Thanks, Guys

Our event was spectacular - maybe the best EVER!!

I wore the dress I spoke about yesterday - got lots of compliments and felt very SPECIAL. Everything about the event was good from the fabulous red fish stuffed with lump crab and rock shrimp, ("yes, any leftovers I'd be happy to take home,",) to the LIVE auction, (yes, it's what you're thinking) that I helped run, to the two fantastic speakers. I'll talk more about the speakers in a minute. Between the auction items, which included some fancy camoflouge rifle, Axis deer meat, and an Axis hunting weekend, God bless Texas, we hopefully raised lots of money to help women who find themselves in a crisis pregnancy situation.

I mentioned there were two speakers. The first was a beautiful young actress who played a role in the movie October Baby. She has a very powerful testimony and it was amazing that she was willing to stand before a crowd of 450 strangers and be so honest. I'm so thankful to have heard her.

The second speaker was a retired army Lieutant Colonel who was instrumental in hunting and capturing Saddam Hussein. With the event being on September 11th and the Lt. Colonel as the keynote speaker, our theme, of course, was patriotic. So, here we are seated among neighbors, red, white & blue decor, a HUMONGOUS American flag as the platform backdrop, listening to a true American patriot give intricate details of the capture of one of the world's most notorious dictators. To say that we were all on the edges of our seats would be a huge understatement. I think some of the men were even sweating and salivating.

The Lt. Colonel was a precious man and a very gifted speaker. But, one of his statements toward the end of his speech troubled me greatly. He said the military has been asked over the years to carry out these nearly impossible missions, not unlike capturing Hussein. But once these missions have been completed successfully, the military is met with cynicism, criticism, and disdain.

Now, I was not completely ignorant to this public opinion by any means. But, I guess hearing the Lt. Colonel speak about his most famous mission, THEN hearing those words come out his mouth was completely different. I actually felt ashamed. Not because I personally feel that way, it's quite the contrary, but just that ANYONE would have this attitude toward men and women who CHOOSE everyday to put themselves on the front lines of danger to ensure our freedom and the freedom of those who are unable to obtain it themselves.

I don't want to get into a huge public debate here, that's not what this blog is for. But, my take is this: no matter which side of the political machine you're on, I think it's important for us to remember that these people, our military men and women, sacrifice so much for us. For them to come home and not be honored just makes me sad. Regardless of whether we all agree on the war on terrorism or not, these are still men and women- PEOPLE- who, like all of us, are just doing their jobs. Except THEIR jobs could cost them their lives.

The Lt. Colonel, as I mentioned, is now retired, after 21 years of military service. Besides speaking, he founded an organization to help veterans successfully return to civilian life. He wants to provide them with the honor they deserve after the sacrifices they've made. And I want to do that same thing.

So, to all you military men and women out there, 11 years after our nation was changed forever AND in the wake of the assassination of a US Ambassador, I want to say thanks. I honor you, am grateful for you, and my prayers are with you all.

Does the Dress Make the Woman or the Woman Make the Dress

I have an event tomorrow night.

It's a gala for a local crisis pregnancy center that I volunteer for. It's one of my favorite organizations and the gala is always a fabulous event each year. It's a lot of WORK, because one of my best friends has been the event coordinator for the past few years and always asks me to help. I really enjoy working with her. I've always said that she and I are like peanut butter & jelly-very different skill sets, but, togther we are great!

So, as we've been meeting, planning, decorating, etc., guess what burning question still remains unanswered: What am I going to wear?

The event itself, being a "gala" and all, has traditionally been a fairly dressy event. But like so many events in the past few years, whether it's a fund raiser or an event at the theater, things are much more casual nowadays. Have you noticed that?

Actually, for some people, that realization might be a relief. But for me, it complicates things. Especially since I'm helping to give the event, you know? I mean, do I dress WAY up, making it clear that I am helping with the event or do I dress down a little and blend in? In my opinion, the dressing down , "blending in," is harder than dressing up. I think there is an art to dressing down and still looking put together. An art that I'm not sure I master all the time, I'm sad to say.

So, it really comes down to one question: Do I wear something I already have, one of several outfits that would work, or do I use this event as an excuse to buy something new?

Early on, I had decided I really NEEDED something new, knowing full well that I really don't. What's that about, anyway?

My take is that, as women, when we're going to something special, we want to "feel" special, too. And what makes us feel more special than a new outfit? Hmm...there may be something, but I sure can't think of it at the moment. Or, it could be that I just like to shop and love clothes. Uh-huh, a definite possibility.

Well, you'll be happy to know that I decided yesterday to wear a dress I already have. It's one of my favorite dresses, a Michael Kors dress that I got for a great price at one of his outlet stores. And, by the way, I do feel special in it!

Please leave a comment today, if you don't mind. I'm trying to fix the settings to where everyone can comment, even without a Google account. Thanks!

What's your take?

The Weekend with a Little Paint

This weekend was really a good one. Well, all except for the football part.

Now, the band was great! The Snake Pit, this super band group Son is a part of, was amazing! I'll try to post a video before Friday. The actual football part of the football game...yeah, pretty awful. The score was 45-0 by HALFTIME. One guess as to who had the 0. Oh, well, there's always next week...God, help us...

Then last night I went on a date with Hubby. We did a little shopping, went out to eat, then to see the movie, The Words. It was a great movie! It was about a writer, so, of course, I couldn't wait to see it. I'm not going to give the plot away, but a struggling writer finds a manuscript. Plus, it's kind of a story within a story. Anyway, it was well done and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

After church, we ate with friends at a new seafood restaurant. Then, came the painting part. If you've read my posts about the hurricanes, you know that we had lots of damage to our house and even did some extra painting. Part of that painting sort of...never got completely finished (that's the most polite way I can think of to say it.)

Personally, I was looking forward to hanging out on the couch this afternoon and watching the Jane Doe marathon on the Hallmark movie channel. After all, Sunday IS the day of rest, is it not? So, I turn on the TV, grab my favorite blanket, and am just getting all nestled in, when Hubby appears in his "painting attire." He has painting attire, you ask? Oh, yes! It consists of a white button-down shirt and khaki pants, with about 25 years worth of paint stains on them.

So, immediately, I'm faced with a dilemma: do I continue with my plan of marathon movie afternoon, or do I at least OFFER to help Hubby? It's not that I even mind painting, because I don't. But, sometimes, Hubby can be less than patient when it comes to these kinds of things and the last thing I wanted was to end the weekend with an argument.

Still, Hubby is SO BUSY right now at work, that for him to take this time to work on the house was a very nice gesture. I knew it would mean a lot to him for me to offer my help. So, I decided to bite my lip and offer to help. About 3 hours later, we were finished and Hubby was very excited that "it hadn't taken long at all." hmm...are you talking to me?

My take is this: in marriage, sometimes it's important to lay aside our best-laid plans to help out the one we love. Even though I didn't get my "day of rest," I was able to show my husband that I am willing to pitch in and help him when he needs me. And that makes me feel pretty good.

So, I'd say it's been a successful weekend, here on the home front. AND, as if some sort of reward, all the Jane Doe movies I missed while painting, I've already seen. God loves me!!

What's your take?

Fun Friday: Game Night Edition

Well, MY weekend fun has already begun!

Yesterday was my dad's 74th birthday - sorry, Daddy, I have to be truthful on my blog. For his birthday, we met some family and friends at a restaurant called Larry's French Market and Cafeteria. It's Cajun food, AMAZING, with a semi-live band (last night it was this one guy playing a few different instruments and singing...I'm pretty sure he was alive.) We had a fantastic time. I did a little line dancing - love that!! And danced with Hubby, Mother with Father...a good time was had by all...

Tonight it's off to another high school football game. As mentioned in earlier posts, Son is in the band, and, after being beaten 20 - 0 last week, all I can say is I'm looking forward to hearing and seeing the band. Go, Raiders, all the same...whatever...

Then, tomorrow night, we're going to an "End of Summer" bash for church. Now, the thing about "end of summer" is that the end of summer seems to last until...oh, around Halloween. Nevertheless, this bash does involve food, fellowship, fun, AND a swimming pool. So, I say, "Bring on the end of summer!"

Now, if you're not having an "End of Summer" bash, going to a Cajun restaurant for a birthday party, or sitting in the 100 degree heat watching your son march, why not have some family/friends over for a game night? You don't have any good games, you say? No problem! I happen to have a couple of GREAT suggestions:

Qwirkle - this is a game that is super fun! You match different colored/shaped tiles together to make a "Qwirkle" - 6 tiles in a row. It's for ages 6 and up, so it's great for the whole family. There is a little strategy involved, but it doesn't use up very much of your brain power - I mean, you are playing with shapes.

Yahtzee Free-for-All - this is a new spin on the old classic game, Yahtzee. It is played with dice, but also with a gameboard and cards. 3 cards are displayed at once, showing possible Yahtzee combinations and the spin is, these are the only combinations you can go for during that turn. There's also "stealing of your opponents' cards" involved, which my sister-in-law loves! It's great fun!

To go along with your game night, today's recipe is for a party food - the ever popular dip. Now this dip is.....uh, FABULOUS and so EASY, two very important words to describe any dip. I've made this so many times and no only do people eat it ALL up, it's tremendously fun for me to listen to them try to figure out what's in it. So, try it and watch the people flock to your game night! Have a great weekend, see you on Monday!

Baked Onion Dip

Ingredients:
1 bag frozen onions
3 8oz cartons cream cheese
1 C Parmesan cheese
1/2 C Mayonnaise

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together and pour into a square or round Pyrex dish or stone cookware dish
Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until bubbly, and starting to brown on top
Serve hot with pita chips or crackers

Refrigerator...ah, Sweet Progress

I got a new refrigerator this week.

It's amazing how excited one can get over something new, isn't it? And it's a NICE refrigerator, OK? I mean, it has every bell and whistle known in the refrigerator galaxy. It's almost intimidating, know what I mean?

In our defense, here's our refrigerator story...

Before purchasing this ultra-refrigerator, we owned 2 very sub-ultra refrigerators. The one in the kitchen had been mine, before marrying Hubby, and I bought it in 1994. For those of you who need a little help, that makes this refrigerator 18 years old. Now it works, OK, but not well. The light was burned out inside (never could figure out how to change the bulb), so you can't really see anything inside. You just kind of have to feel around until you think you've found what you were looking for and hope for the best. Also, it's 22 Cubic Feet...for those of you who don't know refrigerator lingo (I only do because of my recent purchase), the best way for me to translate is SMALL!! Another issue is that this refrigerator is apparently tired of closing all the way. This can be an unfortunate discovery in the morning when you "open" it and realize it was already open and everything inside is lukewarm - and we all know what the Bible says about things that are lukewarm...moving on to sub-ultra frig 2...

This refrigerator was Hubby's frig, and guess what? He doesn't remember how old it is...yeah. It has its own set of issues, like not closing well (see above), this seems to be a common "disease" among old refrigerators, and the drawers don't open and close right anymore. And, most important of all, it's SUPER SMALL. So, all of this led us to making our recent big purchase.

After a couple of weeks of frig research (after the several months of discussion), we decided on this beautfiul stainless, Kenmore ELITE frig. Now, I don't know about you, but words are important to me, so when I saw ELITE written on the front of this frig, I was sold. I mean, who doesn't like ELITE, am I right? But, I was even more in love after checking it out. It's 31 Cubic Feet. Translation: BIG!!! It's laid out so that I can actually see everything on each shelf AND the light works so well that it's a little blinding.

It also has a brand new ice maker/water system that is supposed to be this cutting edge technology or something. All I know is that when I press the water button, water comes out - and I like that! I remember growing up and going over to certain "rich" friends' houses who had the little water thing on the front and just thinking they must be millionaires...the innocence of youth and all that...

Anyway, I really do love my new frig and am very thankful to have it. I'm even turning over a new leaf: I'm going to try and clean out my new frig EVERY WEEK!! Emphasis on the TRY. Check out the picture below.

My take is that sometimes it's the little things in life, like getting a new appliance, that help us to keep going. It just helps us somehow to keep working at being the best we can be and realizing that life is really good. I mean, I have a water doo-hicky, I must be a millionaire, right?

What's your take?

Mowing Woes

I had to mow again.

It seems that between our family's social engagements and marching band practice, there is just no time this week for Son to do it. And, of course, I'm the likely replacement. Lucky me.

To make matters worse, it's the backyard that really needs to be mowed. The thing about the backyard is that it's huge, the land is uneven, thanks to losing trees during hurricanes, and the grass is splotchy in many areas. Now for some this would not be a problem. But for me, it is.

Son can mow the backyard in about 1.5 hours. I have no idea how. It usually takes me at least 2 hours, and that's if I don't have to stop to use the restroom. It's a huge undertaking for me, one that I am never truly prepared for.

I try to be positive when I start out. This is great exercise, I tell myself. After all it's a PUSH MOWER (see Small Town Fashion). If I get started early, it won't be too hot and I can finish quick. Except...no, it never really works out that way.

It takes only about 20 minutes for me to remember why I hate mowing the backyard. I'm already sweating to the point of dehydration and mowing over the same areas 5 times because I can't tell where I've already been. I'm so focused on trying to tell where I have and haven't mowed, I forget to watch out for the massive ANT COMPOUNDS, plural, we have in our backyard. So, now, I'm doing the ant dance and still unsure of where I have mowed. Repeat this process over and over again and you get just a glimpse of my mowing reality.

About an hour in, my legs are on fire from all the ants, I have shin splints from pushing the mower up the hilly part of the yard, and I'm light headed from lack of hydration. I'm just thinking to myself that I'm sure this is one of the ways people are tortured in hell, when I realize, I have to use the restroom.

Now the dilemma: if I turn off the mower to use the restroom, will I be able to start it again? How close am I to finishing, can I wait? These are important questions. My push mower is older than Son and not the easiest machine to use. I have to prime it, oh, 80 or so times just to start it at the beginning. Restarting it is even worse.

What to do, what to do? I finally decide, no I cannot wait to use the restroom, I have way too much mowing left to do, and having to restart the mower will build my faith AND my prayer life.

After about 2 hours and 15 minutes, I finally finished mowing the backyard. Hallelujah, pass the Advil.

Tomorrow: mowing the front yard. And the hits just keep on comin'!

Labor Day Weekend: Dawn of the Grill

I hope you had a great Labor Day weekend. It IS the last holiday until Thanksgiving break, you know. Unless you count Halloween, and I don't, because you really don't get any time off, know what I mean?

Anyway, my Labor Day weekend was, for the most part, almost perfect! I mentioned that I was going to have C, my granddaughter, all weekend. We had the BEST time ever! We painted toe nails, shopped, cooked, and did all kinds of girly things. Plus, Son, as you can see from the picture, agreed to spending the day with us, so I got the best of both worlds. Even though I adore Son, and I secretly wanted a boy the whole time I was pregnant with him, it's really fun to have a little girl around nowadays. Plus, it makes up for the fact that I had yet another really weird dream last night. I dreamt I was "with child." Yes, I know...

It was one of those dreams that was so real that, when I woke up, I had to run down my medical history and convince myself that I really did have a hysterectomy back in 2008. So, unless any of you have seen a star in the East, I won't be having another baby. I.HAVE.NOT seen the star...

On Sunday afternoon, we went back to Warren (see All in the Family.) This time my parents came along, plus one of my sisters-in-law and her fmaily. We had a great time. We played games, caught fish, and did lots of cooking. There was SOME of the regular chopping and burning going on, but no mowers stuck in the mud this time.

There were a few challenging moments for me, however. Hubby bought a charcoal grill to keep at Warren. We do a lot of grilling in our family and decided that a grill would make the Clark Griswold experience at Warren complete. I was all for the purchase. The putting together part was unexpected...

It seemed that Hubby got the grill out of the suburban, placed it on the patio, boxes open, then went fishing with C. We then found out that my niece had to be back in Houston by around 4pm, so we were going to have to eat earlier than Hubby expected. With the baby back ribs marinating, my sis-in-law, E, decided to take matters into her own hands and "we" were going to put the grill together. Guess who part of the "we" was? Yeah, that'd be me...

Now, I am creative in a lot of ways: I'm musical, I'm a good storyteller, but I am NOT mechanical. Look, I'm not even VISUAL. So the news that I have to help put ANYTHING together is never GOOD news. Plus, remember, it's 150 degrees outside. Always a factor...

So, I'm panicking a little, because E is really good at putting things together and she even LIKES to do it. I'm thinking, do I admit to her that I can't even read a map well or just let it be a surprise? I went with the last choice.

Actually, in the beginning it went pretty well. For about the first 5 minutes. Then we realized that the nuts didn't want to go on the screws. I tried about 5 then, finally got a nut to go easily onto its screw. Yay, me!! So, I say, "Hey, this one worked!" Now, I'm a nut put-it-on-er expert. I put screws and nuts in every hole I could find. Even some that weren't supposed to have that kind of screw. So, yeah, we had to take a few out. But, my victory would not allow me to be discouraged, and on we trudged.

We had a great system. E would read the instructions, translate into regular English, then tell me what to do (Yes, it was a 3-step process, just like in the remedial class.) After a few minutes my mother-in-law ventures out to see how we're doing. When she sees that no one is bleeding and no one was yelling, she calls for my mother to come on out. Apparently, the coast was clear.

After about 30 minutes, lots of holes had screws in them, but the grill was still in pieces. Along comes E's husband, J. J asked what we're doing. Well, I felt like it was pretty obvious that we were putting a grill together, but maybe not. So, J starts "helping." Uh-huh. Then, after about 15 more minutes, the fish had stopped biting and there was nothing left to burn, so here come ALL the other men. Just what we needed.

So, Hubby comes up and gets his electric drill out, all fancy and everything, AFTER I now have blisters on my fingers from twisting strong-willed nuts onto screws for almost an hour. My job had just been taken over by a machine. Now, we're all "helping" to put together the grill.

After about an hour, here's the scene: E and I are still trying to work our system of her reading the directions and telling me what to do. Except now Hubby and J look at the directions over our shoulders, call out crazy numbers of bit sizes and hand ME the drill to "drill" the nuts on. Yeah...

After another 15 minutes or so, I look up, in between drilling, and see ALL of the parental units sitting on the patio, about 3 feet from us, drinking lemonade, watrching us with in utter amusement. Here we are, sweating like pigs, passing the instructions around, while they gawk.

At one point, Father says, "Well, Baby, I didn't know you could put things together." Uh-huh. I manage to smile sweetly and say, "Oh, yes, Dad, I'm just full of surprises." (I've only been married 4.5 years, my in-laws still think I'm sweet.) Then Father says, "Hey could you hold the drill again? I want to get another picture." Sure, Dad, I want to say; I'll hold the drill. I can do all kinds of things with this drill. But, I just smiled at him with my best "knock it off already" smile and he just laughed his head off. Yeah, real funny...

Anyway, we finally got the dumb grill put together and had our yummy lunch.

My take is that we're always going to find ourselves in those situations that we know are not our forte in life. For me, it's definitely reading maps/instructions and putting things together. I don't care what anyone says, I believe there are just some things that men are still more inclined to do than women. I mean, I can do it if I have to, but I would also jump out of an airplane if I HAD to. That doesn't mean it's on my to-do list.

What's your take?