a magazine ... :-)

    While Brian was waiting in line to check out of the store yesterday, a cover of a magazine captured his attention. He thought 'what the heck' and started browsing through it. What he came across so-o tempted his taste buds, that he bought the magazine and brought it home.
     He handed it to me to browse through, while he was putting away his purchases and starting dinner. He was also attempting to "splain' " his giving in and purchasing it. His "splainin' '" wasn't necessary - I so-o would have purchased it too. ;-p
     As I was slowly turning pages, looking at the various features, I too couldn't wait to try a couple of the recipes! And I was really enjoying all of the fall decorations. All in all, a good browse n' see!
    And then as I turned a page, I stated, "Hey, that's 'Pioneer Woman' !" 
    With a totally bewildered look on his face, Brian leaned forward to peer over the top of the magazine. His expression changed to a totally lost look as he asked "W-h-o?!?!!" 
    "Pioneer Woman!!"
    "And she is...?"
    "She has a blog! :-D"
    Now wearing a 'how did this happen to me expression', Brian turns to Benson and says, "I can't win".
     Couldn't help it, I laughed. A lot.... o;-)

     The magazine?  'Southern Living - Easy Entertaining' (Special Edition 2010) "Ideas for hosting your best party ever!"    In a circle on the cover it states, "110 of our Best Fall Recipes".
      Such as:
      page 13 - 'Rosemary-Garlic Pork with Roasted Vegetables and Caramelized Apples'. The picture sets your mouth to watering. Reading through the recipe makes you start next weeks grocery list. (o:->)
       page 15. I just stood there silently staring at it. Brian had leaned forward with a questioning cocked eyebrow. I glanced up long enough to state, I'm doing a mental taste test. Pictured? 'Rich Chocolate Tart'.  I knew you'd understand.  ;-)
        page 17 - 'Bacon-Onion Dip', pictured with fresh veggies.
        And then there are pages 18 and 19. 'Make-Ahead Muffuletta Party Sandwich'.  We would tweak the filling to our own preferences, but it too made the grocery list.
        The 'Tomato-and-Herb Fondue' on page 37 is very tempting.
     And so it continued ...
     "Pioneer Women" is pictured on page 53. (She has a recently published cookbook out that I'd sure like to see! Yes, this IS a hint!!!)
      The recipes didn't stop after the feature on her. ...
          page 74 has these 'Carmel-Pecan-Pumpkin Bread Puddings'.... my mouth wants to try a sample so I can better decide about them.
          And then there's the 'Croissant French Toast with Pecans' on page 84.
       Oh my, my. Let the feasting begin!

      Brent and Kayla came in before I had gotten all of the way through the magazine the first time, so I of course had to be kind and show some of the features to Kayla. o;-) 
      As we were doing so, a post card sized paper fell out of the magazine and hit the floor. I asked Brent to pick it up for me. He did, and started to place it in the trash. I put a quick halt on that!!! I could see the special offer subscription rate being offered and Brian agreed that we should give in to that temptation as well. ;-p
      By the time we got done, my eyes were spinning as bad as my mouth was watering. Good thing Brian produced such tasteful, tender, pork steaks with noodles and fresh salad for dinner. ;-) It helped the mouth watering part.

      Go ahead, close down your computer and go get your own copy now. Glad I could be of assistance.  o;-p

Experiences at 7-11

     I hope to get back to this blog soon and  start down loading all of the postings currently floating around in my brain!  In the mean time, we thought you might enjoy some of the experiences our eldest son has had while working at a 7 - 11 store.  To read them, visit their blog - A Lord, A Lady and a Cute Little Princess.

my FRIEND Reva is getting married tonight. :-D

      While Reva does often refer to me as "Mom B.", she is one of the ones whom have crossed over from being one of the "part-time" kids, to being my FRIEND.
      Actually, Reva never was one of the 'group' of the 'part-time' kids whom were around here frequently. She was one of the 'their own little identities' situations.
     We met Reva through the resident camp. And then she started dating our eldest son, Byron. At first it was okay. But then from our perspective, it seemed like all she was doing, was being a huge negative aspect in Byron's life. His battles with depression were intensified. His anger and frustration levels were even higher. The more he was around Reva, the harder he was to live and deal with, so we tried to make it harder for him to see her. That made him ever so much worse, so we gave in. But as parents, we had reached the assumption that Reva was the root of the trouble.
       Ya ever hear the old line, "You know what assuming makes? An ass out of you and me." The line was proven true yet again, in this whole Byron and Reva scenario.
        I had figured that if I couldn't convince Byron to let her go, then I might as well accept her and try my best to like her. Reva made that task a privilege!
      During that process, I learned how a whole lot of things in Reva's life were falling apart, royally. Things which Reva had absolutely no control over. Nor influence in. Things which totally rock the stability of a young teens life and therefore emotional balance. Those were the things we were seeing reflected in our son. He is a "fixer". He wants to help and 'fix' people's problems / life's. Pretty much every-bodies. But it is totally maxed out so, once he has gotten to both know and deeply care about you. To the point that he still wants to be great friends with somebody, even years after they have broken up, but yet feels awkward about all of it, so he does not always handle situations right. (As if any of us always do 8-/).
      Any-ways, like I said, Reva made the getting to know her a privilege! She has a wonderful, witty, yet sarcastic, sense of humor!! Totally delightful!!
      While I still thourally do not 'get' her not being a big fan of chocolate, she does say that I have influenced her greatly in slowly learning to enjoy it more, especially when baked in certain combinations. o:-D Glad I could help. ;-p
      She too is addicted to mission type stores, is all about great bargains, and loves old farm house style houses. We have a shopping outing scheduled for October that I am so-o-o looking forward to!!
      Reva and our son's dating relationship ended so many years ago now. But Reva and I chose not to let our relationship do the same. I am ever so thankful she chose to keep me as her FRIEND!! She is on my list of 'Blessings'!
     Over the years since dating our son, she dated a couple of guys whom weren't good for her. Period. But then she met Michael. Or as Michael puts it, he met Reva. While I've only had a few opportunities to interact with Michael, and thus don't really feel like I 'know' him, I am never the less thrilled that Reva is becoming his wife today!
      Why? Because of the results of his love and total acceptance of Reva as a person, that I have seen evidenced in her life. She has blossomed. She radiates love and charm. Her Lord is again important both in her life, and in how she lives her life. And she is even freer with her whit.
      Thank-you Lord for leading the two of them together! Thank-you Michael for being a man of honor, as well as for loving Reva to the extent you do! Thank-you Lord for allowing me the privilege to witness it!!
      And this evening Brian and I have been asked to be in attendance for their joining their lives in Holy Matrimony. :-D !!!
      Yup, that sums it up. :-D !!!

ZacH - or - ZacK ?

       In the teen number of years ago now, a good friend gave birth to her fifth son on her own birthday :-).
       Fast forward to a week ago this year. It was their birthday. I knew that I am friends with her on Facebook and I really 'thought' I was friends with him as well. So I opened my Facebook page, found her and sent her a birthday message. I then went to 'my friends' box and typed in the name ZacH. ??!?? Zach B. showed up, as did Zach S., but no Zach VW. Hummmm....
       O-Kay, maybe I'm not 'friends' with him after all ... ??!?? So I went back to his mom's home page, clicked on her list of friends, and typed in ZacH. He wasn't on her list either. I found it hard to believe he wasn't on facebook, when everybody else in that family is... but what ever.
      So I sent a message to his mom asking her to relay my birthday wishes to him, seeings how I couldn't find him on Facebook.
     A couple of days later I noticed that like I had, he too had commented on somebodies Facebook posting. ??!?? I looked closer. I went back to 'my friends' box and scrolled page by page down the list....
      Awww.... his is spelled ZacK. The other two guys names are spelled ZacH.
      I sat here wondering just what exactly my friend Becky had thought, after reading my request for her to give birthday greetings to her son, seeings how I couldn't find him anywhere on Facebook ....

     Yup.... I'm still wondering about myself ..... I'm sure she was too!  o;-p

"Our" Jeannie is getting Married tomarrow :-)

       "Our" Jeannie is one of our 'part-time' kids. I know that some of you are well aware of what all that means, but there are those of you whom don't, so I shall explain.
       Brian and I have over seventeen "part-time" kids. The first one entered our life as such the summer after we were married. A couple more came along during our 'birth sons' younger years. But the majority came during our 'birth sons' high school years. For the record - we never went looking for any of them. To be honest, if we had, a whole lot of them would not have been picked. But God did the picking. He led each and every one of them to us, for many varying reasons. And we had already learned in our life, that God doesn't take you tellin him "no" very well. o:-).
       Some of their reasons had to do with HUGE challenges in their own homes. A couple of them were just out and out desperate for acceptance and love. A couple had eating disorders. And a couple came due to being good friends (or even girl friends) of our boys, and stayed. The "our" Kate I talk about, is one of the latter.
       Five of our "part-time" kids actually moved in and lived with us for awhile. A couple of others never officially moved in, but they did have their own beds here, which they were in really often!! And while Jeannie didn't have any specific bed reserved for her, all of our boys knew that at a moments notice, they would be surrendering their bed and room to her. As "HER BROTHERS!!!" (what they dubbed themselves, which thrilled Jeannie to no end) they were proud to do so.
       For s-e-v-e-r-a-l years we averaged fifteen or more for Sunday dinner. And it was a rarity to have only our 'in house' family at dinner any night during the rest of the week. We always did head counts before setting the table, and even then often had to add a plate and instruct people to scoot over on a bench.
       While we might not have picked some of them, each and every one of them managed to grow their own niches in our hearts. So many crazy personalities! So much love. God blessed us through all of it, in so many ways.

      Tomorrow, Friday, Sept. 10th, 2010, "our" Jeannie is getting married. :-D  'Her brothers' put Joel (her groom to be) through quite the testing when he accompanied her to Byron and Cyndi's Michigan reception. And to a one, they reported that he passed the testing. ;-)  Jeannie is a short, petite little fire cracker! We never could figure out how God had packed that much spunk into such a small vessel. Seriously!!! But her spunk just endeared her all the more into 'her brothers' hearts!!
     And I really do not know how to express the place Jeannie has in Brian's (her "Dad B.") heart!!!  It is a very special place / relationship indeed!
     The wedding shall be interesting, the shower sure was. That many "steps" in the same place has the potential of being more than just 'interesting'. We are praying they all get over themselves and concentrate on giving Jeannie the dreamiest of weddings!!! If they don't, ...well...., 'her brothers' have been waiting years for her to give the word okaying them to be her actual bodyguards o;-p.

     Our 'birth' son Byron currently lives out of state. And their car is on it's last knee cap. (the "last leg" is down to it's knee cap.) A-n-d he has to work till midnight tonight. But Cyndi's mom is driving them half way here. Brandon and Benson will meet them there and bring them home. HOPEFULLY, adorable little Analyse will let them sleep for several hours before it's time to go to Jeannie's afternoon wedding. And then the evening reception. And then Sat. we are hoping to squeeze in celebrating Benson's birthday (which is next week) before Brandon has to go cater, and Brian and I escort Byron, Cyndi and Analyse back home, so Byron can work again Sat. evening.
     Yeah, very quick trip into town and out again. But there is no way what-so-ever either one of them wants to miss Jeannie's wedding!!!
     Brandon got a call to cater Friday. He desperately needs the work, so he said yes. But he is also desperately hoping that this turns out to be one of those jobs that cuts their numbers in half at the last minute, so the caterer ends up calling and canceling him! o;-p

      I am THRILLED!!! "Our" Jeannie is marrying a guy that LOVES her!!! Thank-you Lord!!! A-n-d, I get to see my 'birth' out of state kids this weekend!! :-D    WOO-HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got the picture ...

   Last evening Brandon told Brian, that so and so was pregnant - with twins!
   Brian literally stopped in his tracks. Moaned. And with a sigh, while shaking his head, he commented, "I had really hoped that that had been the last of that particular gene pool!"

   While I do not personally know the person being referred to, nor do I remember having heard of this person before, I never-the-less had a full mental comprehension of what they were/are like. I bet you did/do too.