Mississippi Girl in a Texas World

New Travel Trailer

2012-01-21T07:18:00.003-06:00

We traded in Tha Trala Hizzy (2010 Jayco 28 ft) for a 2012 Cedar Creek 36 ft fifth wheel, in hopes of retiring one day. We picked it up on Thursday, after spending 4 hours signing papers and doing our walk-thru. I am crazy busy at work because we went live on a new software that no one knows how to use, so I was a little disgusted with the whole thing. Jim brought the new fifth wheel to the Coast (with our boss' truck, because it is so big our truck won't pull it.). He left it here and came back Thursday night.

He spent all day Friday loading a cargo trailer. You would laugh if you saw how much junk we had in our trailer. After another crazy, crazy day at work once people received their paychecks, or not! I had steroid shots in my neck. Jim took me and afterwards we headed to the house to get the cargo trailer. Well, you might know the lights on the trailer do not work so we start back into San Antonio to get a new plug. We get almost to the trailer place and the lights start working (rusty trailer ball wasn't making the connection). We head back down towards the Coast.

We arrive at 7:30pm! Our first night in our new place! Much to our surprise, NO ELECTRICITY! We have to go to Walmart because all our flashlights are packed in the cargo trailer and who knows where. I buy soup because I hadn't eaten all day, some cheese, maybe a size 3t zebra dress and we go to the camping department looking for flashlights. None to be found. We walk all over the store and finally go upfront where the only old lady is working and she tells us sporting goods. We go to the back of the store and walk all the aisles, finally go back to the camping aisle and there they are 2 ft away from where we turned around before.

Back at the trailer with flashlights and of course a mini pink one for my purse, so we will never have this problem again (or until I change purses). We can see all the switches and buttons to push or flip, everything is on, yet still no lights, great!

At this time I have got to eat or pass out. Jim plugs the extension cord in the 30 amp plug and I heat my soup in the electric skillet that I finally dug out of the cargo trailer. Guess what! No spoon or anything that resembled a spoon!

At 10pm we are sitting in our brand new trailer, windows open, eating cheese and drinking wine. How much better does it get than this?

Project 365 and Project 12

2011-01-30T14:33:00.004-06:00

Brady P won 4th place in the Science Fair. He gets to go to state competion just like his Mom did when she was in the 3rd grade. Yay Brady!!!

My first layout for Project 12. It is January in review for the Lincoln families.

Doing a little better on the Project 365. My photo for 1/29/11. My friend's little girl, Charity and Jim, walking the dogs.

Project 365; 1/30/11 75 degrees outside, will be 42 for the high on Wednesday.

Split Pea Soup

2011-01-23T18:31:00.002-06:00

We went to the Coast this weekend. It was a little chilly, but enjoyed the relaxation. Jim would like to move our trailer to Lot 87, but no one in the office knew how much that would cost us or even if it was available. It is on top of a little hill, so we might actually get internet and cell phone coverage. But, I will miss our neighbors. Guess I will have to ride my scooter over to see them.

Our favorite place to eat breakfast in Rockport. Best food ever! I cook breakfast when we are there but on Sunday we go to this Mexican restaurant. Great food!

Now to the split pea soup. My Mother cooked every dried bean there ever was. My Daddy lived on dried beans. We had them everyday. I always loved dried beans, but now I eat them almost everyday, just like my Dad. We never had dried green peas. We have dried black eyes all the time. Did they make dried green peas then? That is a question I would really like to ask my Mother, but I don't know if she would really remember. I think green peas taste like canned green peas but, NO the dried ones are awesome. No pasty taste. Omg, this soup was awesome! Bacon, dried green peas, carrots, leeks, garlic, Mrs. Dash, bay leaf and chicken broth. YUM! went back several times and got another spoonful of YUM.

2011-01-16T15:41:00.003-06:00

Kaitlin being baptized.

Jim and I.

Duece laying by the heater because it is cold.

The "before" photo of my messy scraproom. I am working on cleaning it. Just not ready to show an "after" photo yet.

I decided that I would try to blog every Sunday this year. We will see how long it last. hehehe

I am sort of doing Project 365 where you take a photo every day. I am not putting any pressure on myself, so if I get 4 out of 7, I am good. I am doing Project 12 at Tallyscrapper, so I will be doing a layout for each month. Which brings up the best news ever! Pinky aka Cristal Hobbs has taken over Tallyscrapper and we are back in the ballgame! I am so excited about this! Tally has always been the best scrapbooking store/forum that I have ever visited. I have done a layout everyday since I heard the news. Pinky gives me so much inspiration.

And we ended the week (I know Sunday is the beginning of the week but I do payroll so it is week ending to me.) with our granddaughter, Kaitlin, accepting Jesus Christ in her life, as her Savior! It was awesome! Although the heater was out on the baptistry, and she was FREEZING. The preacher said that he was telling Kaitlin how sorry he was that the water wasn't heated, then he stepped down in the water and his waders had a hole in them. He was freezing also. Jim's entire family was there. We all went to Bill Miller's BBQ to eat afterwards. Now, they live in the city where there are so many restaurants, why did we go to fast food BBQ? Sorry, a little gripe there, Bill Miller's is like McDonalds in bbq. It has its own unique taste.

Looking forward to next week and hoping it is as eventful in a good way as this past week has been!

Getting the house ready for sale

2011-01-09T07:57:00.003-06:00

Putting in a new pool liner.

William thought it was a giant playroom.

But Jason and William just played in the yard, for the most part.

Two little monkeys.
We really want to sell our house and get something smaller with a smaller yard. If it were up to me we would live in an apartment but Jim doesn't want to live that close to other people. We have done a lot of work on our house to get it ready for the market. All that's left is a new driveway and cleaning out closets, cabinets and drawers. We may be done by summer.

Jim and his son, grandson and granddaughter got the new pool liner in quickly. It seems Amanda has done this several times and new all about it. Her Mom helped her and they got 3/4 of it done while the 3 guys worked on the rest. I had my video camera ready, just in case I could capture something to win $10,000, but nothing very interesting happened.

On to the fun part of cleaning and getting rid of a lot of crap!

Autumn Chowder

2010-11-14T18:13:00.006-06:00

I haven't blogged in forever, I know. I bought a blog digi kit and really messed it up. I finally think that I have fixed it. My Mom is still okay in the nursing home. The last time I saw her was her birthday, October 18th. Since then, we have had William's (greatgrandson), Kaitlin (granddaughter) and James' (grandson) birthday. Next weekend we are headed to Rockport for Adeline's (ggd) birthday party. She is having a Princess Party. She is turning three.

Britianny emailed pictures of Halloween so I scrapped several layouts of Adeline. Stupid me posted them on FB and said she is my favorite ggd. At the time, I was thinking she was the only one. That's what happens when you become a greatgrandparent. I swear I get more like my DH everyday. I do apologize to Lexie.

We have been remodeling the house in hopes of selling. We need to move to a smaller place with a smaller yard. Hope to put the house on the market next year. That is it in a nutshell as far as what we have been up to.

I have been making a lot of different soups lately. Shrimp bisque was the worst! This is sorta, kinda Bin 555's recipe for Autumn Chowder only I used lactose free, skim milk instead of cream.
Butternut squash, onion, celery, carrots, salt, pepper and nutmeg. It was Yummy!

I hate cats!

2010-08-22T16:41:00.002-05:00

Actually, the truth is, I am scared to death of cats. It is because of my childhood. We had an ice machine in our garage. One of my chores was to get the tea every night for supper. I would have to go to the garage to get ice. (My Dad sold ice machines and COKE machines.) My sister, Debbie was an animal lover. She had so many animals she picked up off the street. My younger sister, Judi, who was born on Halloween, (just sayin') was so mean to Debbie's cats. She would grab them by the tail and spin around and let them go flying. The cats lived in the raftors of the garage. When I would go out and get ice at night the cats would jump down on me. FREAKY! To this day, I am terrified of cats. But I have gotten better in my old age. I can actually visit people who have cats. When they start to rub on my legs, I get up and walk away. I don't freak. I also let my exchange student have a cat in my house. I didn't like it, but I did.

So yesterday, my friend Patricia calls me and says do you know you have cats? Yes! We have wild cats in our garage that my DH feeds. He says they keep the snakes and scorpions away. Well we have had several litters of kittens this summer. I carried one to work under my car. It mewed all day. Brought it home and it came out from under the car. We have 3 kittens that have NO MAMMA. We don't know what happened to the Momma. We bought baby bottles at the store today, but the nipple was too big. Trying a squirt bottle, but they aren't getting a whole lot. They are too small to even eat. Why do I care? I don't like cats!

Yes, it has been forever since I updated......

2010-08-20T22:04:00.009-05:00

The summer has been so busy with grandkids that I have lots of photos and no scrapbook pages. I had better get busy.

Mother's Day

2010-05-12T20:32:00.006-05:00

I have lost 40 lbs but it wasn't by eating like I did last weekend. Jim and I went to the Coast. We did nothing at all on Saturday but lay on the beach. Saturday evening, we took our grandaughter, Krystyna out for Mexican food and a Margarita to celebrate her 21st birthday. I forgot my camera. This is the only one I got with my phone. Adaline at 2. We hurried home Sunday morning to make our 1:30 reservations at Bin 555. My son, Chef Pj Edwards was cooking for 150 Mothers but especially me. We had a mixed greens salad with dried cherries and goat cheese. It was goooood! Then we had Halibut with peas and roasted scallions. The cheese after the meal was goat cheese rolled in herb with Spanish tortas, honeycomb and almonds.My dessert was whipped cream frozen by liquid nitrogen, berries and mint salad. I had the most wonderful Mother's Day you could possibly imagine. I not only got lunch but I got a very cool sewing machine and a Zable pandora style bracelet. I talked to Kaden on the phone and Brady actually got on the phone and talked to his Gamma for quite a while. You know he is 7 now and too cool for that

Surprise!

2010-03-14T18:19:00.005-05:00

Today, we went to a Paella Cookoff at the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio. PJ was cooking with his boss Chef Jason Dady. They should have won. They definately had the best presentation. Ben Ford, who I understand is Harrison Ford's son, who owns a restuarant in CA, won. He even told them afterwards that they got robbed.

Yesterday, we had a surprise 40th birthday party for Jim Jr. at our house. He was completely surprised. It was a lot of fun and the whole family was here. Jim built a playset in one of our many trees. The kids had so much fun playing on it. We ended up with about 10 people spending the night, so there were blankets and pillows everywhere.

It happened to me:(

2010-03-05T08:27:00.003-06:00

Well, it finally happened. I ate a piece of fish too fast. It got stuck. It hurt so bad. I had heard all about it, but thought, I will do what I am supposed to do and that won't ever happen to me. Ha! It was the most horrible experience. I went outside and walked while everyone else ate. It helped a little, very little, so I came back in and sat down. I tried to be pleasant until everyone finished but when I got in Jim's truck, all heck broke loose. I had no idea I was about to throw up and it went everywhere. Thank goodness, I have such a wonderful husband. He cleaned it all up. I couldn't. The more I looked at it, the more I wanted to do it again. So, if anyone of you are considering lapband surgery, just know that one day it will happen to you and it is NOT fun. Don't let that discourage you in any way, just know to expect it.

64 Degrees

2010-02-28T16:40:00.003-06:00

Jim and I took our grandaughter Kaitlin to the Coast this weekend. She and Adeline wanted to go to the beach. They rode with Aunt Jodi, Adeline's grandmother. When they got out of the truck they had on swimsuits, ready to play in the water. Omg, I was cold and I had on clothes. Those girls had so much fun. Their laughter could be heard all around the beach.

I decided to get my excercise in and walk on the beach. I wore myself out, really quick. When I got back, the girls had decided to sit down and eat some chips. That is when the shivering started. Everyone was trying to wrap them up in the 6 towels we happened to bring. Finally, Britainey took them to the truck and turned the heater on. It was a fun, fun day.

Jim and I rode our bikes when we got back, while Jodi had the girls and Britainey cooked for us. What we thought would be a weekend of entertaining Kaitlin, turned out to be a very relaxing weekend for us. We rode our bikes again this morning. I just have a real problem riding with the traffic. I want to see what is coming towards me. We rode along the road that follows the Coastline in Fulton. I did great with my diet. I am on soft foods now and if I didn't think I could digest it, I just drank a protein drink instead. Never got hungry. Anxious to see how much weight I have lost this week.

1st Adjustment

2010-02-21T15:53:00.004-06:00

The adjustment went well. The Dr. filled up the band where nothing would go through. He showed me one the Xray. Then he backed it off a little at a time until the white stuff I drank ran barely through, the way he wanted it. I can't really tell yet if I have more restriction, as I am still on liquids. Tonight, I get to have a protein shake. That will be for the next 3 days. Then 3 days of mush and 3 days of soft foods. So about 1 1/2 weeks and I will be able to eat again. It is killing me. Do you know they show nothing but food commercials on tv at night, while I am walking on my treadmill. The 1st time, the liquids did not bother me, as I had just had surgery. This time, I want to eat. I cheated and had a cup of Chick FilA ice cream yesterday. It was so good. I figured since I am not eating any calories, it wouldn't hurt me.

So that is the story of my first adjustment. The photo is a scrapbook page for a challenge at Tallyscrappers. We are doing an Idol challenge and this week the challenge was to pick the number one song the day your subject was born. Adeline's was about the only one in the family that I could make work.

Wow! A great Valentine's Day!

2010-02-16T21:29:00.005-06:00

What a wonderful weekend! My daughter had her 35th birthday on Sunday. We celebrated all weekend. My grandson was baptized on Sunday. It was so great, we all cried, including the Pastor. My Mother attended, as well as, Brady's "Uncle Bryan". I took Kaden and he was so happy for his brother even though he really didn't know what it meant. There were lots of friends there, also. Afterward, we all went to Olive Garden and I had to catch a plane shortly after. Now you may be wondering where the photos are. I left my camera in MS! Can you believe it? It is a good thing I have a few more, but I wanted to scrap all those pictures.

I do have a few photos of what has been going on here since the scraproom was flooded. Crocheting an afghan for the orphans in China. When Tobie and Tony go over to get Baby China, they need to take gifts for the other children. Tobie and I are both working on blankets. And I got my treadmill! I have been working on the length of time and miles more than the speed. Tonight I bought a workout for the Ifit by Jillian Michaels. She kick my behind in the first 5 minutes so I just turned her off and did my own thing. I do want to work up to being able to keep up with her, but I need to get used to walking first.

I have lost 21 lbs. Thursday will be my first adjustment. It should make the band tighter. Even though I am still doing WW, I am anxious to see if I can eat everything I am eating now. I will let you know.

I am eating!

2010-02-07T15:36:00.004-06:00

I am on soft foods now and let me tell you, everything tastes so good! I can't eat a lot, which is the plan, and I am being choosey about what I do eat. It is SuperBowl Sunday and I am making turkey meat Chili! (I know I live in TX but I can use turkey if I want to.) Of course, no cornbread but I can put low fat cheese on top because it has protein.

I worked out on the eliptical for 30 minutes today and tomorrow I get my Valentine, which is a new treadmill. I am pretty excited!

My scraproom is flooded again due to the hot water heater. This is the 3rd time we have replaced it in the 14 years we have owned this house. Why it is always my scraproom, I do not know. Jim has been sucking up water for 2 days. We have decided that we probably need a water softener and will have to tile the floor. The carpet has been replaced once and now its has been wet again twice in the last month. Time to put in tile. So anyway, I had the urge to scrap so I did 2 digis. It is a kit by Kim Gehring called Boy Oh Boy. I get my digis printed at Costco for 2.99 for a 12 x 12 but I may also do these in paper, I like them so much. Theyare my handsome grandsons, Kaden and Brady.

Soul Food

2010-01-31T18:33:00.002-06:00

Today I made beans and cornbread with squash, collard greens and pork chops. My son the Chef was here and he and Jim ate until they were miserable. I on the other hand had some beans and some squash that I put in the blender. It was so good. I can't tell you how good. Really. I wanted a pork chop so bad so I took a bit, chewed it a little and threw it away. I know that sounds so gross but it tasted so good for the few seconds.

I am losing about a pound a day making 15 pounds so far. I really thought I would lose more eating nothing but I know it is going to be slow and that is really a good thing. I told Jim that I wanted a new treadmill for Valentine's Day. He made a frowny face. The rule is that I have to wear out a piece of exercise equipment before I can have a new one, but this treadmill is at least 12 years old. It has worn itself out just sitting in the other room all this time. LOL No, actually it has been used more than the rest of the stuff I have. It won't stay level, you are always walking uphill. It kills me to do very little. I think I need a new one. Especially since I am supposed to be walking an hour a day 6 days a week. I went to the New Balance store and got fitted for walking shoes, now I need a new treadmill.

So that's my progress. (I'll let you know when I get my new treadmill.)

The Coast

2010-01-26T10:06:00.002-06:00

Jim and I went to the Coast this past weekend. We did nothing but relax. I scrapped a layout that was due for a challenge on Tallyscrappers. We read (I finally finished the dumb Twight series), watched movies (wore out the Redbox) and basically did nothing. It was very nice. Since I am on liquids, we went to breakfast both mornings at Jim's favorite Mexican restaurant in Rockport. He ate biscuits with sausage gravy and 2 eggs for 4 bucks. I watched. He, like most men, always sits where he can see the door putting me with my back to everything. He decided that he needed to change that as all I had to do was sit and watch him eat. lol So far, it hasn't bothered me at all to see other people eat. I am doing great on my diet. Everything I am supposed to do. I am losing about 1 pound a day. I go to the doctor on Thursday for my 2 week checkup. Hopefully he will tell me that I can take a bath! Showers everyday are killing me. I like to take a bath and relax.
We did go visit Adaline on Sunday before we left. Jim went to the bathroom and she picked up his keyes, walked over to her Mom and said, "Big Daddy's gonna beat your ass", just as plain as day. Do you have any idea how hard that was to keep from laughing? Oh my gosh! Then Jim comes back in the room and Jodi tells him what she said. He said "what did you say?" and she stuck her little behind out at him. OMG! It was so hilarious! He would have killed his kids for that (so would I) but when you are a great grandparent, its funny. By the way, she would only hear that from her grandmother, Jodi. Her parents do not talk to her that way. You would have to know Jodi.
I get to eat baby food in 3 days! Yay!

My 1st test.

2010-01-20T12:32:00.002-06:00

Today is Alice's birthday, a girl I work with here in the office. She is doing WeightWatchers so we tried to make her a point friendly lunch. She asked to have corn beef and cabbage because her Mom always made that for her when she was young. I cooked the corn beef in my crock pot yesterday and chopped cabbage, onion, potato and carrots last night. They cooked all morning in the crock pot in my office. It smelled so good! When everyone sat down for lunch they had spinach and strawberry pecan salad, corned beef and cabbage and a sugar free pudding type dessert. I one the other hand had beef broth and a popsicle. It was so yummy. Everyone was jealous and wanted my lunch. hahahahahaha NOT!
It didn't bother me at all. I was perfectly happy. I took a slice of corned beef and a little bit of cabbage. I am going to vaccum seal them in my food saver and freeze until St. Patrick's Day. By then I will be able eat real food.
I just had to say I am very proud of myself and I am doing great! Besides Saturday I get to have a protien shake and milk. Life is good.

Surgery Done

2010-01-16T17:51:00.003-06:00

I had my lap band surgery Friday, January 15, 2010. I am doing well. Most of the time is spent eating crushed ice. I had a Jello today and had to eat it in 2 different settings. K2O is protein water and I am trying to drink a couple of those each day because your body needs protein. I haven't been hungry at all. Tried to drink broth last night and got a little nauseated. It is going to be one step at a time. I am walking around inside the house like I am supposed to and doing my breathing exercises. Haven't been able to give myself a shot yet. Jim is doing that for me every eight hours. My friend Alice, will probably be giving me the 2 o'clock shot at work. She says she can so I am taking her up on it.
I never realized that I had so many friends. When I woke up yesterday, there was already a post on the message board at Tallyscrappers wondering how I was doing. Friends and relatives have called many times to check on me. I am not ignoring the phone calls, Jim is answering most of them. I just don't feel much like talking right now. I do appreciate everyone's concern. I did talk to my grandson Kaden this morning. He made me feel a lot better. He told his Mom, "Her feels better, a little bit." How could you not feel good with that little guy pulling for you?
I have been truly blessed and I am sure that I will be able to follow this through. I will keep you all posted. Thanks for caring.

Bad News/Good News

2010-01-10T08:06:00.005-06:00

All of the grandchildren except Brady and Kaden. Photo taken 12/20/09.

My lapband surgery was orginally scheduled for 1/15/10. They called me on the 5th after my pre-op doctor's appointments and said they bumped it up to the 8th. At first, I was scared, then I got all excited. They called on the 6th and said the doctor had a family emergency and the surgery would have to be changed back to the 15th. So now I am disappointed and having "buyer's remorse." My insurance doesn't pay for any of this. It is costing me $11000. A girl at work made a good point. "Would you spend the money for Jim to be healthy?" I know we have already spent way more than that for Jim to be healthy with his 11 stints. So I am getting excited again.
The good news is that I am really sticking to my diet. ( They put you on a high protein diet 2 weeks before surgery.) At first I thought, okay an opportunity to eat and drink whatever I like this weekend. But I didn't! I haven't had any wine since last Sunday. I haven't even thought about wanting any, even when Jim drinks a glass. Yesterday while out shopping, I mentioned several restaurants to go to. When Jim asked if I really wanted to go, I said No. I came home and fixed barbeque pizza (which I know isn't diet food but it was my last hoo-ra) ate one piece and tracked my points. I am still putting my points into Weight Watchers Online because I personally think that people on high protein diets sometimes eat too many calories.
I am also trying to teach myself to eat things such as cottage cheese, cream cheese, etc. If you know me well, you know I can not stand the texture of mushy, creamy, gooey stuff. But post-op requires 1 week clear liquids, 2nd week solid liquids, 3rd week mush with no lumps, 4th week mush with lumps and the 5th week I can start trying other foods.
I am excited! I can't wait for next Friday to get here! Now I must go help Jim with the busted water pipe, since the back of the house is flooded. It is COLD in South Texas!

2009-12-28T19:46:00.003-06:00

It has been forever (Halloween) since I posted anything. A lot has happened. I just got home from spending Christmas with my grandsons in MS. PJ is in California visiting his Dad. I saw him on the 20th for our Christmas.
I am seriously considering Lap Band surgery. I have an appointment to see the doctor 1/4/10. I have been overweight since I went through menopause at 42. I really want to do this. I want to be healthy. I want to get in the floor and play with my grandsons. It will not be easy. This is no miracle. I will still have to eat right. I will definately have to exercise, because this 56 yr old body just won't go back like it use to. It is a long, tough road ahead, but I need to do it and I need help. I guess I just want you to know that I am starting a new beginning. Sorry to be so serious. I promise to post Christmas photos soon. Wish me luck!

Halloween

2009-11-04T19:53:00.003-06:00

We spent Halloween in Rockport, TX where our travel trailer is parked. It was beautiful weather. We never turned the AC on in the TT, a rare occasion in TX. Adeline came over in her costume to trick or treat. She looked soooooo cute, but only wore it about 3 minutes. Here is my scrapbook page for her album. I entered it in the Candy Corn challenge on Tallyscrappers.

Thugs....not

2009-10-14T18:35:00.003-05:00

Brady and Kaden posing for the camera. I read about this technique in a magazine a month or so ago. You use chipboard letters with white based cardstock over it and sand the cardstock. I thought it was really cool and worked perfect for some thugs. Round and round challenge on Tallyscrapper.

Survivor at Tally

2009-09-25T11:43:00.002-05:00

Survivor challenges are back at Tallyscrapper. These are so much fun! The challenge is posted on Thursday and you have until the following Wednesday to get your layout done. There is always a little catch in the challenge. This week it was to use something you would need to survive if you were in the middle of nowhere. I used twine and wire. Jim has had to survive in the middle of nowhere and he said to use wire. So, in the tradition of "Save the Fork" at Ciao2, I tried making a fork from wire. NO LAUGHING.

My bff, Kim was here from AR with her boss and a co-worker. We went to Ciao2 for dinner. They were very excited and pleased with Chef Patrick's food. These are the desserts he made for us.

Another one of Adeline.

2009-09-08T18:10:00.003-05:00

This is for the challenge at Scrapfit. I am starting to love this blog because it gives me mojo. It was to use a solid color cardstock, 3 pattern papers, at least 2 photos, 2 different ribbons and a star. The tree is a scrap cut from pp in the layout of William. The most important part of the challenge was hidden journaling, which I never do, but it was fun! It is behind the box cardboard and reads, "Jim reading and Adeline in our new travel trailer. Not sure the little stinker liked it." lol Couldn't really tell by the photo if she was doing thumbs up or thumbs down.

Great Grandson

2009-09-01T21:24:00.002-05:00

Adeline is so cute, but William is alot of competition for her. Here he is at the Zoo in San Antonio. He is so cute! I have only done one other monochromatic layout. It was for a challene on Tallyscrapper and I really didn't know what I was doing. This time it was fun!

2009-08-25T20:38:00.000-05:00

Jim is Home.

2009-08-22T08:14:00.002-05:00

Jim failed his stress test on Tuesday so he had a heart cath on Friday. To our surprise, he didn't get anymore stents. (He already has 11.) The artery that has a blockage is so small, the doctor was afraid that putting a stent in it would cause it to collapse. He thinks it will be okay. The doctor also thinks that I can make Jim quit smoking. HA Today at the hospital was the first time I have ever heard him admit that he does smoke. Even though I know he does. Anyway, he is home and seems to be doing well.

This is what I did while waiting at the hospital. That is the one thing I like about digi scrapping, you can do it anywhere.

Taking our Great Grandaughter to the Beach.

2009-08-19T20:56:00.002-05:00

We took Adeline to the Beach. She had so much fun. My entry for Scrapfit is Adeline with her Big Da. When his first grandson was born, he was 38, so Jonathon called him "Big Daddy", now the rest of the family has taught Adeline to call him Big Daddy. She calls him "DA". I used RED and I used a metal sun brad and metal fish brads.

ABC Baby Book

2009-08-10T20:54:00.000-05:00

A dear friend of mine from Ohio is having her first grandaughter in October. Her daughter, who is also my friend from Tallyscrappers, is having a shower in a couple of weeks. Her Mom put it out there for anyone who wanted to participate, an ABC book. I chose "G" for girl and giggle. These are my 2 pages and I hope she loves them because I had so much fun doing "girly", with apologies to ALL my grandsons.

Scrappy Stuff

2009-08-04T18:47:00.000-05:00

I am working on the many photos that I have to scrap from early June when Kaden and Brady visited Texas. We went camping, to the pool and to Schlitterbaun. then we went back to the pool at Gamma and Popaw's house. These boys love the water. Since Tallyscrapper isn't selling kits at the moment, I bought one from Treasured Scrapbboking and I love it!
Kaden at the Beach in Port Aransas, TX.

Kaden,in the pool with his cousins, at Gamma and Popaw Jim's house.

Cooking Demo

2009-07-25T19:08:00.000-05:00

Today my son, the Chef, did a cooking demonstration at the Pearl Brewery Farmer's Market. He was a little nervous at first but then he started cracking jokes and really got into it. He did a great job and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. I kept giving away my card with the recipes, thinking I could get another and they ran out. So I will have to wait for him to email it to me. It was a cone with tomato salad and cucumber sorbet. It was delicious. I almost didn't taste it because I don't like cucumbers but I am glad I did.

Scrapper's gone Wild!

2009-07-18T10:43:00.000-05:00

I had so much fun at the Tally Rally! Got to meet a lot of people in real life that I had only know from the internet. Scrapped a lot of pages. Drank way too much and stayed up way too late and got up early. I haven't recuperated yet. I scrapped with some of my good friends that I did already know like Joan and Dorothy. I met the Staci Compher irl. She has been published in many magazines. I picked up a new daughter, Nicole and finally met Wanda from my home state. I have to also mention that I met Pinky, because she is such an awesome scrapper. There were so many talented ladies there. It was such an inspiration.

Now, for the WILD part. There were jello shots, henna tatoos and a stripper pole. (No I didn't get on the pole, lol.) They also played games with male body parts on their heads. Jim cooked the best barbeque, ever. It was a lot of fun and for the most part a very good time. I heard after the fact that there was drama, but I was oblivious to it all and really enjoyed myself.

One of the games was called a Round Robin. You picked out a photo and a background paper and passed it around your table. Each Lady had 20 seconds to do something to it. I loved the way both of mine turned out. Here they are:

2009-07-08T09:09:00.000-05:00

Today is the BIG day! Picking up two of my Tally friends at the airport, eating at my son's restaurant and tomorrow heading to the TEXAS TALLY RALLY! I am so excited. I get to meet and scrap with 34 other ladies. Some I have never met IRL. Several of them have been published in magazines. I will post pics when I return sometime next week. There is going to be scrapping, drinking, eating barbeque and cornhole playing. FUN! FUN!

4th of July!

2009-07-05T15:09:00.000-05:00

Britainey (gdd) and Adeline (ggdd) making fish faces.

New travel trailer. 2010 Jayco.

Where has that MS girl been all summer, you ask? We bought a new travel trailer. We are leaving it in Rockport for the summer (and maybe Winter, I hope.) We have been down there almost every weekend. Fishing, going to the beach and swimming in the pool. It is so much fun! For the 4th we just went down there and relaxed. No agenda. Boat show, ate out and spent time with Jody (dd) and Adeline (great grandaughter). Didn't even fight the crowd to see the fireworks, watched movies in our new travel trailer. What a great weekend. Hope you had a happy and safe 4th of July.

How long has it been?

2009-06-10T21:23:00.001-05:00

Tobie, Brady and Kaden visited for 10 days. We went camping at the coast where we went to the beach twice, fished once and went to the pool several times. Last Friday, we went to Schlitterbahn. Brady and Kaden had so much fun! I have scrapped Brady but not Kaden YET. These are photos of the hottest, coolest time in TX.

Birmingham AL

2009-05-18T19:22:00.000-05:00

Getting up at 3am, leaving for the airport at 4:45am. It takes about 50 minutes to get there. Plane leaves at 6:45am. Arrive Bham at 11:30, class starts at noon. It is a training class for our new computer software. Hope I can stay awake. There are 3 of us going. We get home Friday night at 9:48pm. The "guy" in the group rented a Yaris. Does he have any idea how big my suitcase is? Okay it isn't huge, but it won't fit in a Yaris with 2 other bags and 3 people.

There was a second part to the last challenge of Survivor on Tallyscrapper this week. It was to be posted at random with no announcement. I looked for it all weekend and have gotten online today a million times to see if it was there. I am so sad. I can't do it now. I will be in Bham with no scrappy supplies the rest of the week. I am really bummed out. I like to finish what I start.:(

Blackberry Cobbler

2009-05-17T12:53:00.000-05:00

I didn't eat all the blackberries. Made the crust with flour, I can't believe its not Butter Light, Skim milk and Splenda. Put Splenda in the blackberries and yummy. I don't measure anything so can't tell you how much of each. Use your own judgement. Of course, DH had to eat his with ice cream but he doesn't have a weight problem.

Farmer's Market

2009-05-16T14:07:00.000-05:00

Chef PJ at the Farmer's Market buying fresh vegetables for the restaurant.

Jim and I met PJ and his other Chef friends at the grand opening of the Pearl Farmer's Market. It is located behind the old Pearl Brewery. (Side note: I came to San Antonio for a National Jaycee convention in 1981, before PJ was even thought of and we had an event at the Pearl Brewery.) Anyway, it was packed. People eveywhere. We bought Cinnamon pecans, Peach and Pepper Habanero sauce, Pecan peach butter with rum, bread and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. We even got sweet strawberries from Poteet TX. Tomorrow we will be eating fresh green beans, corn and cabbage. Maybe blackberry cobbler for dessert, if I have any left. I can't stop eating them.

After that, Jim and I went to Sam's and bought my Mother's Day present. A 22' hdtv with a built in dvd player for my Scraproom! I am excited.

Headed to the Coast

2009-05-08T13:55:00.000-05:00

Now, that my Mother is gone home I can relax at the Coast for MY Mother's Day. We are going to leave our travel trailer there, in hopes of going more often. We think if we don't have to set it up and break it down eveytime, we can just get in the car and go when we want to. I am really hoping it works out that way.

2009-05-06T20:30:00.000-05:00

My Mom is home safely. I am glad but feel a little guilty about that. I got a message tonight and came home and scrapped. the ultimate relaxation! I don't think my Mom realized that if I could have scrapped for 30 minutes everyday after work, I would have been much easier to live with. I did the Art Journal prompt for "I" which is Imagine, tonight and all I could think of is imagine life without scrapping. I must be addicted.

OMG Great grand daughter!

2009-04-27T21:28:00.000-05:00

My sweet Adeline! GGD is almost 18 mos old.

Is she not the cutest Chick ever?!!!!!

Adeline

2009-04-24T11:56:00.000-05:00

Headed to the Coast after work today. Taking my Mother to Corpus Christi. Hopefully, we will get to see Adeline, our first great grandchild. It has been a long time since I got pictures of her and she is so cute. Can't wait to get some that I can scrap.

Tally Time

2009-04-22T14:59:00.000-05:00

Some of the food.

My Tally friends.

Christine, the Top Tally.

I haven't posted in a while because my Mother has been at my house and does not like for me to scrap or get on the computer. She wants my undivided attention. And she is driving me crazy! Everyday, I hear, "I want to go home." She knew when I bought the plane ticket, she would be here 3 weeks.
We are taking her to Corpus Christi this weekend. She is pretty excited about that. She loves Corpus Christi and it has probably been 10 years since she has been there.
Went to dinner at Ciao2 on Saturday. Got to meet Christine, who is the Top Tally, owner of Tallyscrapper. Saw my friends Dorothy and Marty again. Also, met another Tallyscrapper, Jen. We will all be going to the TX Tally Rally in July, so it was nice to meet them ahead of time. We had wonderful food, cooked by Chef Patrick. Everyone was impressed. We took a photo in front of the FORK, which is a piece of art in front of the restaurant.
Getting a message tonight, and can't wait.

You will never believe what I did.

2009-04-06T18:35:00.000-05:00

I EXERCISED TONIGHT! Oh man, could my body tell that I haven't gotten up off my butt for sometime now. I am tired of waking up at 4am with leg cramps and having to walk around to work them out. So, I told myself and the girls at work that I could NOT sit in my scrap chair until I exercised. I did my Walk Away the Pounds DVD and I walked a whole mile. Now, I just need to tell myself this everyday. Wish me luck!

Cyber Crop

2009-04-05T12:26:00.000-05:00

Jason, being a monkey at Aunt Jennifer's house. This one is digi. Brady. I don't know who he is yelling at but glad it is not me.

Kaden when he was a sick little guy and wanted to play.

Okay, I am still new at this blogging thing. That was Kaden at his G Daddy's house in CA being measured for the first time on the Wall of Tall. I called it Sizing up the Little Guy.

Cyber Crop

2009-04-05T12:21:00.000-05:00

Tallyscrapper had a cyber crop this weekend. I called in to the radio show and talked to several people that I haven't met in person yet, but I will at the TX TallyRally in July. Here are a few of the challenges I finished.

My Mother is Coming.

2009-03-31T08:17:00.000-05:00

My Mom is coming to visit. I will be going to visit the grandchildren for Easter. My Mom is coming home with me and staying for 3 weeks. She has Dementia. She was excited that she is getting to come, but she says she can't stay because Texas is too hot for her. She takes blood thinners so I really don't think she gets HOT anymore, but we will see. I am really looking forward to spending time with her. I hope she is able to enjoy her stay. She is 82 and not walking very well. But I plan to have her on the go while she is here.

Photos from the Event

2009-03-30T18:26:00.000-05:00

Sour Cherry Glazed Pork Belly

2009-03-30T17:40:00.001-05:00

Chef Patrick Edwards took 3rd place in the Taste of Elegance competition in San Antonio. This competition was sponsored by the National Pork Association. 13 Chefs from the finest dining in San Antonio entered. It was Chef Patrick's first event. It was a night of some of the finest pork you will ever taste. The event was held in the Heritage Room at St. Phillips College. St. Phillips has an excellent culinary program and I would recommend it to anyone interested in this fine art. Patrick attended St. Phillips College. Only a few of the Chefs who entered were St. Phillips graduates. He faired very well among those Chefs who have attended other Culinary Schools.

2009-03-29T18:53:00.000-05:00

I am getting it a little bit at a time. Thanks to my Tally friends who are more than willing to help an old lady out.

2009-03-29T16:14:00.000-05:00

Thank you Tobie! I love this!

Work in Progress

2009-03-29T16:03:00.001-05:00

I'm setting this blog up to help mom get started in the blogging world. Please excuse us as this is a work in progress!
Thanks,
Tobie