Family

T Town or Bust

So my {step}daughter is huge into the cheerleading.  And the type she does is different than for like youth football/youth cheerleaders, no she’s on a traveling cheer team.  This year they’ve had competitions in St. Charles, MO, and Tulsa, OK so far.  Then they still have 4 more throughout the season.

Saturday they headed to a one day in Tulsa.  Hubs and I made plans to trek down there to watch them.

Unfortunately I don’t know much about or understand I guess much about this cheerleading business.  Prior to being around my {step}daughter, I knew there was youth cheer & junior high/high school and obviously pro, but other than that, that was it.

I guess I also saw the movie Bring it On but figured it was, just a movie.  Wow, little did I know!?!?

Anyway we try to make it to some of her competitions every year.  Usually we make it to Tulsa & Branson but this year when they head to Branson we’ll be headed to Texas to deliver a horse, so we definitely made it a point to hit up Tulsa.

I’m assuming Jam Fest must be the ones who sponsor all of them, because I see this banner at every competition we’ve been to… but then again, I don’t know and you know what assuming gets you…

We just picked a side to sit on.  The first time we went to watch her in Tulsa was awful!  We were way up in the nose bleed and you couldn’t get anywhere close so no telephoto lens, no photos!  This Tulsa trip though, we were right there in front of the stage.

Turns out she started right in the middle.  And of course they bounce around from this side to that so really it doesn’t matter totally which side you go to.

And they’re off!

A few of them jumped from a standing position to this position.  Dang it just hurt my knees to watch that…. must be glad they’re young, but they might regret that IMO someday!

Do you see her?  She’s in the very back kind of back by the green hand.

She told me what the mascots name was, but I forgot… woops!  Speaking of that, I have a straw in the Mascots shape in the glovebox of my car I have to remember to take in the house.

When I first started watching her she was always at the top of the pyramid (I dunno what they’re really called… I’m improvising), but now she’s usually on the bottom helping up someone else…

She’s holding the girl here on the left’s left foot.

I must not know much about this though, can someone please enlighten me as to why they make some of the weirdest faces?  I would think huge smiles, but that’s so not what they do… and I don’t understand.  If you know why they make the weird faces, open mouth and almost like kissy fish faces, please someone tell me!


Check out some of the other ones I’ve been to (Branson Feb 2010, Branson Nov 2010, November 2011)

And seriously, if you know what’s up with the faces, please tell me!

She wants a Phone….

So I live in MO, out in the country to be exact.  I only lived in town or a city as you could call it while I was in college.  I remember when I was younger we had these things called “party lines.”  To be able to place a call you had to make sure someone else on your line (your neighbors) weren’t on the phone.  I don’t really remember how it all worked, but I remember I was scared to death of the telephone.  I was very shy, especially with strangers.

So then we moved on to our normal home phone.  And I so remember when my parents got their first portable phone.  How awesome was that.  I thought we were really cool.  You no longer had to be tied to the wall.

**via**

I can’t quite remember if we got our first cordless phone before or after my mom got a car phone.

My mom’s looked a lot like this.  Remember, they mounted in the car on the front dash.
**via**

And then a couple years after my mom got her car phone, which cost money out the wazoo for every minute used, my dad got a stylish bag phone.

**via**

This bag phone got fantastic coverage.  I know because mom and I got the hand held phones before dad had to give his up and even when we couldn’t get coverage, he got out.  Anyway I’m getting off track.

So when I turned 16 my parents wanted me to have a phone.  About that time the hand held phones started coming around.  My mom got rid of her car phone for a hand held phone.  So when I’d go out, I’d have to switch back and forth between my mom and my dad’s phones, whoever would allow me to have theirs for the time being.

And then the day that my mom told me I had to give her cell phone back and they had me believing I was stuck with the bag phone.  I kind of threw a fit but did what they said.  I was cool like that.  Anyway, my parents got me my own hand held cell phone.

These phones only made phone calls.  They didn’t text or surf the net, they didn’t have apps or app stores, none of the above.  They made simple phone calls and they were money a minute.

**via**

And we thought we were really cool when we were able to get different covers for the phones.

As phones have progressed they’ve gotten a lot more… fancy, should we say?

Now I know that my parents never had cellphones.  That was something you saw on the Jetson’s.  When I refer to the Jetson’s I mean the tv show.

**via**

And then the ever popular Zack Morris phone.

**via**

I’ll never forget in college when some girl answered her phone, “Zack Morris’ Phone” because it was the Nokia shown above.  She said it was so huge it was like Zack Morris’ phone.

Anyway, I know that phones weren’t around when my parents were young, and they really only started to become popular about the time I got of legal driving age, but I was shocked when my {step}daughter told her dad when she was 7 (she just turned 9), “Daddy, when am I getting my phone?”

So for Christmas her mother got her an iPod.  She walked into my parents house and made the comment that she got an iPod, it wasn’t a phone yet.  Her mom said she wasn’t old enough for a phone just yet.  I just looked at Tbug and said, “Who would you call?”  Come on she’s 9…. She looked at and said, “you.”

Dang, she has me, but seriously, she’s 9.  She can call me anytime she wants off her mom’s phone, same way with her dad too.

Personally, I’m not all for a little kid getting their own phone.  We’ve become to on “being found.”  I’m not going to lie, it’s, well, weird when I leave my phone at home, but I survive.  I don’t immediately answer texts.  I don’t immediately return phone calls.  I do check my email a bunch, but I can survive without that too.

The truly funny thing is I’m sure we all grew up with phones in our houses.  Even the stuck to the wall types.  But now days, most people are getting rid of their land lines.  Now, we have a land line because our cell phones don’t get such good coverage out here in the country, but if they did, we wouldn’t have a land line either.

And the funniest part, my {step}daughter doesn’t know how to use a land line.  Anyway now I”m getting off subject.  Back to topic, I’m not so sure about a younger kid having a cell phone.  I have been told if they go somewhere with friends or get lost or whatever, they can get ahold of parents, so maybe there’s a reason, I just must be old school because, I didn’t get my first phone until I was 16, which is legal driving age in MO and my car could break down somewhere.

What do any of you guys think?

She took over my kitchen!

So the other weekend when Tbug was over at the house, I woke up every morning wanting a cookie.  I’m not really sure what my deal was, but by golly I wanted a cookie, and I wanted a cookie bad.  Sunday morning when I woke up and told hubby, he asked why I hadn’t said anything prior to then?  I dunno, I figured if we had them, I’d eat them :).

That morning we got out of bed, called his mom and asked if she’d come over and watch Tbug so we could run to town to get part of her Christmas present and then when we got home, Tbug made cookies.

Yes you read that right…

Don’t worry, I didn’t just completely turn her lose in the kitchen, I stood around and helped, I stayed one step ahead of her on the recipe, so if she got off I could have her go back and re-read it, I helped make sure ingredients were measured correctly, I took the cookies in and out of the oven & when she got tired of scooping them out, I helped there too.  BUT, I’ll have you know, she did most all the work!  Seriously.  I gave her the recipe and the ingredients and she went to town.  I have visual evidence too.

See, I told you.

We used my mother-in-law’s recipe.  And while the recipe listed below isn’t the recipe that we used, this is one of my all time favorite cookie recipes.

I actually received one of those emails with this recipe.  You know, the recipes where you verify it against snopes.com because it said that some lady wanted the recipe and had to pay $225 or something like that for the recipe.  Snopes says the email is false, but the cookies, oh they are good alright!

You’ll notice it says it makes 112 cookies.  Yes, it makes almost that.  I think one time I got like 100 and another time it was like 119.  It really depends on the size of your cookies.  At my aunt’s house, she has 2 ovens so it makes it extremely easy and fast to make that many cookies, but the recipe can be halved.  trust me, I’ve done it :).

One thing about it, everyone raves about these cookies & if you make the whole batch, you are set for your Christmas cookies.  Just sayin 🙂

Neiman-Marcus Cookies
Makes 112 cookies.  This recipe may be halved.

2 Cups butter
24 oz chocolate chips
4 cups flour
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
2 cups sugar
1-8oz Hershey Bar (grated)
5 cups blended oatmeal
4 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups chopped nuts (optional)

Measure oatmeal and blend to a fine powder in blender or food processor.

Cream the butter and both sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda.

Add chocolate chips, Hersey bar, and nuts.  Roll into balls and place 2″ apart on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes @ 375 degrees.

That's My Job

One year ago we lost my grandfather.  He was a GREAT man!  This was the song that was played at his funeral.  I can’t even begin to tell you how much I miss him.  Words can just not explain!

Conway Twitty’s That’s My Job explains my grandfather so well!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGstAcxrl7I]

This song hits the nail on the head!

Some of you may remember back to this post I wrote to my {step}daughter on my wedding day.

I was driving to lunch yesterday and the song by Darius Rucker came on, “It won’t be like this for long.”  That song hits me on so many levels.  The first time I heard the song was late 2008, driving down the road, I believe I was in the truck with my parents, and yes I had tears running down my eyes.

I saw my dad/parents in the guys shoes… and me as the daughter.

He didn’t have to wake up
He’d been up all night
Layin’ there in bed listenin’
To his new born baby cry
He makes a pot of coffee
He splashes water on his face
His wife gives him a kiss and says
It gonna be OK

It won’t be like this for long
One day we’ll look back laughin’
At the week we brought her home
This phase is gonna fly by
So baby just hold on
‘Cause it won’t be like this for long

My first day of Kindergarden they tell me my dad had a hard time… I didn’t want him to take me to school, I was going to ride the bus with the “big kids”.  By 2nd grade I had to change schools and I almost cried when he just wanted to drop me off and wouldn’t walk me into the school.  He didn’t ever get out of walking me into the school building again until late late grade school or junior high.

Four years later ‘bout 4:30
She’s crawling in their bed
And when he drops her off at preschool
She’s clinging to his leg
The teacher peels her off of him
He says what can I do
She says now don’t you worry
This’ll only last a week or two

It won’t be like this for long
One day soon you’ll drop her off
And she won’t even know you’re gone
This phase is gonna fly by
If you can just hold on
It won’t be like this for long

As a teenager, I guess I got along fairly well with my parents.  Not to many fights broke loose at our house until my senior year when I was freaking out about going on to college.  College seemed like 2nd grade all over again, new school, bigger school, new town, dorms, so much to change, I was freaked out!  In fact toward the latter part of my senior year all hell broke loose at our house a few times when I missed deadlines for college applications, scholarships, etc, or trying to make sure I didn’t miss deadlines.

A lot had happened to my family during my high school years and I was just extremely nervous to move on.  I wasn’t ready.  High school was good to me and college scared the crap out of me.

Some day soon she’ll be a teenager
And at times he’ll think she hates him

But we made it through high school, the teenage years and even college too :).  I was out of college for 3 years by the time I’d heard this song and at that time in life I wasn’t in a good place… I was in a relationship that wasn’t the best but I hoped would get better and as we all know it didn’t.  But the best thing happened, I got into a great relationship, one that my parents loved the guy and the guy treats me awesome and I went on to get married and while I was at it became a {step}mom to a great girl.

Then he’ll walk her down the aisle
And he’ll raise her veil
But right now she’s up and cryin’
And the truth is that he don’t mind
As he kisses her good night
And she says her prayers

He lays down there beside her
‘Til her eyes are finally closed
And just watchin’ her it breaks his heart
Cause he already knows

It won’t be like this for long
One day soon that little girl is gonna be
All grown up and gone
Yeah, this phase is gonna fly by
So, he’s tryin’ to hold on

‘Cause it won’t be like this for long

It won’t be like this for long

It won’t be like this for long

Every time I hear this song I break down in tears thinking of my dad (& mom too).

But

I was driving to lunch yesterday and I heard this song come on the radio and a different scenario popped into my head for the first time and of course the silly song proceeded to bring tears down my eyes again.

I may not have given birth to Tbug, but she is very much mine.  A couple weekends ago when we bought her new boots and then went to go ride horses at my parents, she went to put her spurs on her new boots and they wouldn’t fit.  I told her to bring them with us and I’d figure something out when we got to mom & dad’s house.  I went in the house and grabbed a pair of my old spurs, pulled my old straps off of them and put her straps on my old spurs and they fit.

We put them on her boots and I asked hubs what to do with her old spurs and he told me to put them in the truck, we may need them again someday and silly me as I was walking to the truck with her “kid” spurs in my hands I started tearing up.  He grinned at me and I told him to shut up and walked on.  But even days that we have to take her back to her mom, driving down the road my silly eyes well up with tears.  I miss that I wasn’t there for her birth, her first steps, words (although sometimes I wish she didn’t know how to talk), etc… but I’m here now.

I still remember that she told her dad she didn’t want an evil step mom so she didn’t want him to re-marry for that reason, but he married me and I hope she never thinks of me that way, but I can’t help but admit that I’m afraid someday she’ll hate my guts.  When that time comes it’ll break my heart!

So I’m sorry this was a really long post today and a very deep but this is how I feel and some of the things I’ve been dealing with lately.

So I’ll leave you with this song 🙂

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5zCaRaJ-kE]

Strange things in random places

Project 52: Books

Earlier this fall we were going through things in my mother-in-laws shop, trying to clean a pathway to get a big tank out.  I just so happened to stumble across this book and wondered what it was so I picked it up and started taking a gander at it.

When I opened the front cover I noticed the name on it.  Really?  So I looked at my mother-in-law (Memaw) and asked her where she got this.  She said she couldn’t remember, just knew that it was in her shop.  She asked me why?  I said, um…. that was my grandma’s name. 

So I ran outside and called my grandma to ask her if she knew the other name on the book, the from person.  She said, well yes, that was my Sunday school teacher, why?  I told her about the book I found and what it said.  She wondered how Memaw got it.

Isn’t it crazy how small of a world we live in?

This book could just as easily have wound up in someone else’s possession but nope, it was in my MIL’s possession.

Memaw let me take it to my grandma.  But really, how cool is that!

Better than Almost Anything Cake

We should add SUPER SIMPLE to that name!   With school and work, I’m sometimes a little busy.  So when my husband’s family reunion came around he said, let’s take something.  Hmmm… ok what is easy that can be made and transported a couple hours away, still stay warm, etc.  I thought, hmmm…. this sounds good, lets try this!

This is easy… try it NOW!

Make your favorite chocolate cake, or a boxed cake mix will do!

Even bake it like normal directions!  See so far so simple 🙂

Next take it out of the oven.  Allow it to cool for about oh 15 minutes or so.

Then pierce the crap out of it with a fork or wooden spoon.

Still with me.  Yup, still that easy!  Now, open a can of sweetened condensed Milk.  Pour it all over the top of the cake.

Now about 15 oz (give or take) of hot fudge or caramel on top of the sweetened condensed milk.

Cover and chill for 2 hrs up to overnight.  As you can tell my plastic wrap clung to the chocolate… next time a pan with a lid or else aluminum foil might be a better route.

Make sure to defrost (put in the fridge) your whipped topping.  1 small tub or half of one large tub of frozen whipped topping is applied after the cake/sweetened condensed milk/fudge has had a chance to chill.

And chop with nuts or mini chocolate chips or mini butterscotch chips or mini caramels or something of the shorts.  We went a combo of mini chocolate chips with mini butterscotch chips.

And that’s it.  Yup, it’s that easy!

Dang, When did I get so old?

My 10 year Class reunion is this year.  Really?  I’ve been out of high school for 10 years?

Well yeah, I graduated in 2001.  I’ll always remember the year and the number of years out b/c the World Trade Center attack, 9/11 happened the same year I graduated :(.

Anyway my class has become digital I guess b/c we didn’t get paper invitations.  Nope, everything came via facebook.  I guess that’s what happens when you get older, especially moving into the world of technology.

I remember sitting in grade school, probably 4th or 5th grade maybe and the teacher said one day there wouldn’t be such thing as paper money, we’d all be plastic.  Well I don’t think she was far from the truth there.  Yes we still have paper money and people still have checks… checks… you do remember what those are right?  Yeah I write one every once in a great while.  Sometimes I catch myself up though and write it funny and just laugh.

I’ve been writing checks since I was like 8 years old.  My dad taught me how to write them and I’d write them out for him while driving down the road and he’d sign it sitting at a stop light :).  Then in Home Ec or whatever it’s called these days, we had to learn how to write them and balance a checkbook account in that class.

Anyway back to my class reunion…  I live in a fairly small town, population is 12,000 give or take.  There were 214 in my graduating class.  Not small by some standards but when I went to NYC, they said the dog population in one block of registered dogs was more than my hometown or the other comparison was that many people live in one city block… WOW!

So anyway I’ve been following all the “conversations” on our class fb page about the class reunion.  The class president, her parents own a cattle company.   That was their source of income.  But they also have a lodge somewhere on their place.  Our reunion is going to be held there.  Come on, there really aren’t that many places to hold a reunion in our hometown anyway.  Then on top of it, b/c of the Maple Leaf Parade, that is the weekend that pretty much ALL class reunions happen b/c people are already back in town so they don’t have to make special arrangements to come back.

One person is upset about the location of our reunion.  He’s stated it many times.  And I get that.  You aren’t going to please everyone with every decision made, obviously, especially with 214 people to try and please plus spouses, significant others, etc.  But he’s to the point of being an asshole, pardon my language.  I’m sick of him.  He stated his unhappiness.  Ok that’s all that needs to be said but for over a month now almost on a daily basis he either posts something on the wall or puts down one of the planners for their choices.

Ok first off, them holding it where it is, we’re paying $10/person to get in the door.  That’s it!  Last year’s class reunion was at Memorial Hall and it was $50/person.  Bring on the $10!

But he’s just showing that some people haven’t grown up in 10 years.  I wrote one of the gals an email and said,

hey you’re doing a great job.  Sorry some people are being dumb and showing they haven’t grown up yet.  You aren’t going to please everyone so don’t get down! 

It just makes me feel bad for the class officers who are planning it!  I can sure tell you I don’t want to be on the planning committee, EVER!  I think they should make him on the committee for next time and see just how “easy” it is to plan it, like he seems to think it is!

Ok sorry for this session of ranting but I’ve had enough!  I really want to post something on the fb wall that says grow up, but for now, I’ll just tell the planning committee they’re doing great and to ignore that butthead!

Crappy Portraits… I think not!

You Know you’re getting old when:

You light the candles on your birthday cake and a group of campers form a circle and start singing Kumbaya

Haha, my dad’s 60th birthday is on Sunday.  My mom is throwing him a surprise birthday party today at work (don’t tell!) — my luck this’ll be the day he reads my blog!  This is one of the quotes off the invitation 🙂

I might just have to make my dad some apple dentures…. what do ya think?  Truthfully they’re fast and why not?  right?

So a while back I was reading the blog Story of My Life when she had this post about Free Crappy Portraits.  I was like huh?  You paid money for a crappy portrait??  But no…. quite the contrary!  You send them a photo, a little blurb about yourself and they send you back actually a pretty cool portrait 🙂

So since my dad’s birthday was coming up, I knew he needed a Free Crappy Portrait too.  I sent them a photo of my dad on a horse.  And this is what I got back 🙂

hahahahaha!  Isn’t it cute?  I think I mentioned something about burning feed sacks or being a pyro or something which is what we often tease my dad about.  But I love it.  Now my mom was like, that looks like something I would draw, but me, heck I couldn’t draw that well 🙂 {truth be told… neither can she… I got her drawing abilities!}

Now I want one of hubs, {step}daughter, pups and me 🙂

Happy Thursday!

PCC

Get caught up here:
Post 1 – Friday night
Post 2 – Saturday
Post 3 – Saturday
Post 4 – Sunday
Post 5 – Sunday  
Post 6 – Sunday

**This is extremely picture heavy and long.  I’m sorry, I was just trying not to have to break it out as much…**

Monday was a LONG day.

We boarded the bus at around 7:30 in the morning and didn’t get back to our hotel room until about 11:30 pm.  I hate to say it but the driver of the bus drove me nuts with his bad grammar and his constant snorting and swallowing INTO the microphone which was turned up way loud.  I think I found my Tourettes I didn’t know I had… lol j/k… I think.

Being the last “official” day of summer as people refer to Labor Day as the roads were busy swamped with people trying to get to the beach.  Our tour was through the Polynesian Culture Center who I learned was owned by BYU – Hawaii or at least all the BYU students worked there to help with tuition to attend BYU – Hawaii.

We started our day with a tour of Hawaii and were supposed to get back to the Culture center around noonish but because of traffic didn’t get there until just a bit after 2.

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