Dodge City Souvenirs

Paul and the missions team had a fun day while in Kansas and visited Dodge City. He brought the kids these cute hoodies from there. Boot Hill is apparently the cemetary in Dodge City. Sorry but I never watched Gunsmoke or read much on wild wild west towns so I had never heard of it.

Daddy's home

Paul and 11 others left last Sunday on a missions trip to Liberal KS to work with a hispanic ministry there. Mallory was so sad when Daddy was about to leave. She was just crying her little eyes out. We had to go to McD's for a happy meal to cheer her up! The team did a lot of work on the church building there and the women did a VBS type thing for the kids in the evenings. They will be back tonight and we are so excited to have Daddy home!

Blonde moment redemption

Michael loves to climb so I ordered him a Little Tikes slide on ebay last Christmas. Turned out to be a dollhouse slide. I thought $1.99 sounded like cheap shipping for a slide. I finally made it up to him last week when I found this slide at a yard sale for just ten bucks! The kids both love it so it's better late than never. Michael still plays with the little one, lets his cars roll down it, etc!

Church Campout

Last weekend was the 4th Annual Church Campout. We borrowed a tent and stayed the night and the kids loved it. Paul and I had fun seeing them have fun. Michael especially was enamored with the tent. Saturday morning we were inside the church building getting ready for breakfast and he said to me, "Change my diaper in the tent."

Taco Belle

It was the summer of 1986. Some friends and I were spending the summer in Colorado Springs and I had to get a job. I didn't need much money, enough to pay the rent and have some spending money. One of my roommates was already working at a really neat resort hotel called The Broadmoor and I just knew I could get a job there. Didn't work out. I tried other places but no luck. My mother said, "there's always Taco Bell" knowing there was one in the vicinity of where we lived. I shrieked in horror, "I will NEVER work at Taco Bell!" I had to get a job and time was running out. Keep in mind I had no car after having flown out there for my short stay. Witness photo below. Taco Bell hired me to work the day shift and that summer I was the best drive thru girl they had ever seen. I was always so chipper, "Thank you very much and please drive forward!" said with my Alabama accent that people always thought was from Texas. I ended up buying a three speed bike from a high school band yard sale and I drove that thing all over the Springs and to work every day. What a sight I must have been. That was my only ever stint at fast food. One thing I remember doing was slicing black olives one at a time. It was a great time, everything but putting my very long hair up in a hair net every day. I found this photo when going thru some old things yesterday and had written on the back "gross picture." Says it all.

I love this picture.

Flour Power

Making memories with White Lily.

Bless his heart

Michael didn't have a nap yesterday and purely fell asleep at the table while having his dinner. Yes, yes, that's PB& J that you see but we were having bean soup and cornbread and Michael wasn't interested. He was eating along just fine and I was in and out of the kitchen so when I looked back at him this is what I saw. Awwww, so tired. Bless his heart.

Miss Mallory

When we were at the Kentucky State Fair we happened to run in to Miss Kentucky who was signing autographs and letting little girls try on her crown. She asked Mallory her name and was caught off guard when she heard the response.

Where's Michael?

Mom's Meat & Three

There are restaurants all over the Montgomery area that serve what's commonly referred to as a "meat & 3" menu. There will be several meat choices like meatloaf, catfish, pork chops, beef tips, etc. Then even more sides like mac and cheese, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, turnip greens, broccoli and cheese casserole, cabbage, cole slaw, pineapple and cheese casserole, fried green tomatoes, black eyed peas, etc. You pick a meat and then three sides. It always comes with a nice cornbread muffin or hot roll. These places are just everywhere. You can eat at a different one every day for a month probably. Can't find anything close around here unless you drive half an hour to Cracker Barrel and that's really not the same. A place opened a year ago called Sweet Potatoes and I just knew they would have that type fare. Nope... club sandwiches, hamburgers, etc. We saw a place called Nuranne's Soul Food restaurant in downtown Frankfort a while back. It didn't have much atmosphere so Paul and I were hesitant to try it but one day thought we would give it a shot on our weekly lunch date. Got there and it had closed up. So, the other night I made us a meat and three meal. Only thing missing was the corn bread.

Fresh Corn Casserole-scrape the corn off the cob and bake it up with heavy cream, butter, salt and freshly ground pepper...mmmm-my favorite!

Yellow Squash Casserole-recipe courtesy Mrs. Margaret from the church...delicious!
Southern style green beans with bacon.
Oven baked chicken, recipe off the back of the Bisquick box-turned out really good.
And just for good measure-a chocolate pound cake. It was the best I had ever made!

So there.