Fun with Friends

Raechel and her friend Olivia went shopping. It was a blast, we had a great time with lots of laughs!

Corn Bread for Two

1cup of Martha White corn meal(self rising)
3/4cup buttermilk
1Tbsp. sugar
4Tbsp. bacon drippings
1 egg
Mix corn meal,buttermilk,sugar,and egg. Melt bacon drippings in small skillet in 500 oven. Pour drippings in batter and stir thoroughly. Pour batter into hot skillet; bake at 500 for 10 to 15 minutes.
~Hope you like!!

Pasta Primavera

I thought this sounded great so here it is!!!


makes: 6 servings
prep: 20 minutes
cook: 14 minutes



1/2 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces

1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces

2 sweet orange peppers, cored, seeded & cut into 1/4 inch strips

1 pound spaghetti

3/4 cup half & half

3/4 cup chicken broth

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon of black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 tablespoons olive oil

5 cloves garlic, sliced

2 cups grape tomatoes, halved

1/3 cup grated Parmesan

1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped shaved Parmesan, optional

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add asparagus and green beans; cook 4 mins. Add peppers and cook 1 more min. Scoop veggies with large slotted spoon and place in a colander. Rinse under cold water.

2. Add pasta to boiling water and cook following package direction, about 9 min. Drain; return pot.

3. While pasta is cooking, place Half and Half, chicken broth, salt, pepper and nutmeg in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat.

4. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and garlic and cook 30 sec. Add cooked veggies and tomatoes. Cook, stirring a few times, about 1 min, 30 secs. Spoon into pasta pot. Stir grated cheese into the Half and Half mixture. Add to pasta & gently stir in parsley until all ingredients are combined. Allow to stand for 5 mins. Shave Parmesan on top, if desired.

* I have never made this before so tell me how it is. Hope you enjoy!!

Pagaent

Raechel was in her 1st pagaent tonight. She was absolutely beautiful. We were so proud of how she carried herself and the way she was with her friends. We are very excited to say that she won Miss Queen of Hearts for 5th Grade!!! Way to go Raechel. We are very proud of you!!!

Christmas 2009

It was a wonderful Christmas this year. We were surrounded by family & friends. We had alot going on. Raechel & Nathan both were in a church Christmas program. Nathan sang and Raechel did Human video with sticks and also ballet. It was called "Happy Birthday Jesus". They both did a wonderful job and we are very proud of them. Also, Nathan was in the 3rd Grade Christmas program at MES. He was an elf. He had several speaking parts and I was just amazed watching him. This was the child that a few years ago would not even go on the stage to sing at church. We are so very proud of his accomplishments. We also had Christmas with our family. Christmas Eve breakfast with my family and Christmas Eve night with Davids mom & family. The kids got alot of great presents and we had alot of great laughs and memories. David was off for Christmas Eve and Christmas this year. This was the 1st time since the kids have been alive. They were very excited to have Daddy with them all day. Then Christmas morning arrived. Lots of fun stuff. Elves, presents snacks and visits from our family for lunch. It was a wonderful & most memorable Christmas. Most of all gracious hearts to our Lord and Savior for his birth and our saving grace.

1st Gingerbread House

Tonight we made our 1st Gingerbread House ever. It was a lot of fun!! Messy but fun!! The kids enjoyed icing it putting candy on it and adding their own little touches. Mom helped as well. I had icing all over the table and me. I am not sure what they enjoyed more, building it or eating the icing. What great memories we will have of this Christmas!!!!

Thanksgiving/Black Friday - 11/27/09

Well I cannot believe that it is this time of year again. I love Thanksgiving. It is probably my favorite Holiday. I love being together with my family. We had a great time again this year. We ate lunch with GG and supper with Nanny & Pop. We celebrated as well with all of our siblings and their kids. We are such a blessed nation. God has blessed both sides of our families so much. We are all so thankful to be together again this year.

As for Black Friday - I was sooo exhausted.!!!! Myself, my sister and my mom went shopping together on Black Friday. We headed out around 3:30 a.m. and shopped literally until we dropped around 3:00 p.m. We stopped only for minutes to get a Starbucks coffee & cider around 5:30 and then around 12:30 we stopped for lunch at Olive Garden. One of all of our favorite restuarants. We had a wonderful day together!! Looking forward to going again next year. Oh BTW, we did find some really great deals if you are interested in that. However, the time we spend together meant much more!!!! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Twirling Time

Raechel loves Baton more and more each year. This will be her 3rd year of Twirling. We are very proud of her and her accomplishments. She has twirled in parades, recitals & fall festivals. Here are a couple of pics of her performing at the Margaret Day of Friendship.

Baseball Time

This year Nathan has played alot of baseball. We really enjoy watching him play. He is such the little athlete. We played Spring, All-Stars, Fall & Fall Travel Ball. We have been very busy with it. Glad to say that we are off for the next couple of months. We all needed a well deserved break. Here is a couple pics of our little All-Star!!!

Raechels New Doo!!!

Today we went to get Raechel a new haircut. She decided that she wanted alot of hair cut off, so this is what she came up with. I think she looks adorable!! What a beautiful sweet girl I have.

Muffin Mix Pancakes

New recipe - Tried this on Wednesday morning. Easy as pie and yummy to eat!!

Martha White Muffin Mix
Milk

Mix your muffin mix (any flavor) with a little more milk than it says on the package. You want your consistency to be thinner than muffin batter. It should be easy to pour out onto your griddle. This makes great flavored Pancakes!!!! YUMMY!!!!

Let me know what you think after you try it. :)

Exciting Day in my Business

Well today was a very exciting morning. Slept in - overslept - was in a rush and signed a girl up under me in Premier Jewelry Designs all between the times of 8:50-9:30. It was a wild and crazy morning but a great morning. Sounds like a usual day, well the overslept and rushing part anyway. Looking forward to helping my "1st child" in Premier start her business off the right way. Please pray that I will continue to do well in my business!! Hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday - Will post again later on this week.

I'm Back!!!

I wanted to let everyone know that I have not died and went to heaven. I have just been out of pocket for awhile. I am very excited to say that I am back to blogging at least one time a week hopefully. I do miss sharing with my friends what is going on in our lives.
Right now school is going great for both Raechel & Nathan. They love their classes and teachers and so do we. Nathan is playing baseball and Raechel is still twirling with Sidelines. They are both enjoying their extra curricular lives. We love watching them excel in all that they do. We are very proud of both of them. David is working a lot and we are so thankful for his job and the way that he has been able to provide for our family. I lost my job at the end of last year and started subbing again this year. I just could not stay away from those kids. I love it!!!
I guess the most exciting thing going on with me is that I have started selling Premier Jewelry and absolutely love it!!! It by far is the best home show business to work for. I usually do several parties a week. It is so much fun to meet new people and serve them through my business. Premier is a faith based company and a percentage of its sales goes to mission work. You know I am lovin that!! Enough about me - I will be posting some recipes, pictures and other stuff as soon as I can get my pictures to download. Please check out the blog weekly.
Have a great week!!!

Spring Break 2009

What a wonderful Spring Break we had. We traveled to Gatlinburg TN. We had wonderful weather and a great time. We played at Ober Gatlinburg, rode go-carts, played air hockey, swam and drove thru Cades Cove. The kids really enjoyed the Alpine Slide at Ober. Hope you enjoy the pics and wonderful scenery.

Mexican Pie

1 can biscuits
1 lb. ground beef, cooked and drained
1 can rotel
1 pkg. taco seasoning mix
1 sm. can corn, drained
1 can dark red kidney beans, drained
onion
cheese
1/4 c. water

Press out biscuits into a 9 in pie plate. Mix all other ingredients except for cheese and pour on top of biscuits. Cover with cheese. Cook on biscuit temperature for 15 minutes or so until biscuits are done and cheese is melted.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Today is my birthday and so far it has been a wonderful day. My 2 wonderful children woke me up this morning at 4:00 a.m. and fixcd me breakfast in bed. Nothing like 2 cinnamon sugar toast and some crangrape drink at 4:00 a.m. It was so yummy!!! They are 2 of the most unselfish children I know and I am so blessed to call them mine. Thanks honey for helping them get it together. I love all of you!!!

Girl Scout Cookie Weekend - March 8, 2009

This weekend we went door to door and also sold cookies at a booth at Wal-Mart. We had a lot of fun and sold quite a bit of cookies. However, we have around 200 boxes left. I cannot eat or pay for that many cookies so I guess we will be having another booth sale soon. The girls worked really hard and had a good day, especially considering last year at our booth sale it was around 40 and we froze to death. This year the weather was absolutely gorgeous and the sun was shining bright! Thanks to all that bought cookies from us this year!

In picture : Raechel's GS buddies - Amanda, Raechel, Jennifer & Hailey

Snow Days in the South - March 1, 2009

What an exciting day - Our family woke up to about 2 inches of snow. Nathan woke up and began screaming it's snowing!!! He immediately woke up his sister and got dressed and ran outside and began to play. We all enjoyed a day in the snow. Throwing snow balls , playing with Dixie and each other. We great a great day!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!

It was also a great day at my Daddy & Momma's house. All the family got together for my Daddy's birthday!! What a great birthday gift - SNOW!! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful Daddy . I will always be Daddy's little girl!

Buttermilk Pie

This was my great grandmothers recipe.

1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 eggs beaten
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 tsp. salt

Mix salt, flour & sugar together. Add milk and melted butter. Add beaten eggs and vanilla. Pour into unbaked pie shell for 45 minutes at 350. Place foil over pie after it browns to prevent over browning for the rest of the cooking time.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family does! Happy eating!!

Sick little boy

Today I am at home with Nathan. He has strep throat and has been sick since Saturday night. He is much better today and hopefully will go back to school tomorrow. He misses his friends at school but loves staying at home with Mommy!!! I hope the rest of us stay well this week and do not catch this yucky stuff.. Until later on I hope everyone has a great week :)