's really hard, too many promising cloud banks have come and dissipated right before they reach us or just miss us only by a few miles! Then factor in the winds and you have extra drying out of the soils, especially in the garden, where plants were just watered with costly rural water,(we don't have a well) the previous evening. I think we need a rain dance!!! When we would camp with the kids, they use to dance around the campfire chanting "We don't want rain, baaaa!" Back then our tent and years later our progression to the pop-up camper were both magnets for drawing in storms!!!!!!   I guess maybe I'll have to dig the tent up out of the basement and set it up in the yard!!! See if it still has the old mojo!
Yesterday I cleaned and vacuumed in the basement. It was cool down there so vacuuming up dead rolly pollies was not to bad. But oh do we have the stuff. Our stuff, the kids stuff, stuff from when they were kids, stuff from their college lives, stuff, stuff, stuff!! TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart said we should have a garage sale. I said would people really come all the way out to the country for a garage sale? I don't know........ I've been hauling bags out from time to time to the thrift store, but it doesn't look like much of a dent has been made or a free space created anywhere. I guess I'll have to think about that, I really don't want to box it up only to have to unbox and display at a city location so as to get more traffic. If only I could get a tornado to carry away what I want to get rid of and still keep the rest, that could work!!!maaahahahah that's my sort of evil laugh!!!!!!!
Oh and my reference to the full moon it just rhymed with June so I went with it!! But seriously hasn't the full moon just been so gorgeous! It lights the countryside up, you can see for miles! You can also hear the coyotes howling so close I'm just sure I should be able to see them with the moon so bright, but nada, they're pretty sneaky!