Is Katie Turning into a "Candace"?

Doug and I have decided that it is Katie's destiny to bust her little brother "flash" at all costs. Knowing this, we've decided to nickname her Candace. She's the older sister on the show "Phineas and Ferb". On every episode, she tries to bust her little brothers after they become mischievous in order to have an exceptional Summer vacation. I think Katie likes the idea of her being called Candace because she giggled and proceeded to tell me all the things Colton is doing wrong. All I hear, all day is "mom, Colton's in the Kitchen cabinets. Mom, Colton just hit me. Mom, Colton didn't eat all of his food. Mom, Colton just drank after me." It's unendless!

Thank goodness school is TOMORROW!  YAY!  HOORAY!  {jumping up and down}

Prayer Request

Prayer Request
I have a couple of updates on the prayers I've asked that I wanted to pass along to you.  (I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday)

• Michael underwent an angioplasty this past Monday at a hospital in B'ham.  Everything went well and he did good, considering.  He has blockage, so the doctors want to do by-pass surgery.  They had him go home later this week to get strong and HEALTHIER for the upcoming surgery.  He is not eligible for stints.  After two weeks, his doctor wants him to schedule the surgery.  Michael told my sister that he sees the error of his ways and wants to change for the sake of his family and himself.  Please pray for God's guidance, direction, encouragement and mercy for Michael.  I know he and his family would greatly appreciate it.
• I've mentioned my cousin Tanner a few times.  This past October was suppose to be his last chemo treatment (after 2 years of it).  Unfortunately, I just found out that his doctors told him that he would have to undergo the treatments for another 2 years.  Ugh!  (Laura, he is the teenager that is a NO Saints fan).  My uncle Bob called my mother the other night to let us know that they had to take Tanner to the hospital again.  His poor body is so susceptible to any and all illness at this point.  He seems to stay sick.  Anyway, he had a temperature of 106 degrees.  Of course, he's family is nothing but an emotional basket case.  Thank you for so many many prayers.  Please continue to pray not only for Tanner's weak body, but strength for his family and friends. 

Yummy Brownies

Brownie Recipe

Favorite Brownie Mix
Container Chocolate Frosting
Chopped Pecans

Bake the brownie mix as instructed on the box/pack; when done, set out on a wire rack to cool.  I spread the frosting on the brownies in the pan while it was still a little warm, it seemed to spread better.  Sprinkle pecans on top. 

If I had thought about it, I should have put a few chopped pecans in the mix before baking it.  Because I was playing around, I used a cheap Betty Crocker brownie mix packet.  I think a chewy or fudge brownie mix would be out of this world delicious with the pecans.  Yum! 

I'm hosting a party in the next couple of weeks and I'm thinking about making a few brownie bites and I think the frosting with pecans would be a perfect touch. 

Enjoy!

Baked Apple Pie Recipe

My 1st Apple Pie

I had some good compliments on this pie as being a sweet and flavorful apple pie. I believe I got the recipe from Pillsbury because I've never baked an apple pie before and I've been wanting to for a long time. I guess fear kept me away. Now, I don't know why I waited so long because it is so simple, easy and you use very few ingredients.

Apple Pie Recipe
Prep: 20 minutes
Preheat: 375 degrees F
Yield: 8 servings

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
6-7 cups thinly sliced apples
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 egg white
1 tablespoon butter
Pastry for double-crust pie (9 inches)
Additional sugar

• In a small bowl, combine the first 6 ingredients; set aside.  In a large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice.  Add sugar mixture; toss to coat.
• Line 9 inch pie plate with bottom crust; trim pastry even with edge.  Fill with apple mixture; dot with butter.  Roll out remaining pastry to fit top of pie.  Place over filling.  Trim, seal and flute edges.  Cut slits in pastry.
• Beat egg white until foamy; brush over pastry.  Sprinkle with sugar.  Cover edges loosely with foil or pie cover ring.
• Bake for 25 minutes at 375 degrees F. Remove foil and bake for another 20-25 minutes until crust is golden and filling is bubbly.  Cool on rack. 

Tips:

1. To make sure the apples were equally coated in spices, I toss the apples and then transferred the apples into the bowl the spices were in and then back.  It seemed to coat a little better. 
2. When placing the bottom crust, don't use your finger tips or nails to place it to the wall of pie plate.  I used either the back of my hand or knuckles because your finger tips or nails might tear a hole in the pastry. 
3. When placing the pastry on top of apple mixture, I folded the rolled out pastry in half.  You could go ahead and cut out a half moon shape before placing it onto the pie.  Place the folded pastry onto half of the pie and then unfold to cover the rest of pie.  In a sawing motion (up and down), cut the excess pastry off around the plate.  Then, using your fingers crimp.  The way I did it was - with one hand, two of my fingers made the peace sign to the outside of the pie edge and with the other hand I pushed my thumb between my two fingers - making a crimp style.  There are several different styles to crimp your pie edge, but I think this is the traditional.
4. To vent your pie, I made little slits with a paring knife that I used to peel the apples. 
5. If you have some nice wide pieces of dough scraps left, I cut out small leaves with the same paring knife.  Once cut out, take the back of your knife and indent (but don't cut) a straight line down the center of the leaf pastry.  Then make indents at a diagonal to make the veins of the leaf.  Place your leaves around your pie crust.  I put most of mine around the hole.  I didn't have a lot of dough to make big leaves. 
6. I highly recommend purchasing a pie crust cover ring.  It's a lifesaver! The foil is good, but it can fall off easily.  I've tried it before in the past, before the pie cover.
7. Be sure to put the pie plate on a cookie sheet before placing it in the oven.  The juices like to run out sometimes. I forgot this time because I had to tend to a toddler running around.  Now, I've got to clean my oven again.

ENJOY!

I Made The News Y'all!

We were in Best Buy looking at the Wii consoles because they were priced very reasonable - $169. I've always wanted a Wii system, I think they are so fun. While we were there, I guess we counted 3 or 4 different news medias waiting around with their cameras. Well, we made the news on Channel 48! After the news reporter makes her spill, the camera pans to the right. You'll see me and Doug reading the Wii boxes. I'm wearing a blue jacket and my hair is pulled back. LOL! When Doug told me later that we made the news, I didn't believe him until I saw it for myself.

I guess it's been five years since I've done a Black Friday. Peggy and Millard kept the kids for us over night, so we were up and ready by 4:00 this morning. The temperature was around 50 degrees when we left the house. By the time we got to the stores, it was 34 degrees. Can you say BRRRRR? You talk about freezing. It was raining and the wind made matters worse. Doug and I sort of knew what we were looking for when we headed out. We knew that it was going to be crazy, so we took our time. We got to Best Buy around 5:30 and I suppose the crowd thinned out by then because it wasn't that bad in the check out line.

We debated on going inside Walmart, but it wasn't that bad either. They had some GREAT DEALS on Blu-Ray movies. I got "Julie/Julia" in Blu-ray for $5; "The Backup Plan" for $10; "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" for $5. It wasn't a Blu-ray, but I got "17 Again" for $1.96. Doug got "Predator" in Blu-ray for $5. They had HDMI cable regular $35 for $10. I couldn't get over it. Taking our time because the Iron Bowl didn't start until 1:30, we got a LOT of Christmas gifts knocked-out. To top it all off after we finished shopping at Walmart, we didn't have to wait in line to checkout. AWESOME!

Martin's had a lot of their Bama stuff on sale. Their button up dress shirts for $21, plus $5 off at the register. I found some Tervis Tumbler mugs with handles for the loved ones that like to drink coffee. I think it makes a perfect gift.

We had enough time, when we got home, for me to take a short nap before the Bama game started. I have to say the first half of Bama vs. Auburn has been WOWing, I just it continues the rest of the game.

ROLL TIDE!

I hope you had just as much fun this Black Friday as we have had.

Enjoying All The Thanksgiving Specials

I love my husband more than words can express. He is so intelligent and very electronics savy. Last week, he introduced to me the neatest program from our Directv DVR system. Now, I don't have to miss any Thanksgiving and Christmas special ever again. I can make sure they are all recorded with just a click of a button. The only trouble I had was to sink all the specials in the appropriate time slot, so they won't interlink with each other. Do you want to know how I did it? Well just follow these simple instructions:

1. You must have a Directv DVR system access.
2. On your Directv remote control, click the "menu" button.
3. Under Menu, select "Smart Search"
4. From here you can either type in the specific name you are searching or you can select one of four suggested searches, for instance, "Thanksgiving".
5. The suggestions are endless, but you must have access to the specific channels.

Happy Searching!

Because of this program, I've been able to watch Martha Stewarts' Thanksgiving specials, Throwdown with Bobby Flay Thanksgiving Special, Thanksgiving Unwrapped, and the Secret Life of Thanksgiving.  Katie is at the age to show interest in History, so I thought a couple of these programs would help her to understand.  I wanted to give her a visual.  She watched about 30 minutes of "Secret Life of Thanksgiving" and she told me that she's seen enough.  Of course, by that time they were into the secret life of Thanksgiving cooking traditions like how to cook a turkey, dressing and cranberry sauce.  She's not too excited about cooking as she is history.  LOL! By the way, these specials will be showing all week up to Thanksgiving Day. 

Katie Story
The things that comes out of babes' mouth?  Katie is five years old and I'm still amazed what she picks up.  On the way to school, we were talking about how she loves for her daddy to take her to school every Friday.  Out of the blue, she told me that he doesn't wear makeup.  Shocked, I repeated what she just said as to ask the question (did you just say this?).  She confirmed it.  I told her that boys don't wear makeup.  In mid-sentence, she said "yeah, it's because makeup is disgusting."  I'm sorry, but that made me crack up.  Only my child.  I hope she will continue to think makeup is "disgusting" until she is a teenager.  It sure would make my life easier.

Colton Tales 
YES!  He is beginning to show signs of talking.  I don't mean to worry, but my word every other child close to his age, that I  know, are saying words.  Colton will be 20 months old in a few short days and the only two words he will say are "momma" and "dada".  Last week, I was cooking and like every other time I told Colton "hot" and held my hand up.  Out of the blue, he held his hand up and repeated "ha".  Close enough for me.  I was so excited.  So now, when he eats and he sees me blowing on his food (to cool it down), he'll ask "ha".  If it is ha, he'll help me blow on it.

Yesterday, he said, "baww" which means ball.  He'll hold his ball and  tell me what is, "baww".  I'll have to sneak some video of him and his new words because his facial expressions kill me.  So funny. 

Thanksgiving Week
Well this time next week, we'll be bustling about trying to get the last minute preparations finished for our fabulous Thanksgiving meal, putting on  our best Thanksgiving outfits and loading up our vehicles for an evening of travel.  I absolutely love Thanksgiving and all it's timeless traditions:

• Macy's Day Parade
• Thanksgiving Day Specials on television like "Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving"
• All the old and new faces around the dinner table, sharing stories and the laughter
• Traditional Thanksgiving cooking
• Turkey and corn bread dressing served with gibblet gravy
• Mashed potatoes
• Assortment of casseroles, including sweet potato casserole ~ yum, yum! 
• Canned cranberry sauce
• Deviled eggs
• Pies galore ~ pecan, chocolate, pumpkin

Prayer Request

• Michael is my brother-in-laws' brother.  Yeah, I said that plural.  My two sisters married brothers.  Anyway, Michael is in ICU for an DO on prescription drugs.  Before you pass judgement, you must understand that he has had his share of physical pain and suffering.  I don't know what I would do, if I were in his shoes.  The DO was strictly by mistake because as soon as he felt weird, he called his brother.  Apparently, he is having some heart issues.  Doctors are trying to find him a hospital in B'ham to fit all of his needs.  Currently, he is struggling with detox at the hospital.  He needs God's peace and strength.  
• My nephew and nieces are going through a rough time at school.  They have all choosen the medical field and it's pretty tough.  I think they are all ready for a good Thanksgiving break, away from the stresses and strains of college life.  
• All the Thanksgiving travellers starting this weekend to head towards their destinations.  I hope they have safe travel.  

Tell Me Thursday

Have you figured out what this contraption might be?  Give up?  Well, we found this at the restaurant we ate at, Superior Grill, this past weekend.  It's a fire water fountain!  I've never seen anything like it and had to take a picture and share it with you.  The manager told me, the burner is sealed tight and is water resistant that is why the water isn't putting out the flame.  Cool! Huh? 

Wordless Wednesday

Our Football Experience with Our Daughter

Last weekend, we (Wayne, Laura, Doug and myself) decided to take Katie and Alise to their first college football game ~ Bama vs. Mississippi State.

Alise was cracking me up. I could just tell she was in her element. She seemed to really enjoy the football atmosphere. She was cheering on the players from a nose bleed distance. Y'all, she was literally cheering. She grabbed several spectators', around us, attention. Several women were going on about how cute our girls were.

Katie on the other hand, was ready to go back to our hotel before the game even started. I figured The Million Dollar Band would grab her attention for a little bit and it did for a split second. She just seemed bored. Alise tried to get her involved by telling her to cheer and dance. Well, Katie danced around, but she doesn't cheer. It's really not her fault. Katie's never been to a football game - that she would remember. She doesn't know any cheers. Poor Alise tried to teach Katie a cheer with no success. She just does what she knows and that's DANCE. By the last quarter of the game, Doug and I came to an agreement. It's to not come up with these brilliant ideas like this again until Katie is 20 years old. LOL! Oh, I think she enjoyed seeing all the people, being with Alise, dressing up and witnessing the football atmosphere (outside the stadium).

Below are a few of my favorite pictures of our time there.  Enjoy!

Katie playing her Leapster

Daddy giving kisses

Alise and Katie posing with their Wockets

Our time at Superior Grill

Katie loved looking down onto the crowd

ROLL TIDE Y'ALL!

Hillbilly Spots BigFoot

The first time I heard this report, it was on The Rick and Bubba Show probably a couple of weeks ago.  The original newscast was in June of this year.  I'm sorry, but it is so funny.  Rick and Bubba likes to play the sound bites from time to time during some funny, yet ridiculous reporting. Whenever this guy starts talking, I start giggling.  "He was 10 feet tall . . . he had beautiful hair . . . and I told him to GEET ~ GET on outta here . . . G. E.T!"  LOL! 



I just had to share it with you.  I hope this gives you a little giggle for a cold, wet Monday morning. 

So Funny!

I know it's not Wordless Wednesday, but I so have to share this with my Bama brothers and sisters out there. I'm a member of a local Bama Club and they had this picture on their Facebook.

Auburn Head Football Coach celebrating the winning bid for Cam Newton

This won't be funny unless you're not an Auburn fan and keep up with sports news.

Enjoy!

Let The Christmas Preparations Begin . . .

My elves have been working hard researching and finding some really cute crafts for the Christmas holiday season. Before you begin sending comments about me missing Thanksgiving, I won't be able to do any Thanksgiving crafts because I'm trying to re-decorate my main living area. I'll have to miss the Thanksgiving decorations this year. Beings I have Christmas this year that is where my focus is right now. I'm a planner, I love to plan ahead. I'd like to share with you the first three cute crafts that sound so simple and I think would make a great little gift for someone special.

The first one, I stole from Eighteen25.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this craft and I so have this on my list of things to do.  I plan to make a few of these in different heights and colors.  This craft sounds so simple and quick to make. My calendar is pretty much full for the next month, but I will have to find time to make these cute trees. 

The second craft comes from Better Homes and Gardens.  This sweet candy tree would make a great gift, table centerpiece and it looks like it would be so easy to make. 

Lastly, this craft comes from Bright Ideas.  I think Katie and myself will make these for her classmates.  Too cute!

Still Here!

Yes, I'm still here. I've had a lot going on and have been busy, busy.

As you know, Katie brought home a great report card and I promised her that we would go shopping at one of her favorite stores, Target. She had a little money and she got some money for her report card, so I thought she would like to spend it. She chose to go to Super Target, which we LOVE to visit every now and then.

On our way to Target, I wanted to stop off at Kohl's. I saw a commerical the other day announcing that Vera Wang is selling her brand of clothing at Kohl's. I LOVE some of Vera Wang's designs, but can't afford her. I wanted to check it out. I also wanted to shop for a few Christmas gifts, while we were there. Of course, they had some really great sales. Katie and I had a ball just looking at everything. I liked the Vera Wang tops, but the long sleeves have this snug fit. I never have cared for snug fit sleeves, I catch myself constantly tugging on them. The tops were very reasonable. The ones I liked were 35% off, which would be around $20. I also noticed Vera Wang's name on a few of the bedding sets. I didn't need any bedding stuff or I would have checked it out as well. I may have left without my Vera Wang top, but we so made up for it with my Christmas gifts.

Kohl's currently has a special program going on right now "Kohl's Cares for Kids." By the registers are tables full of Dr. Seuss books and matching stuffed characters. For every item special marked product purchased a 100% of the net profit from that item will be donated to support children's health and education initiatives nationwide. Apparently, the past 10 years, they've been able to raise $150 million and counting. For additional information about "Kohl's Cares for Kids", you can visit this WEBSITE! I picked up Katie and Colton these special Dr. Seuss pals with books. Each stuff animal and book are $5. I think this would make such a great Christmas gift. Katie wanted to buy her pink Wocket and book with her own money. I actually wanted to give Colton his Grinch and book for Christmas. Unfortunately, he saw Katie's Wocket and loved it. To keep peace within the family, I dug out his gift. He seemed to like it. I tried reading "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and yeah, we need to wait until he is a little older. He's attention span is a little short. LOL!

My little bookworms showing off their Dr. Seuss gifts from Kohl's

Colton admiring the pictures, while Katie poses with her Wocket and the Grinch

She loves her Wocket

After loooong deliberations (on Katie's part), she finally finished off spending her money at Target on an Ariel playset. I haven't seen these before, so they must be new for Christmas. They had several ~Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty and The Beast. Target's getting a little Christmas stuff out. Katie had a blast looking through the pink ornaments and Nutcrackers. She is an ornament NUT. Normally, I get her a new ornament every year. This year, she already has 4 new ones (pink carousel horse clip w/pink feather, Hello Kitty, pink music note, pink lollipop with bow). She wanted me to let her get a silver glitter nutcracker ornament at Kohl's, but I just got her a lime green glitter nutcracker decoration.

It wasn't long before we were ready for some good ol' Mellow Mushroom. Oh! It's amazing how this place is never old to us. Their pizza is the best! I let Katie order her own cheese pizza this time, while mama had her usual "House Special". YUM! I was telling Katie, while we were eating that next year when Natalie lives down the block, we'll have to meet her at our favorite hang out.

CONGRATULATIONS NATALIE!

I have to congratulate my niece, Natalie for signing with a local college.  She is to receive a full scholarship and be apart of their basketball team, next August. She along with two other girls, she plays ball with, will have the opportunity to be roomies.  I'm so happy for her.  Natalie, we are so proud of you and wish you the very best!

ROLL TIDE BABY!