Lunch with Old Friends

Me & Alicia (I changed clothes after letting our dogs in!)

Aunt Melissa, Christylee, Lily

Tonia, Christylee, Lily

Aunt Melissa and Lily (I got her to go to sleep for a bit!)

Tonia & Lily

Saturday our "Birthday Buddies" met for lunch. Alicia will be moving to the northwest part of the state so we all wanted to get together before she left. We ate lunch at Dixie Cafe and came back to our house for dessert. We made brownie sundaes of course! It was a good time. We'll miss ya Alicia...but you aren't that far away for a visit...besides Bentonville has a great scrapbook store!!!

And the Ortho Man Says....

"You are really getting there!" with excitement. I'm thinking....."No, I want to be there already!!! It's been since August 1st!" He tells me to wear the boot if I am going to be standing and walking long distances. Somewhere between now and December 11th when I go back he wants me to start the whole wearing a tennis shoe at home thing. It's a little sore today from the X-ray so we'll see if I start that this afternoon. I did talk to the X-Ray Technician today....he said in the 38 years he's been doing that, he has only seen 5 of the Sesamoid Fractures....me being the 5th one! Isn't that wonderful???

So for now....I have new heel cups for comfort in my boot up to my knee. I just wish I knew what the Lord was really trying to teach me in these 4 months with a fractured bone. I know I needed to slow down some...but 4 months worth? I'm guessing He thinks that idea took some time to sink in! He does have a sense of humor!

What's for Dinner tonight?

Paula Deen's Swiss Steak. I cannot wait for Luke to get home so we can eat. This stuff (yes I had to sample some sauce) is so good! And Easy!!! Yes, this time I did follow the exact recipe...shocked huh! We are having mashed taters and green beans with it. Ya'll should try this one!

Paula Deen's Swiss Steak

Ingredients
1 round steak (approximately 1 1/2 pounds), see note...its cubed steak!
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and pepper
All-purpose flour, for dusting
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (14-1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 medium onion, cut into strips
1 medium bell pepper, cut into strips
Directions
Cut steak into serving-size pieces. Season, to taste, with garlic powder and salt and pepper. Dust meat with flour. In heavy skillet, brown both sides of meat in vegetable oil. Transfer to Dutch oven. Combine garlic, tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, and 1 tomato-can measure of water. Pour over steak and simmer over low heat until meat is tender, about 1 1/2 hours adding water, if necessary to keep meat partially covered. Season, to taste, with additional salt and pepper. Hint: Cook this in a slow-cooker, according to manufacturers instructions, on low for a most fabulous dinner. Low heat on a slow cooker is about 200 degrees F and high heat on a slow cooker is about 300 degrees F.
Note: to ensure tenderness, it is necessary to have the butcher run the round steak through a cuber.

Ok, this one has NO pictures!

I can't believe I'm even going to blog about what happened to Luke and me last night, but I am! I heard a funny noise before the air conditioner kicked on yesterday. I didn't really think anything about it because with all our animals...there are always strange noises! When the air finally kicked on, Madison started smelling where it was blowing in our bedroom. I figured she has just noticed the plug ins...but boy was I wrong!

When Luke got home I kept hearing a squeaking noise coming from the air conditioner closet. He figured the motor was going out...and of course all I could see were dollar signs! He (being a wonderful handy man) took the air conditioner apart. I then heard him scream like a girl (well, not really like a girl but close)! He says, "there's a mouse in our squirrel cage!" At first I'm thinking, what's a squirrel cage...then my brain hears the word Mouse! "What!!!" I am now screaming like a little girl and won't put my foot on the floor!

Luke took the whole thing outside and disposed of poor Mr. Mouse. He died a cruel and rather beating death. We have no idea how a mouse ended up in our air conditioner other than we moved stuff around in the attic and it upset him.

Now, I'm thinking, I can't believe I just told everyone this. First of all....I keep a clean house...just to make that clear! And second of all, when we got all the Christmas down we saw no signs of a mouse! And third, we have 2 cats (one that used to be wild) and there is no way we could have mice!!!! But just in case, I'm going to walmart to take care of that little problem in the attic.

So, just because you may clean house 3 times a week...doesn't mean a little mice won't end up in your air. Can you imagine what would have happened if the heater kicked on? I don't want to think about that at all!!!

Marty's Wedding

This past weekend Luke and I went to Marty's wedding. We all still can't believe Marty actually got married! Joe was the Best Man, Nick-the middle man, and they considered Luke the worst man. It was a nice and simple wedding with a few surprises thrown in. The guys all looked so handsome in their tuxes! I even had to help some with their clothing....men! It was a blast...I haven't laughed that hard in a while!

We decorated Marty's car with toilet paper and clothes from his suitcase he had packed in the car. The guys threw in some other surprises that I didn't take pics of...you can only imagine. While at the wedding my simple black ortho shoe broke! The bottom broke in to and the stuffing came out. So now I'm walking in my big boot again. Oh well....I go to see Dr. Walsh on Monday to find out what to do.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

This is how Madison decorates the tree

Our living room tree

When Luke starts giggling I know he does something strange....

Luke's favorite ornament...I hate that movie!!!!

Me adding ornaments

My Gingerbread Men (they have even moved into the kitchen!)

The dogs tree

The guestroom tree

My Christmas Angel (actually it's the Christmas tree skirt I made when we lived in the apartment 4 years ago....who would have thought it would match our furniture now perfectly!!!)

Luke and Madison

All last week I really worked hard to get the Christmas up inside our house. It took me all week to do that! Friday night (Halloween) as tradition, Luke and I decorated our living room tree. I put on some Christmas PJ's even though it was hot outside and we had the air conditioner on...oh well! We listened to Christmas music (the Carpenters and Bing Crosby) and got all our ornaments put on the tree. I'm so happy to have it all up! Sunday afternoon, we actually put up the outside ornaments too. Now all that is left is the reindeer outside and our icicle lights. And yes, we have them plugged in so everyone can see! We love Christmastime...there is no better season to celebrate! I still need to take pics of the Kitchen and our bedroom tree...so I'll do that later.. Enjoy these for now!

Lily's 2nd Photo Shoot

Christylee and I did Lily's 2nd Photo Shoot on Halloween. We had a blast as usual. I can't believe how big she's getting! It's such a neat feeling to be an Aunt!