Getting Caught Up After A Very Busy Week! Part 1

In my last post I had some pictures of Kim and Micah getting ready to leave for their cruise.  We were holding down the fort here while they were gone for the week.  We were to get reinforcements by afternoon, but JJ's flight was canceled due to a big snow storm in Elko.  It caused the little plane she was flying out on to have to turn around and go back to Salt Lake City before it could land in Elko!  They redid her ticket and she was to arrive at midnight.

Meanwhile Aunt Erin and her friend, Eric, were driving down from Dallas and were to arrive in time to dye Easter eggs with the girls.  They got here early and we dyed the eggs all different colors and had a fun time.  Even the "ugly" egg turned out more beautiful than our plain colored eggs.  You know, the ones you dye after you mix all the colors together?  Well we decided to just mix some of the colors together and that's why we got a very pretty egg.  I don't remember which colors we used , though.  After the egg dying and bed time, Erin and Eric had some bunny cake.  Then we had to go get JJ and all 5 of us were ready to start taking care of the 3 little girls!

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EASTER EGG DYEING

The whole gang dyeing their eggs

Alyssa's is purple.  Notice the missing teeth!

Samara's egg is a pretty pink

Natalie's egg is a beautiful blue green

All done and a very nice set of eggs if we do say so ourselves!

Next morning the girls got up and found their Easter baskets.  They decided a new bunny had come because he didn't know the right place to put their baskets and we had to help them figure out whose was whose.  They didn't have much time to play with their baskets because we had to get ready for early church.  We had a wonderful celebration of the Resurrection at church complete with confetti and bouncing beach balls. The girls had Easter egg hunts (Alyssa's was under the black lights) and lots of goodies.

All dressed up in their Easter finery!

Nice back view of Mama Jay as she gets Natalie seat belted in!

Ready to go to church!

 They remembered their Easter baskets for the egg hunt

On the way home we decided to start a new tradition for Easter.  First you have to know that Auntie Erin works at Starbucks and needed to pick up her weekly free pound of coffee.  There is a Starbucks right on the way home so we stopped to get her coffee and bought coffees for everyone (actually cocoa for the girls) except Old Grampa because we didn't know what he wanted and were going back later for gas anyway and could get him one then.  When we got home we all enjoyed our "Starbucks".  We got Grampa's order and left him with the girls and went back to get gas and his coffee.  When we returned we found that they had fixed their own lunch without Grampa's help.  The girls got out their Easter eggs they dyed and ate them .   We found colored egg shells all over the living room!  Clean up time was definitely in order! Natalie went to bed for a nap and Alyssa and Samara  had a jelly bean hunt in the house since the weather wasn't too great outside.

MMMMMMMMM!!!!

 Aren't we so cute!

Later in the afternoon, Erin, Eric, JJ, Alyssa, Samara and I went to see a matinee of "How to Tame a Dragon".  The girls really liked it and so did all of us.  I was afraid they might get scared but they didn't.  I'm sure that if they had seen it in 3-D they would have been.  I might even have been!  The only thing is, Alyssa and Samara have never seen a 3-D movie and they might have been so busy playing with their glasses they would have missed most of the movie anyway!

We got home and had our big ham and mashed potato dinner and some Easter candy for dessert.  Then off to bed since Alyssa had school the next day.

"See, we had our lunch!"

"Are those eggshells on the rug?????"

"What a mess!  Better get busy!"

"Clean up, Clean up!

Thanks for the help Auntie Erin! "

Pinkalicious! and Making an Easter Bunny Cake

Anybody ever read the book Pinkalicious?  Last evening we all went to a performance of "Pinkalicious the musical" at the Children's Theater in San Antonio.  It was great fun for the kids and the adults!  To quote the director, "Pinkalicious  is not just about a little girl who is gaga over pink.  It's a story about the tribulations of excess, the importance of trying something new, and most important, it's about the courage to be different no matter what others say or do."  It is a Broadway style musical with really good, funny songs and dancing including a really fun tap dance by the doctor.  This was the first theater performance the girls had ever been to and they were so good and they had such a good time.  Even two year old Natalie enjoyed it and sat through the whole thing without making a fuss!

I asked the girls what their favorite part was.  Alyssa liked the part When Pinkalicious woke up and got out of bed and was pink all over and Samara liked it when everyone was pink at the end.  They both thought the broccoli popsicles sounded gross.  After the show all the actors went to the lobby and the kids could stand in line and get autographs and their parents could take pictures of the children with the actors.  The line was very long so we opted out of that option!  The walk back to the car in the warm dusky evening was very pleasant.  We were only a few blocks from the Alamo.  Samara and Nattie took a short sleep on the way home.

Back when I was teaching in North Park, Owyhee and Wendover I had the kids make cut up cakes around Easter.  I found a book that had all kinds of cut up cakes put out by Angel Flake Coconut company.  The best and easiest one was a big bunny with a bow tie.  We made a lot of those cakes in school and I have made many at home as well.  This project kind of expanded over the years and by the time I was teaching in West Wendover, it became a contest and the secretaries always got to judge the cakes.  There were all kinds and styles of cakes including many designed and made by the students.  The best part of the coconut flake cakes is that the coconut flakes cover up a lot of faults and give the animals a fluffy look.  Of course we had carousels, balloons, trains, cars, horses teddy bears, baby chicks, bunnies and much, much more.  I even had some girls use them in competition and win gold medals at state.  It was a fun project the kids could go home and do a cake for special occasions because they are quite easy to do.

The girls and I decided we needed to make the bunny rabbit cake for our Easter weekend.  Here are a couple pictures of it.

Look at all those smiles!

Loading up the car getting ready to leave on their cruise

Did we forget anything?

Waiting for Mommy and Daddy.  Check out that shadow!

See where I broke my arm?  A blast from the Past for Erin!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Traveling in the South

On Monday morning we left Lake Placid, FL in a huge rainstorm!  We had to drive up US 27 for about 100 miles in this rain and it is not a fun highway to drive in under any circumstances.  I don't understand why whoever plans transportation in states didn't think about an interstate running down the middle of the Florida peninsula.  Highway 27 is filled with semi's, orange hauling trucks, RV's of all sorts (especially this time of year when all the snow bunnies are heading back up North) plus all the local traffic of every small town (with at least one stop light but usually 3-4 or more in the case of the bigger towns) along the way.  It took us 2 1/2 hour to make it up to the Florida Turnpike 100 miles away!  Of course we were showered with water every time we got near a semi which was very often!  Finally when we got up to about Ocala where I-75 and the turnpike intersect  the rain stopped and we headed up north to I-10.  It took us 4 1/2 hours to get from Lake Placid to the Alabama border!  After that we had a fairly sunny drive passing through Mobile, Biloxi, Gulfport, and all the way to the outskirts of Baton Rouge where we decided to quit for the day and found a place to stay.

As I was checking in a man came in and asked if I liked seafood.  I said I did and he highly recommended the restaurant next door called Don's Seafood.  We got settled and went over to it.  The menu said they had been in business since 1934!  They had pictures on the wall from the 1950s.  The waitress asked if we knew about their Monday specials and proceeded to tell us about their oysters.  Bob had already seen the oysters on the half shell on the menu and come to find out on Mondays they are $0. 25 apiece!  He ordered 1 1/2 dozen for $4.50!!!! And he ate them all plus a cup of crawfish bisque.  I had the seafood salad.  It had 8 large very fresh shrimp, about 1/2 cup of lump crab, and 1 cup of spicy crawfish (all not in the shell) a hard boiled egg, cherry tomatoes all on top of a huge bowl of greens!  I took half of it back to the room which had a refrigerator and we brought it back to Texas in our ice chest.  The dressing was on the side so it was great.  They really specialize in good old southern fried and cajun cooking but had a lot of just broiled type fish too.  Fried catfish and red beans seemed to be really popular that night along with the oysters.  We found out the original Don's was in Lafayette and there are 6 of them around that region including one in New Orleans.  The oysters we could tell had been caught (harvested??) that day.  They were huge and very,very fresh!  I would recommend this place to anyone who is in the Baton Rouge or Lafayette areas to check it out.

Bob's oysters after he already ate his half dozen!

My salad after I ate more than half the shrimp and crab!

The next day we got up and headed to San Antonio, a drive that takes us through Lafayette, Lake Charles,  Beaumont, and Houston. We got here about 4 in the afternoon and it was so nice and warm! Around 80-85 degrees.  The kids went outside to catch butterflies and play.  So here we are!  Ready for more adventures.

Preparing to Leave

 Today is our last day in Lake Placid.  Lynn has left a list of things to do before leaving tomorrow so I am working on it even as I am writing this.  This winter was billed as "unusual" down here by everyone we talked to.  It certainly was different than all the other times we have been here at this time of year.  (I have been coming down on spring break since before Mom and Dad moved here from Ft. Lauderdale!--Many. many years ago).  It has been cold here almost the whole time and those who have been here since November say it has been cold the whole season! It rained most of the days we were here and it was not a warm gentle rain either.  A cold wind from the north has blown many days as well.  Anyway..... the last few days have finally been warm and more typical of March in central Florida.  The weather report is for big rain by noon today and it is pretty cloudy already.  Oh well, so much for the weather report!

Yesterday we picked grapefruits off  Dad's tree to take back to Texas with us.  We decided to go up to Sebring for dinner at Outback Steakhouse.  We have never had a bad dinner at an Outback.  We really like their steaks and I absolutely LOVE the Ahi Tuna on the appetizer menu.  I was torn between the Ribeye and the tuna but finally chose the steak.  There was so much of it that I could bring home enough for dinner for both of us tonight!  I have to mention their blue cheese and pecan chopped salad.  It was very good!  Bob had the prime rib and enjoyed it as well.  When we were seated, we noticed a lot of tables pushed together and set for many people.  When they came it was a Hispanic or maybe Cuban family celebrating someone in the group's birthday.  Grandma, Grampa, parents, children and grand children were all there.  There were at least 11 young children, possibly 2 teenaged boys and 3 young couples plus the grand and great grand parents.  The children were so well behaved and all dressed up and so beautiful!  The kids parents were taking pictures of everyone.  It reminded me of going out to eat in Wendover!  We left before their cake came so I don't know whose birthday it was.  I had to chuckle to myself when I heard the young girls (5 of them about 6-10 years old sitting together) all giggling together and so excited to be able to order grilled cheese sandwiches at Outback!  Brought back many memories!

Dad's grapefruit tree still with grapefruits but also blossoms!

Grapefruits high up in the tree

Still some nice grapefruits to be picked.

Lynn's tomatoes.  Too bad they didn't get ripe while we were here but Rhonda and Henry will get them!

Cooking Disasters

Yesterday I was craving chocolate so I decided to make some brownies.  I have a really good brownie recipe at home and I also like some of the box mixes from Sams (especially the Ghiardelli triple chocolate one!).  Here, I decided to use Dad's Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook but when I found the recipe I discovered I only had 3 eggs and it called for four and I don't think Lynn has any squares of chocolate so I would have to substitute cocoa for the squares.  (Lynn is not a fan of chocolate so no chocolate chips either!)  I couldn't find the substitution chart so I thought, OK, I'll go to my old standby allrecipes.com.  I found all kinds of brownie recipes so I narrowed down to the ones using cocoa and 3 eggs or less and found a "quick and easy" recipe.  First mistake--I didn't look at the star rating; second mistake--I didn't read the comments!  Both bad mistakes since nobody was happy with the results including one lady's 2 year old!  I will say it was quick and easy.  I kind of thought it didn't have enough flour so I added some and I should have thought about the cocoa, too (only 2 Tbsp.).  I stuck them in the oven and then sat down and read the comments.  Sure enough, my brownies came out looking very anemic and had not much chocolate taste at all!  At least the flour soaked up a lot of the greasyness everyone talked about so they were kind of cake-like. I hate wasting food so I'm thinking maybe Egar,  Harry (the Heron) or Mr. Sand Crane will enjoy them!

Bad Brownies!  Notice the pale, non-rich color!

 At first Harry ignores the brownie!

 After I break it up he checks out the bites

 Finally he takes a bite,  He then shook his head and left the rest to the crows!

The first cooking disaster I can remember was when Mom let me cook dinner for the family (I don't remember how old I was but maybe about 10).  She had taught me how to make Porcupine Meatballs and I was going to have them with baked potatoes.  After I put the potatoes in the oven at 400 degrees, I decided to go outside and play for awhile (Mom had said one hour on the potatoes).  Well, when I came in and checked them, guess what?  They had exploded in the oven--I forgot to prick them with the fork!  I had a nice mess to clean up after that!  I have never forgotten that since, so it was a lesson well learned!

 One other sort of disaster that Bob reminds me of almost every time I cook rice was when we were first married.  I know I made rice before that (once for a final lab exam in college and I severely burned my arm when I lifted the lid and the steam burned me!  I had to be a gracious hostess to my instructor who I never liked very much.  I was almost in tears from the pain and stress of the final and she gave me the only C I ever got in college!) )  Back to my first experience at the ranch.  I must have looked at the recipe on the package (not Minute Rice, by the way) and followed it exactly.  It was just Bob and I and when I opened the pan, being very careful not to burn myself, rice came tumbling out.  Bob insists I had washtubs full of rice but I don't think it was that bad!  I think that recipe called for 2 cups of raw rice which did make a lot for 2 people but I still say it wasn't a washtub full!

 Update on Bob and Mr. Sand Crane.  He really wants to bite Bob!  But Bob pulled back just in time.

A condo in our future?????

 Up here in Lake Placid, Bob is asking Mr. Sand Crane to bite him!  Egar is waiting to see what happens!

Yesterday we got up really early (well, 6:45 AM) and got ready to head down to Lehigh Acres for the second time in less than a week!  Cousin Mike wanted us to know that a unit two doors down from them on the first floor was being put up for sale and did we want to have a look at it?  We decided it was only about an hour's drive away so went.  We toured it with Mike (it doesn't take long to tour a 950 square foot condo).  I took some pictures which I will share.  We had another nice visit with them and we all were amazed that in less than 3 weeks we had seen each other 3 times and hadn't seen each other before that in 30 years!!

 View of the corner of the unit with golf course in background

 Pool area with club house in back

 Dining area with the pass-through to the kitchen

 The condo is fully furnished with upscale furniture (kind of like Mom's in Ft. Lauderdale), dishes, linens, the whole works!  The kitchen has been upgraded along with the 2 bathrooms, windows, and a new air conditioner.  It is a corner unit on the first floor and overlooks the golf course.  It has a nice compact Lanai (Florida room, screened porch) that will seat 4 people comfortably.  Very nice.  We were impressed but the best part about this is that we have relatives close by (although not direct family--which is a problem for us) and we met many very nice people who live there .  There are plenty of activities going on every week so you can be as busy as you want or you can just go to the pool and chill out if that is more your style.  Now we just have to think about it and see if we can afford it or if we want to look around more.  Decisions, decisions, decisions!

 Light airy Master Bedroom

Living room furniture is Florida style.

A tiny, compact kitchen!

The guest room.  Notice the plantation shutters.  I really like them!

 We have really enjoyed getting reacquainted with our cousins.  Mike stayed with us on the ranch a few summers when he was a teenager!  He even remembers changing JJ's diapers!  Now she is a grandmother!!!!!  We didn't get to see Maryanne this last visit but I would like to spend more time with them too.

 View of the golf course from the Lanai

 We will be here for another few days and then it is off to San Antonio to be with the great-grand-daughters again!  Bob is getting a little antsy  to get home but I'm thinking it is still snowy up there and I want to drive in when we get there!  Just yesterday schools were closed and also roads all over southern Wyoming and Colorado (including Denver).  It has finally warmed up and is beautiful here!

Mr. Turtle is swimming down to his favorite Lily Pad

 The Sand Crane Pecks at Himself on The Bay Window!  What a Dummy! These 2 pictures are in Lake Placid.

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Rain, Rain, Rain

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As I mentioned yesterday, it was very overcast and finally by mid-afternoon (around 3PM) we had a rainstorm.  When it rains here it is different than in Colorado or Nevada.  Here it rains hard and continues to rain hard for hours!  At home it rains hard and is done.  Well, last night about 5 PM the thunder and lightening started and about half an hour later the lights started to flicker.  It was still kind of light out--as light as overcast can be.  So I wasn't too worried about power going off but finally the lights gave a final flicker and we lost all power.  I then realized I needed to scout out where candles were.  Fortunately Lynn and I are our mother's daughters and tend to put away things where Mom did.  I quickly found candles and a flashlight but then I was at a loss to find matches.  Mom always had matches everywhere but none of us smoke so don't need matches that much.  I went through many drawers and even found a bunch more candles but no matches!  Well, finally I got to the kitchen utility (junk-type) drawer and there they were!  I gathered up some of the best smelling and most substantial looking candles and lit them.  Nice ambiance for the darkened kitchen.  It still was light enough to read out in the Florida room and the rain had actually let up to just a drizzle.  I went out there and read my Kindle for about 2 chapters, looked up and the lights were back on!  A nice adventure for us in somebody else's house!

 Here is Egar Junior.  he is not quite sure what to eat or how to eat so I guess he thinks he needs to try the banana nut muffins!

This got me to thinking about other times when the power had a habit of going out on Friday's, weekends and many times during the school day up in Owyhee.  School was either out or they had to close down after so long without power and we were free!  It always took a long time to find where the break was because the power came from somewhere beyond Jarbidge (maybe Twin Falls).  The power guys had to follow the lines through all this remote area and sometimes it was 2 or 3 days before they found the problem!  Most of the time everyone headed up to Boise for a few days of shopping, eating and sleeping in a warm room.  On several occasions, though, the road was closed so we had to stay put at the teacher compound.  Our duplexes were heated by electric heat so we would all get together in one apartment and pool our food and play games.  The most popular one was How to Host a Murder.  I had brought a bunch of them with me when we moved up there so they were new to everyone but me.  That was OK because I never could remember "who dun it"!  We had some Coleman Lanterns that actually put out some heat with their light and we had a Coleman Stove too, so we could cook.  Those were some great times!  It really was a bonding experience.  The people we worked with up there will always be near and dear to me even if we haven't seen each other in a long time!

The rain continued here all night and until about 8 AM this morning.  Then it just quit and now the sun is out and it looks like a lovely afternoon is in store for us!  As I was sitting out in the Florida Room when it first started raining yesterday I considered making a video of how hard it was raining and how the palms were kind of looking like the hurricane pictures we see on TV, but I didn't do it.  Now I don't have a picture for this segment of my blog.  Oh well........  So I decided to take pictures of the banana nut muffins I'm making to use up some ingredients before we leave.

H

 Here are the muffins ready to eat out at the Gazebo

Here is Egar eyeing the muffins on the railing.