because i haven't

mastered the art of getting cards out, I give you this.

I found these old postcards of Johnny's in Dodo's box of pictures.  I saved a few because I have ESP.  I knew months ago I'd probably fail at getting cards out.  There you go.  Merry Christmas.

new pictures

HERE in the Scenery and Creatures galleries.

speaking of all the

action in the kitchen, Strat likes to watch.

reliant energy is loving

me right about now.  I think the chilly weather is making me want to use the oven all the time.  Look.  I pulled this out of the dishwasher.  It had the carrot cake I made the other day.

  This is all that's left of a batch of cookies I made a few days ago

I made chess squares last night.

A couple of hours later I pulled a pan of these rolls from the oven.

Now, what can I make today?

december 16th... you know

what that means?  Another birthday.

I'll start off with clues.  He likes to dress for the occasion (like matching his socks with his vest... no matter how bright of a red that might be).

He likes to roll his pants up with really big rolls.

 He likes to ride on airplanes.

 He gets really happy when he pulls his wallet out to pay for dinner.  (Is Lauren trying to check his pulse or something?) 

And probably the only clue with any truth to it, he likes to play games.

Hopefully you've guessed by now.

Happy birthday to Dad!

happy birthday to

Brittany

One word for this picture: sassy

Aww, how cute.

Pageant anyone?  I'm guessing this is for the Little Belle of the Brazos.

an afterschool

cat nap

everything's bigger

in Texas...

including the mess left behind from old registration stickers.  A few years ago the state changed their stickers and they're horrible.  The first one I had to change left a mess.  I sat in the car for at least half an hour with nail polish remover and Un-Du trying to scrub this mess off.  I removed as much as I could and then decided enough was enough.  I put the next sticker on.  The following year I removed it and had another mess.  Same routine.  This year I pulled the old sticker off and even a bit of the white part with the number was left behind.  Forget it.  The new sticker went right over the globby mess.  I'm sure the mess obstructs the view of the current sticker.  I guess if DPS has a problem with it, they can take it up with TxDOT.

winter was here

on Friday. Snow in SE Texas is something that only happens occasionally. When it does, I'm going to post about it. School was dismissed an hour early. Doesn't matter, they were only out playing in the snow anyway. I knew I didn't want to be out in it so I stocked up on groceries and did everything I could to stay warm and dry on Friday... except for one thing. I forgot I had a hair appointment. ugh. The good news is, everybody else had been canceling so when I showed up 15 minutes early, she was ready and I got out super fast. Cool. The end.

I know that's not much of a story about our snow but there wasn't much to it. It snowed. It didn't stick. The next day was sunny and it's been raining ever since. I'm happy with that. Remember, I don't like snow.

i think i'm back after

having been on hiatus... I guess. It's not really that I haven't felt like posting anything but more like I've been busy but not really with anything to post about. Here's something new though. I started going to the rec center. I've been thinking about it for a few months and being active, or fit for that matter, has never been one of my strong points. I took this picture because I think it best describes me. I know everybody's all about "keepin' it real" so here I am, keeping it real. I'm on my way out the door to workout... wearing my Mystic Pizza tshirt.I'm not going to be one of the types that goes out and buys a new wardrobe so I can look all fitness obsessed. Just being me.

register to win

a $50 Safeway gift card here.

It's good for all of these stores

i'm trying to work things

out. For now I'll do it like this

look HERE

I have a new picture posted in the Creatures gallery at the website. What website, you ask? A while back I created a website for posting images. I never really said much about it because I wasn't happy with my options. I've only been using it more lately because I found a different layout which is more like a gallery and more photo-friendly.

i decided to make

refried beans on Saturday.I don't remember the weight of the package of pinto beans but it was just a regular bag on the shelf at Kroger. I started off putting 2 cups of beans in the pot. I thought for a second about a partial bag of beans being twist-tied in the pantry and the chance of those beans ever being used... so I just dumped all the beans in the pot. I really LOVE beans, especially refried. Do you know how much a bag of beans makes? A lot. By a lot, I mean more than enough for a family of three. So I have plenty of beans on hand. I guess Eric will have his bean, bacon & cheese breakfast tacos until he's totally burned out and the rest of the beans will have to be frozen. (Will that ruin the beans?)

Oh well, tonight I'll either make enchiladas or quesadillas and we'll have beans with that. By the way, I do know that making one cup of dry rice will be sufficient.

UPDATE: Not that anyone really cares but, breakfast? Beans and eggs. Yum.

i knew it started

with a P. I'm pretty sure I told Dad there was a cool 1949 Pontiac for sale in Waxahachie. It's a Plymouth.

here's my plug for

Waxahachie. (pronounced Wahhxahachie... not Waxahachie) Lauren asked why I would pick Waxahachie as a good location for making pictures. I told her of all the neat things the town has. She didn't believe me until we went out Saturday to investigate the area. Two hours later, she wants to live in downtown Waxahachie. Here are only three pictures to show you how neat the county seat is. (And I'm not even including the courthouse which is one of the most photographed courthouses.)

Here's a bridge from the old train tracks which is adjacent to a cute little feed store
And a few details from downtown
I know, I know... you might not want all your pictures with a rustic, small town feeling. No problem, there are plenty of areas like this below. Oh, by the way, you know how they say not to make photographs with sunglasses on? Well, I really don't know if they say that but if they don't, they should start. Here's what happens. Talk about bright.
See, Waxahachie is a neat little town. Just ask Lauren.

FUN FACT: Want to see more of Waxahachie? Watch Places in the Heart with Sally Field.

If I don't stop there, the Waxahachie tourism department will have to put me on the payroll.

this would have been

a good picture for Halloween
but Superman, Zorro and Teddy Bear sure were a lot cuter.

still got nothing

I guess it's like Gary the Gnu on The Great Space Coaster used to say, no gnus is good gnus.

not a whole lot

going on.

maypearl made it

to the Houston Chronicle. Read all about it here.

speaking of those

horrible polyester costumes. I bought another one. This Michael Jackson costume came with a wig but it looked more like Harpo Marx so Eric left it off. Oh yeah, and the fedora was too small (no surprise there). He enjoyed it.
Here's the two of us. I dressed up to hand out candy. Okay, I admit I was trying to scare kids but it was all in fun. I bought this mask as something new for my fortune teller gig with the church's haunted house but that couldn't happen since the bazaar was the next morning.

i read something

somewhere and it said to think back to what you were doing 10 years ago. Since it's only a couple of days until Halloween, that was easy. (I know these aren't the best scans but at least I have something.) Well I say it was easy but I can't really remember which it was for sure...
Superman
or Zorro
I don't even think Eric had ever seen a Zorro movie but he carried a sword and I'm sure that's all that mattered. Also, don't judge me for the store-bought costumes. That's what Eric wanted. I hated those things but he was the one that had to wear it. Once I let him have a Buzz Lightyear costume from Walmart, it was downhill from there. It's been nothing but cheap polyester since.

On that note, I leave you with Eric... the homemade, non polyester bear.

hi there, remember

me? Yeah, probably not. I haven't been around much lately. It's not that I've been avoiding a post but while there has been a lot going on, there hasn't. On our way to Mom and Dad's over the weekend, we ran into horrible traffic. There was road work on 45 somewhere between Madisonville and Buffalo. You know those times when it seems like crews pick the worst time to do road work and you ask why they can't do this at night when there's not as much traffic? I ask that often and here's my answer. It doesn't really matter. There wasn't even work being done at the time, they just decided to leave one lane open. Oh well. This picture was taken in the hour's bumper-to-bumper mess we were in.
While we were up there, Lauren made mashed cauliflower. Eric tried it and liked it. I decided to sneak it in for dinner the other night in place of potatoes. I prepared it all while he was at school to hide any evidence. I was trying to keep a straight face. (I'm not the best at getting away with things. I laugh way too much.) He picked up on the giggles and asked what was in it. I told him cheese. He told me he knew it had cauliflower but wanted to know why I was laughing. I told him I was just trying to be sneaky about the cauliflower.
Eric then informed me he actually likes cauliflower and he prefers it cooked plain with salt and a little ketchup for dipping. The ketchup for dipping doesn't surprise me, he likes everything dipped in ketchup. What surprises me is that I never knew he liked cauliflower. I don't even know where he tried it because I'd never made it.
Speaking of making new things, there's a recipe that's been making its way around the internet and I tried it out last night. I was hesitant because I'm always hesitant when yeast is involved. It's rolls with onions, rosemary and bleu cheese. They were different. The cheese is only sprinkled on top but I think I might have put too much. I little less would have been better.
Here's the inside. The onions are strings that have been sauteed with garlic and then mixed into the dough. I like that. Like I said, I think there was too much cheese on top. Or maybe I should have just thinned it out more and not clumped it all on in one spot.
On the menu for tonight? Hamburgers with cauliflower "fries".

the new hairdo

Eric's been thinking about going completely short since, well, since we talked him out of it and convinced him to only cut most of it off the night before school. I took him after school to finish it off. I was hesitant but now I'm glad I did.

It reminds me of the hairstyle he had through most of elementary school.

i'm still here

but I've been preoccupied with not feeling the best and a trip to the dentist. Although I still have sniffles, coughing and now a not-fully-functional mouth, I would have liked to have gotten out to have something to post... but it's raining.

Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

we stopped for eric's

taco this morning and I thought about trying the pancakes at Takeria La Rosa (yes, I know it's wrong but that's how they spell it). If I got them, I'd stop back by on my way out of town. I dropped Eric off and didn't know for sure if I should stop. Yes, I wanted them even though I could save $5.99 and have a Slimfast at home. Yes, I wanted them even though I could save oodle-tons* of calories and have a Slimfast at home. I couldn't decide, as usual. I think most people know I don't make decisions well. Anyway, I pulled over and sent Cosme a text, "say yes or no". Of course he was wondering what I meant. I told him I was trying to decide on something. If I told him what it was he'd tell me to do it. While I sat waiting for his response... and making a production of something really simple, I took this picture. Would you believe that's not a black and white photograph?
I was parked beside the Methodist church in WC, alongside the cemetery. I just decided to forget it when my phone went off with a big "Yes". Awesome. So I stopped back by and got breakfast to go.
Look at the bacon resting in syrup. It was so worth the $6.48.
Now I need to get busy on housework with hopes of shedding an unexpected oodle-tons of calories.

*This is a word I've heard Eric use. I'm guessing it's the new thing so I'm going with it. I also feel better writing "oodle-tons" versus the possible amount of calories I just consumed.

On another note, Eric corrected a previous post in which I said "cr-zazy". I don't remember what I should have said but I will certainly post it once I find out.

a little reminder for

Lauren:
you have a blog

sorry for the lack

of posting.
This has been a week to get stuff done. Since Monday was a holiday I helped Eric clean out his room. That took longer than expected so I wasn't able to start the guest room, which will be done today. I'm doing the guest room today because yesterday was a fun-filled day with Dr. Schleicher. It really wasn't that bad even though he did lecture me on the importance of not putting off getting two crowns. So guess what that means. Yeah. Another day with Dr. Schleicher next week, but not so fun-filled... unless of course I opt for the valium. I can't dwell on that now. It's time to switch into cleaning mode.

i don't have anything

else to offer but this. Lucille. Lucille minus the pumpkin-sweater glare.
I've been preoccupied. Nothing spectacular just sinus headaches, driving, errands, the usual. Did I mention sinus headaches?

i've had several posts

on how I don't particularly care for Oprah Winfrey. It's not the person she is because I've never met her. I just think it's ridiculous how so many people follow her lead and the extent to which she takes it.

When I checked the mail yesterday I had this.
Wow. I love a good deal.
Seriously though, I would never. I know she'll never see it but I would feel a little better if someone at her empire knew how I felt and that we are not all blindly waiting for Oprah's next "words of wisdom". (Did you notice that on the picture above? "words of wisdom"... please.) So, here's a quick little note I typed up:

To Whom It May Concern:

I would like to say thanks, but no thanks for the magazine offer and I hate to pass on such a bargain. I'm sure Ms. Winfrey is a swell individual but I'm honestly tired of seeing her everywhere. Believe it or not there are many of us who have no need for her stance or opinions. I personally find it pathetic that so many others do.

I congratulate her on the wealth and success she has achieved but I do not plan to contribute to any part of that.

Sincerely,
Melanie

Now you probably want to know why I'm wasting my time and money on this. I'm wasting my time because the thought of that being said and sent makes me feel a little better. As for the money, I'm not wasting my money. She was kind enough to send me a postage paid envelope. If I don't use it, that envelope will end up unused in my recycling bag. Now that would be a waste of money.