Back to working in the Rooster Kitchen!

I decided I like the solid white counter top against the mosaic back splash.

I set the tiles in this section today...to cure for at least 48 before grouting.

I've been going on Ebay, hunting garage sells and junk stores for ceramic tiles, coasters, and trivets to add to the cut tiles.

Good-bye Boston Legal

I am going to miss my Monday night favorite show BOSTON LEGAL. For one thing it has actors nearer my age or older which they pointed out last week during one episode that Betty White sued the networks because they don't have programs for the over 50ish group.
I love how they pretend to go after the drug companies for promoting so many of their pills to the older viewers...."are you depressed, are you peeing your pants, do you have cancer we can help, etc."
When your sick these ads really stick to in your mind making your believe a little pill will cure all!! Boston Legal showed us it ain't true when Denny was taking so many pills his heart stopped when Candice Bergen's character, Shirley Schmidt tapped him on the chest.

Farewell my friends! I'll miss you each Monday night while the hubby is watching his football and I need a laugh.

I got my courage up to tackle my back splash in the kitchen. The large tiles are ceramic tile trivets I've found at garage sells, been given as gifts or bought off Ebay.
All around the kitchen I want different ceramic tiles, "baking, wine, coffee, vintage pictures and holidays".

The counter top will be in all white tile.

We had a great weekend. Friday night out to dinner with friends at Courtside Grill, while visiting with them we invited everyone over to our home to watch the Texas Tech and OU football game.

Saturday I started cleaning the house from ceiling to floor so I can start bring in the Christmas decorations. Made a big pot of chili for our friends that evening. Hated that Texas Tech got whipped, during the second half we watched the game but also played Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader. I made it to the 5th grade but couldn't get the million!

Sunday the kids all came over for birthday dinner. This was a traditions set by Eddie's parents we haven't done in a while. Yesterday was Cheyenne's 26th birthday, Eddie's was the 20th. I cooked a large roast with fresh veggies, rolls and Cherry Delight for dessert. After dinner we all watched Wall*e, what a cute movie.

This week I am working cleaning out for our garage sell this Saturday, just checked the weather hoping for cool clear days. The garage is a disaster plus a few rooms that need cleaning out.

Happy Monday!

When is a box not just a box? When Tommy turns it into his new house.

He has triangle windows on one side, a place to park his cars, and even an outlet to plug in his phone or computer. He has a door with a door knob and a few keys to open it.

We must knock before opening the door or he yells, "Get out!!"

Tommy with his great grandmother, Mama. They had fun doing a puzzle, both couldn't spell but they laughed a lot.



Then they moved to Play Doh, Mama did really good rolling out the play doh to make cookies.

Wow, Leya me has tagged! It is great to see you Leya!

Here are the rules:

Open the closest book to you, not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment, to page 56.

Write out the fifth sentence, as well as two to five sentences following there.

Pass this on to five blogging friends.

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The book closest to me is THE RANGER'S WOMAN by Carol Finch

Quinn rounded on her, feeling deceived and betrayed. He'd had more than enough of that in his line of work, without this sneak female pulling the wool over his eyes.

"This better be good, " he said, and smirked disrespectful. "Posing as a persnickety old harridan who is probably carrying stolen money---who knows what else----doesn't say much for your integrity, does it?"

Favorite Recipes for Thanksgiving


My mother-in-law use to bake this dish for my husband each year, I now carry on her traditions never having leftovers.

Baked Corn Pudding

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup sugar 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 3 eggs 1 cup milk 1/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1 (15.25 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained 1 (14.75 ounce) can cream- style corn

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a bowl, combine the sugar and flour. Whisk in the eggs, milk, butter, salt and pepper. Stir in the corn and cream-style corn. Pour into a greased 1-1/2-qt. baking dish. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

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Another recipe that came from my MIL, she would make this for church or 42 nights.

Cherry Cheese Delight

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• FILLING:
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 2 (21 ounce) cans cherry pie filling

DIRECTIONS

1. In a bowl, combine flour, pecans and brown sugar. With a fork, stir in butter until crumbly. Lightly pat into an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees F for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely.
2. For filling, in a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth. Fold in whipped topping. Carefully spread over crust. Top with pie filling. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

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I don't make Corn Fritters as often as my DH would like. I've found some ready made in the freezer section at WalMart now and then but they're never as good as the homemade.

CORN FRITTERS

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cups vegetable oil for deep-frying
• 1 cup cream-style corn
• 1 egg
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup maple flavored pancake syrup

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oil in a deep fryer to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a small bowl, mix together the cream-style corn and egg. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add the corn mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix until just blended.
3. Drop batter 1/8 cup at a time into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown, turning once if the fritters don't turn over by themselves. Drain fritters on paper towels, and serve with maple syrup.

Fall is now in north Texas, we've had a few nights that the temp has gone down to freezing. No frost though so the leaves on the banana trees are still waving high. The wind has torn them up though. We have a big willow tree next to the pool so this is the first year we've decided to cover the swimming pool for the winter. It is always sad to shut down the pool and move the plants into the house. But it is time to unpack the Christmas decorations and put up the Christmas tree which is always exciting.

Cast of characters:
Alzheimer's mother - 75 year old very talented artist, gardener, loving mother of three
Sickly Twin - daughter
Legal Guardian Twin - daughter
Little old me - oldest daughter
Uncle and Aunt Goat - Brother & SIL of first husband of Alzheimer's mother
Retired army Uncle and new wife - brother of Alzheimer mother
Die in debt ex-husband - Alzheimer's mother second husband
Racist ex-husband now new husband - legal guardian twin's ex and now new husband in GA.



I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel for my Alzhemier mother's welfare. It has been a battle between three sisters how mother's golden years should be spent.

My mother turned 75 years old October 19th, she has had Alzheimer's the past 10 -15 years. Her now ex-husband spend nearly all of the money my dairy farmer father had earned before his death in 1986, his daughters (the twins and I) got rid of him last year before he could sell our family farm, after a messy divorce from "I plan to die in deep debt husband" my mother's golden years are again up in the air to be decided by the courts.

Since Alzheimer mother couldn't live alone my younger sister, one of the twins, became her legal guardian with the other two sister's blessing. A big mistake since this younger sister is easily depressed, can't handle emotional problems and blames others for her bad choices she has made in her adult life.

My younger legal guardian twin sister decided life on the farm was not fun, she was sad her sons never visited, her only daily company was Alzhemier mother then she and her sickly twin sister got into a fist fight over goats, yes goats. Emotions ran high on both sides of the fence...the fence between my mother's property and the sickly twin's home next door.

Sickly twin decide to run legal guardian twin away from Alzhemier mother's home, she did many nasty things to legal guardian twin including going through her personal property stored in the old dairy barn, get on the computer to print off letters and private accounts to use against her.

One twin said "she did this" while the other twin said "she did that". So the legal guardian twin took mother to my uncle's goat farm (yep, those damn goats again) to hide out. But in truth, legal guardian twin headed east to Georgia to her ex-husband, racist con-man, that threatened to lock her in the basement if she looked at other men before she divorced him three years ago.

Yes, this story get even messier.

The best I can figure out is my mother and legal guardian twin left Texas around September 8th after she didn't show up for my niece's wedding September 6th. I was only in email contact with legal guardian twin and she pretended she was on the goat farm with my aunt and uncle goat.

When I started planning a big 75th birthday party for my mother I call my uncle goat and his wife but they refused to tell me where my mother and legal guardian twin sister were they were verbal abusive towards me.

I got on the phone to call my mother's lawyer, the judge that was over her case and our social worker for their help to find and return Alzhemier mother to her home. From everything I could find out the legal guardian twin never paid the lawyer bills, one even filed against her, she hadn't filed out the financial paper work that goes along with being a legal guardian.

Sickly twin has a terrible bowel disease since she was in her early 20s that has her taking lots of pain medication daily, her 20 year old son was killed last year so she has more medicines for anxiety, depression and/or to keep her calm. Both of the twins have emotional problems that would send others into years of therapy but both refuse professional help of any kind.

Little old me, I feel like the twin's private wishbone....pull her a little this way, pull her a little that way to see whose wishes will come true. One weel one twin loves me, the next week the other twin loves me but never at the same time.

Little old me is two years old than the twins, put in charge of keeping them safe and happy by both of my parents since their birth 53 years ago, even promising my daddy on his death bed to watch after mom and the twins. Never ever tell an older child to be responsible for their siblings!! It should be a crime!

Little old me took my job seriously until about a year ago when I realized I can't be responsible for the twin's happiness no matter how many times I tried to help them. They made adult decisions that changed and shaped the courses of their lives and families. Now I've turned over my responsible to them, to their husbands and their now adult children.

So my mother is back in Texas...along with legal guardian twin.

Next up the ruling by the judge on our court date this past Wednesday.

It has been a hard 8 weeks since my younger sister took my mother from her family farm to hide her in different places from me and my other sister. We finally found her with her awful ex-husband in Georgia. We've been very worried since this man is emotionally unstable but very conning so much so he convince my sister into marrying him again. The last phone call we had with our mother she was hiding in the closet so my sister couldn't hear her. So sad. I hope soon this mess will end.
We thought my mother's husband giving her arsenic was bad but my sister has reach an even lower low.

My favorite winery this time on our north east Texas wine tour was from Saint Rose. (picture with purple grapes on the vines). I didn't taste a wine there that I didn't like, bought Signature Red Muscadine and Foxy Blue that has blueberries.
[St. Rose Vineyard and Winery (formerly Guerra Vineyards and Winery) is a boutique winery located in the piney woods of East Texas. This country winery specializes in muscadine and fruit wines. The soil and climate of East Texas are ideal for this native grape, which has been identified as one of nature’s most healthful foods. The muscadine grape and wine are very aromatic and possess a very fruity taste. The fruit wines, all made from fresh fruit, include blueberry, strawberry, blackberry, peach and pear. In loving memory of Rosemary, our founder, the winery changed its name to St. Rose Vineyard and Winery. Mark and Ann Arra, along with their three sons, family and friends, continue to operate and grow the vineyard and winery. A unique tasting room was constructed from the transformation of a 100-year-old sweet potato smokehouse.]

This coming weekend is our annual October Texas Wine tasting tour. This year we're headed to east Texas to the pine trees and lakes instead of south west towards Fredricksburg. I am really excited.

For some reason the last 2 years on our Texas wine tasting tours
I've bought lots of white wine so this year I am looking for delish red wines.

Of course, to get my palate ready I've been drink a glass of wine each evening.

We have a blast on our road trip with friends.

I really tried to enjoy HIGHLANDER IN HER BED but this book just didn't work for me even though I love paranormal, ghost and Scottish lairds. The heroine got on my last nerve with TSTL acts (visiting a cave, riding a warhorse). I skimmed the last half of the book not finding it much better. Oh, lots of taunt tits, hard cocks, lusting over bodies both his and hers but very little sex. Oh well, since I haven't read hardly any books this year I have a keeper and a tosser.


Now to my weird grandson...he loves outlets and plugs. He is 3 1/2 years old goes around at stores looking for outlets, friends house's finding phone outlets, electrical outlets, extension cords. He gets upset with me when I put the covers on my outlets to keep him from plugging in a fan, radio, lamp. I adore you Tommy but your weird!!! What happened to Hot Wheel cars you sooooo love before? I can't even leave you in a room alone for fear you plug yourself into an outlet.

I just finished NIGHT ECHOES. Very good book, love the connection between Civil War murders and present day. Lisle weaved the heroine and hero in with the secondary character much like Linda Howard without leaving the reader scratching their heads trying to figure out the cast of characters.
Some great sex scenes push it into the hot category, the shivers down the spine give it get suspense, I read from cover to cover in a long quiet afternoon.

Rated A Hot ~ looking for more by this author

It is quiet around my house today. The guys have headed toward Ft.Worth to watch the TCU football. I am reading a spooky book and cooking dinner. This morning I put on a pot of pinto beans and whipped up some cornbread. It has been a while since I've made cornbread from scratch...cornmeal, flour, baking powder, egg and milk, I was plentily surprised how it rose. Now to enjoy.
Dinner is ready, the books is calling...later gators.

I've decided to start working on my next big mosaic project, my kitchen back splash. First I've got to clean off the linoleum tiles I added a couple of years ago. So today, side one with the hairdryer, scrapper and elbow grease.

I also started checking out sites that have mosaic back splashes, tiles broken into a back splash. Here is one from a friend whose sister had her done. I like the white grout.

It seems after many years AOL is getting rid of their blogs so this will be my full time blog now. I can remember when life on AOL was good...how times have changed. I haven't been reading much, if anything in the past year. Sad to say. I have been doing more crafts, taking care of my grandson, getting one daughter married, one moved out of the house then back home again. My son moved into our pool house we built in 2004 for my FIL who is now deceased, my FIL not my son. We lost my little Mouse in May, found a fluffy puppy in June who has turned into a big dog, Miss Scooby Doo.

Life is ever changing in our home, sit back and enjoy the tales.

Happy reading all!!

Well, I've been reading the same book for two weeks now because real life is really interfering this time!

1. My oldest daughter is graduating from college with her bachelor degree in early education May 14th.

2. Also on that day my mother's husband is either going to jail for poisoning her with arsenic or return the 300K he stole from her over the past 10 years. Oh, the date to try to settle is May 14th at 10:00AM.

3. I lost 30 pounds from worrying, working my butt off, and chasing my 2 year old grandson 7 days a week while my daughter goes to college and works (she is a single mother living at home) in the past 4 months so I really need new clothes.

Okay...sounds like a soap opera I know!!

So what am I reading?? HIGH PRAIRIE BRIDE by Jenna Kernan. I just love her books and I am going slowly so I can enjoy it.

Happy Wednesday!

Tell us about the book you're reading:

Who?

Lacy Mason & Wyatt Anderson

What?

Just looking for a good time…

Waiting tables in a bar full of no-good cowboys isn't Lacy Mason's idea of fun. But between her daughter's illness, endless doctor bills, and her college tuition, she needs the money.

What she could really use is a night of no-holds-barred passion and no-strings-attached sex. Too bad she has sworn off cowboys for life…

A guy walks into a bar…

Full-time executive and retired cowboy Wyatt Anderson is drawn to Lacy from the moment he sees her. But she's an enigma. Daring and assured one moment and hesitant the next, it's as if something haunts her. Only willing to give him one night, Lacy clings tightly to her secrets.

Unfortunately for her, what Wyatt wants, Wyatt gets. And he definitely wants Lacy…

When?

Present Day

Where?
West

Which?

A TALL DARK COWBOY
Mackenzie McKade
2/2006
Ero/Rom/Tear-jerker


What's up next?

HIGH PLAINS BRIDE by Jenna Kernan