Thursday, May 28, 2009

What?! She updated her blog????!!

I have about 4 or so updates below this post. I was thinking about going political, but if I start, I won't stop. Tempted to keep writing.....nope....going to keep it all in right now. Too much to say....dangit.....couple ordered to stop Bible study in their own home in San Diego - look it up.....Sotomayor in the Supreme Court....the VAT tax.....universal health care.....secretary of energy, Chu, wants us all to paint our roofs white and lighten the color of our roads to stop global warming....carbon footprint...for the love....must stop....

I am out! Good night!

Neighbors

Our neighborhood is the best! I have met the most wonderful people and the most wonderful women. We have women who are divorced, widowed, single, married, and most have dogs.....We have Oscar, Bojing (not spelled right), Izzy, Sadie, Raquel, Riley, Lilly, and there are many more, but this is our core group.

We have 2 faves! Kathleen with her giant poodle, Raquel and Cindy with her golden, Riley. They are the best women and have the best dogs. Our kids ain't (yeah....I said "ain't") afraid of them.....no matter how big they are!

We love plants in the spring. If you read my earlier post, you can see some of the plants we bought at my office in Mt Laurel. I told these ladies about it and we all went out there a few Saturdays ago and had lunch at Jimbo's (best cheeseburgers ever) and plant shopped. Somehow, one of the employees there was able to get 4 of those giant ferns and and I can't even count all the other plants in Cindy's car! I think she has a Camry? It was nuts!

Anyway.......we got all plants home. We all got great deals! Mom and I got this beautiful pink petunia that we put out front. Now knowing that we all had the same sense of humor, the ladies sneaked up and moved our petunia off the sidewalk and into the middle of our front yard. Somehow we and the Kids did not see this. When I did notice, I busted out laughing. Knew exactly what was up so in retaliation we bought tacky bobble-head gnomes and put them in their plants. That evening, after they found the gnomes, I see them coming up to the house looking like this and looking for trouble!

Long story short...there was some petunia stealing, some fern moving and some stealing gnomes back and holding them hostage:


Needless to say, the gnomes are back home and a truce has been called! I will get out with the camera and get good pics of these ladies and their Kids! Love them! I don't think sarcasm is a bad thing and I think all of us have it in spades! Love you guys!

Grapes


Here is another new recipe! OMGawsh! It is so good! This could be a side dish or even a dessert. It has the sweet and a little of the salty with the pecans and that touch of brown sugar adds.....

Grape Salad

2 lbs red seedless grapes
2 lbs green seedless grapes
Wash and allow to dry completely

1 8oz cream cheese
1 8 oz sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Mix and pour over grapes, gently toss.

When ready to serve, mix
1/4 brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans (I would add more!)

Sprinkle over grapes and toss.

Jail

So the delicate flower, Daisy, has decided her fave spot is on stair 4. She can see out the living room windows and out the windows on each side of the front door. We call it "Schnauzer Jail". She will totally sleep on her stair, chew bone on stair, bark on stair.....etc. It does own me!

Ears

My precious LulaBelle has the best ear in the world! She owns me and is so cute!

Even when she is down and relaxing.....THE EAR WILL NOT REST!

Clouds

The weather has been nutty here! We have had more rain than I can believe. The plants are super happy except for the dang Lantana. That plant will just droop and get so sad every day no matter how much it rains! I do love it though and so out we go with the bucket to water it. Crazy plant!

But with this weather we have also gotten some beautiful clouds. I can almost feel what it would be like to bounce around on them and just chill. And of course that would be if I were an angel, but alas, I am here on terra firma and gravity is keeping me down. Here are some that were out a couple of nights ago. So pretty......and how lucky are we that God did not create a black and white world. He has given us so much color and fluffy and beautiful. We are very lucky!

Here is cloud 2:

AND cloud 3 with a little bit 'o' pink:

Monday, May 25, 2009

Happy Memorial Day!


Thanks Dad for your service and your life! Thanks to all the other veterans who fought and our soldiers out there fighting now!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Recipe Time

Holy Cow!!! This is some of the best stuff ever! Got it off one of my favorite websites, The Pioneer Woman. Tried it this weekend. Mom was the guinea pig. It took no time to make and my gosh....it tasted soooooooo good! Could have eaten the whole pan. Very refreshing! Try it!


Baked Lemon Pasta
1 pound thin spaghetti
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter
2 tablespoons olive oil (I used 3 tablespoons)
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used 3 cloves….next time might use 4)
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon
2 cups sour cream
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste if desired
Plenty of grated Parmesan cheese
Flat leaf parsley, chopped
Extra lemon juice
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook spaghetti until al dente.
In a skillet, melt butter with olive oil over LOW HEAT.
When butter is melted, add minced garlic.
Squeeze lemon juice into the pan. Turn off heat.
Add sour cream and stir mixture together. Add lemon zest and salt. Taste, then add more salt if necessary.
Pour mixture over drained spaghetti and stir together, then pour spaghetti into an oven safe dish.
Bake, covered, for 15 minutes. Then remove foil and bake for an additional 7 to 10 minutes. (Don’t bake too long or the pasta will dry out.)
When you remove it from the oven, squeeze a little more lemon juice over the top.
Top generously with Parmesan cheese, then chopped parsley.
Give it a final squeeze of lemon juice at the end.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Crocodile Dundee

This may only humor me, but here we go.....in your best Crocodile Dundee accent say THE LINE with one word replaced....
"That's not a weed......"

"THIS is a WEED!"

The Plants

So this year we went flower crazy! I work out in this little village off 280 and they have the most beautiful flowers and ferns AND they are cheap! It is incredible! Here is a full view:

Now here are the geraniums.....OR are they real geraniums???? That would be a NO! We got these from QVC. They are from Bethlehem lighting. They are outdoor safe and at night they have a timer and the twinkle lights come on for 6 hours and turn off. They look so real! We got tired of geraniums drying up in the direct sun on our deck so we thought....let's try this! They look real! YEAH!

Now from here on out are the real flowers/plants! This one is the "S" flower. Mom picked this one up and could not remember the name except it started with an "S". It is beautiful!

Now the yellow flower....got nothing on the name....just pretty:

Some of these are a little beat down from the rain and storms, but still hanging in there! Here is our Verbena:

Here is the Lantana - a butterfly catcher:

And last BUT not least.......drum roll......the GIANT FERN!!! This is a Kimberly Queen fern that comes out of Australia. This puppy only cost....again....drum roll.....$18.95! YEAH! I could barely fit it in my Civic, much less get it through the house to the deck, but our buddy made it! It comes up to a little above my hip...huge:

We got some petunias too. These like others are a little beat down from the rain, but still pretty!


We also have giant ant beds in the median where I take The Kids to do their business. These will be dying shortly. I have to figure out the best way to kill them and let all the other dog owners there is poison down. I hate ants!