Fireworks Spectacular!

Every year Stephen, Mike's son, and his wife, Bonnie, invite friends and family to come to their house for a Fireworks Spectacular evening.  This year really seemed to top all the others I have attended.

The food was delicious!  They had Bar-B-Q and Mike grilled big, fat, Ballpark Franks.  Folks brought side dishes and desserts and we all chowed down.

Then, just after dark, Stephen and his crew crept up the hill.  We all drug our chairs out from under the shed overhang of the man-cave barn and sat in the middle of the driveway.

Then, with the first explosion, we all became silent and enjoyed the show.  HERE is a link to part of what our friend, Tammy recorded with her phone.

We came down the hill to home at about one o'clock in the morning on Sunday.  It was a beautiful way to wrap up a holiday!

Romantic Dinner

Knowing that my sweet hubs was working hard on Independence Day, I prepared a delectable, romantic, patriotic dinner.

We had my copycat version of Outback Steakhouse's Alice Springs Chicken, The Pioneer Woman's Crash Hot Potatoes, and a tossed salad.  Then, we had Lemon Zucchini Bread for dessert.

The thing is, the romantic, patriotic dinner was postponed...

I wound up eating at around 7:45 after I gave up on him getting home and Mike ate when he got home at around nine o'clock.  Not so romantic.

We do plan to celebrate together and even dine together tonight while watching Stephen and Bonnie's fireworks.  Ahh...smiles!

Independence Day Celebration and Zucchinis

Well, the nation's birthday celebration sloshed by me.  Mike had to work.  Yuck!

He said, "Maybe if we work on July 4 we can have off Saturday AND Sunday."

I paused only briefly to think about that.  Don't you think something is wrong if he has to work on a national holiday in order to have two days off that he is supposed to have off anyway?

My gripe session about that is over but I would like to have caused a few fireworks with the powers that be over there at the warehouse!

Anyway, yesterday was a sloshy, mushy, rainy day here at the ole homestead.  So, Toby and I spent the day in the kitchen.

Yesterday we had put all of that bushel of yellow squash in the freezer.  Lots of slicing, blanching, chilling, and bagging going on over here.

This was only the first batch...

Then, today, we (meaning I) began work on the bushel of zucchini.  I sliced up some zucchini and dipped it into buttermilk and tossed it into a cornmeal mixture and laid the slices out on a wax paper/cookie sheet.  You can see a tutorial HERE.

I also made Lemon Zucchini Bread using a recipe by NancyCreative.  It is absolutely divine!

Lemon Zucchini Bread with Lemon Glaze

I tried another zucchini bread recipe that my friend Joann G gave me.  It is delicious and she says it freezes well.  You can see that recipe HERE.

I pinned a couple more recipes on my Recipes to Try Pinterest Board that I'm going to give a try.

On another note, Bridgette and family have gone on V-cation and Lillie and Lydia sported their 'zucchinis' (really it was a tankini but guess what was a more familiar term...)  today and went to the hotel pool!

Finally, when Mike got home from work at about eight-thirty, he told me to look out front to see what was going on and this is what I saw:

Yep, there was a roadblock set up right in front of our house!

Stephen and Bonnie fired off a couple of fireworks up on the hill - a warm-up for Saturday, I guess.

Here is what Toby did all day:

Then, when folks started shooting fireworks all around us, he had to look out the window of the back doors and give a few woofs!

Hope your day was exciting and festive.

Decorating for the holidays

I remember when I was a bit more youthful than I am now.  I decorated elaborately for every holiday.  The inside of our house would showcase what the holiday season might be - New Year's Eve, Ground Hog Day, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter...you name it and I had home decor.  This extended to the entry doors - both front and back - and to the lawn with flags and to the mailbox with some sort of decor.

Somehow, life got faster-paced or, and this is more likely, I got a lot slower-paced.  The all-out decorating isn't quite so popular for me these days.  However, this year I did decorate a bit for the Independence Day.  I decorated the kitchen fireplace.

I went all out.

It started when I remembered that I had some of those little inexpensive flags that come about six to a pack from the craft store and I began searching for them.

I didn't find them but I did find the plaque I made a couple of years ago that was inspired by Suzanne over at Just Another Hang Up and her Plaque Attacks.  These make quick and easy hand-crafted, personalized gifts to give to folks that are quick and simple to do.  Here is one I did for myself:

I just swapped out the one that usually sits there describing our household for this patriotic one.  It looks really festive there with the blue Ball jars and the old red tea kettle that belonged to one of Mike's relatives doesn't it?

It says everything I can think of to commemorate Independence Day.

I have squash to freeze and cucumbers to chop in the making of sweet pickle relish.  Mike is working.  So, we will be celebrating with the children on Saturday up on the hill when Bonnie's Barnyard rolls out their Fireworks Extravaganza.  Hope the day is a little different than it is today.  Here is what it looks like today:

Wet, wet, wet!

The rain gauge says we have already gotten over two inches today and it is still falling steadily.

Hope you have a happy 4th of July!

How do they do that?

Nope.  This isn't a post about that TV program that shows and explains how things are made.  It is truly a question.

You see, Mike recently got a new phone.

It is a smart phone.

That is a big deal.

You see, this is the kind of phone that he used for years.

Oh, not the same phone year after year.  No, that wasn't the way it was at all.

You see, he is rather rough on phones and has used no less than five or six during the three years we have been married.

How do they do that?

And each of these phones has been almost exactly like the other.  A flip phone that he is familiar with and can quickly snap open and talk on or take a quick little photo of a tomato and send it to Bryan as a taunting text message or something like that.  One of these phones...

A couple of them were silver colored.  One of them was orange.  The one shown above is a manly, rough-and-tough black.  And he likes to carry it clipped to his belt in a nice leather case.  Again, something manly and rough-and-tough looking.

Well, a few months back, half the screen on his phone went black somehow.

How do they do that?

You see, this isn't the first time he has had a phone to just mysteriously develop some quirky problem like that.  Thus, several phones over a short three-year period.  Well, the quickest, most economical fix was for him to use the phone I had set aside a couple of years ago when I upgraded to a smart phone.  He carried it even though Stephen told him it was a 'sissy-phone.'

He just slid it into a new (to accommodate the different size) manly leather and camouflage thingy that clipped onto his belt and went on about his business.  Since this phone would slide open and reveal a keyboard, his text messages moved from pictures of tomatoes to pictures of tomatoes with a few quickly keyed words in the taunting text messages.

Then, somehow this phone started having issues.  He could only hear an incoming call if it was set to speaker.  Another phone biting the dust.

How do they do that?

Plus, when Mike acquired an email account and joined the twenty-first century entered the world-wide-web, he needed to move up to a smart phone.  Look out techies!

You see, Verizon was offering specials on iPhone 4 models.  It was free!  So, that was the deal for us.  Of course, that also meant we had to add an upgrade to our plan which accommodates a smart phone.  That also meant we had to increase our data package to accommodate web use.  So, was the free phone really free?

How do they do that?

Of course, Mike also needed a new case for this smart phone because those models have a reputation for being a bit more fragile than his former flip phones.  So, after an Amazon browse and about forty dollars and three days later, he had a new Otter Box and belt clip for his phone.

How do they do that?

The case is a manly orange and camouflage and black and tough.  He has bragged about dropping it (accidentally, of course) on the concrete floor of the warehouse right beside his lift truck and it bounced but didn't break.  Yet, after only a month, I get a call asking me to track down a new clip for his manly phone and case because somehow his has broken.  Yes, this tough accessory that came to us in a package labeled 'the defender' has been broken somehow.

How do they do that?

Like any good wife does for her man, I searched online and found a new clip for an inexpensive price and ordered it.  Plus, I stumbled across astutely discovered a bargain on a recent jaunt to the local Goodwill!  I found a clip (which was a story for another day) just like the one which had come in the mail (for $6 plus free shipping - bargain!) at the local Goodwill for $2.  What a deal!  So, you see, now we have a back-up just in case the manly phone clip thingy somehow gets broken.

How do they do that?

So, Mama's Pumpin' Iron

Yep, you read it correctly.

My Mama is pumpin' iron!

I just learned about it yesterday and I am not in the least bit surprised.  After all, this is the woman who raised me.  The woman who used to milk cows and rake hay and cut tobacco and haul silage and drag furniture out of a burning house and shoot buzzards and threaten-me-to-within-an-inch-of-my-life...

So, why would anybody be surprised that this woman is pumpin' iron?

Well, Mike was.

(The photo above is one where she had just threatened my sister and me 

and forced us to stand beside her in a pose for the camera and smile.  

Can't you see all that?)

See, this is really how the conversation came about.  I stumbled across astutely discovered a bargain at our local Goodwill the other day that was something he needed - a cell phone clip.  (Why he needed it is a story for another day.)  So, he asked me why I was in the Goodwill in the first place.  (He's not so fond of my Goodwill treasure hunting but that is a story for another day.)  So, I just explained that my Mama mentioned that she needed some dumb-bells.

I couldn't even continue with my explanation.  When I said that, he gave me the most incredulous, shocked look and kind of went into a rant.  "What in the WORLD does your mother need dumb-bells for?  She has suffered with knee trouble, had knee surgery.  Then, suffered with hip/back trouble, had back surgery.  Recently suffered with hip trouble on her other side and has been undergoing physical therapy and steroid treatments.  Why on EARTH would she need dumb-bells?"  And then he grunted that exasperated grunt.

So, after a brief pause to let him catch his breath and recompose himself to a state of listening, I proceeded to explain that she had been using these dumb-bells in her therapy and mentioned that she needed to get her some weights to continue her work-outs at home.  Since I was going to be right across the street at the Walgreen's getting medication for our old, decrepit bodies, I volunteered to look for her some weights and that is how I came to be in the local Goodwill.

It was my lucky day!  First, I found these cute little weights:

(No, those specks around them are not dirt on my floor.  

I am a tidy housekeeper and would never have dirt and such on my floors!  

Well, maybe just a little speck or two...)

They were ninety-nine cents each and went into my cart.  The thing is, Mama had said she needs three-pound weights and these didn't have any designation to tell me how heavy they were.  Since I am not experienced with pumpin' iron, I couldn't really heft them around and determine how heavy they were.  So, I kept digging and looking.  Then, I found this pair of weights:

I didn't have my reading glasses with me.  So, I couldn't see what the little inscription on the side said and didn't know if it was a three or a five or an eight and there was no young whipper-snapper lolling around to read that for me.  So, they went into the cart and I kept digging and looking.  Then, I found this pair of weights:

(No, that is not a grass clipping or a piece of mulch lying on my floor beside them.

I am a tidy housekeeper and would never have grass clippings or pieces of mulch and such on my floors!  

Well, maybe just a little clipping or piece or two...)

So, I came home with three sets of dumb-bells for my Mama and spent only about $15 which is less than half what they would be at retail price.  Score!  (That is supposed to be a metaphor but do you score in pumpin' iron?  Maybe not.  It was a score at getting a bargain, though!)

When I got to my glasses, I learned that I had come home with a pair of three-pound weights (on the far left), a pair of eight-pound weights (in the middle) and who knows what those cute ones on the right weigh but I think they are two or three pounds.

Mike was still shaking his head at the thought of my Mama pumpin' iron and mentioned that Mama had only expressed a need for three-pound weights and wondered what I was going to do with the others.  I suggested that she might begin training the two of us in pumpin' iron and he could use those manly eight-pounders and got another one of those incredulous, shocked looks and a grunt.  I can see that happening, though, can't you see her doing that?

(Doesn't this look like a woman who is one of those hard-pushing trainers?)

For some reason, Mike didn't seem to think that would be happening.  Then, I suggested that perhaps Mama would work up to the eight-pound weights as her therapy progressed.  After all, she had already advanced from two-and-a-half-pound weights to three-pound weights

At that I got a true guffaw!  After he had wiped the tears and caught his breath from laughing so hard, Mike informed me, "If your Mama moves up to working out with a pair of eight-pound weights, she might get mad at your Daddy and whip his butt!"

(Only he didn't say butt.  The word he used begins with an A.)

I can see that, too, though.  Can't you?  I mean, look at her...  all five-foot-four of her...

Iron-Pumpin' Machine that she is...

Busy Week, ahem... Actively Engaged Days

What a week!  Sunday was a day for sharing.

I shared what little I know, ahem... my vast knowledge about canning and freezing with my daughter-in-law and her friend Kali.  (I really have a hard time figuring out what this poor girl's name is because Mike, Stephen, and even her husband, Mark, tease her by calling her Kallie and Kathy and who-knows-what-else.  And when you are sitting and chatting with one another, you rarely call somebody by her name...So, when I got ready to introduce her the other day, my mind just went blank.  Sorry, Kathy Kallie Katherine Kimberly Katy, ahem... Kali!)

~sigh~

Anyway, I guided these sweet girls through canning six beautiful jars of green beans that were fresh from Stephen and Bonnie's garden and picked and snapped and washed by her!  (What you don't realize is that she has never aspired to be a domestic goddess and has always been an outdoor girl and is now a business maven during her off-outdoor-girl time, which is six-days-per-week, since she and Stephen own their own business.  Read about that HERE and HERE.)  Her beans turned out to look like blue-ribbon-winners at anybody's state fair, though.

At this point, you may be wondering why I'm not sharing photographs of this momentous occasion.  Well, there is a perfectly good explanation and it might have something to do with my sitting at the island tasting a splash of Arrington Vineyards' Firefly Rose (that they brought along) and yack-yack-yacking and never even thinking of taking a photo of these cute, sweet, hard-working girls I'm bossing around, ahem... mentoring through the preservation-of-food lessons.

 ~sigh~

The girls also sliced and blanched and chilled and bagged five quarts of yellow squash and five quarts of zucchini squash.  It turned out to be beautiful as well!  Of course, this culinary delight which was 'put-up' for future meals when we are in the dead of winter, for example, was also grown right in these girls' gardens and picked by their own sweet hands (and maybe the rough, calloused hands of their husbands, too).

Do you see me puffed with pride over these girls?

~sigh~

Monday was a day the hubs took a day off from work and we had the chance spend the day together.  Wednesday was another day for my friend Margaret and I to do some more work on school-work, ahem... Refreshing and Updating.  Friday was a day for a follow-up visit to the doctor for Mike and, of course I went along to find out what the doctor had to say because who knows what it would sound like coming from Mike?  Somehow he seems to hear medical instructions a little bit differently than I do.  You know, like, "go home and keep your leg propped up," turned into, "I'm going out to the barn to feed and water the chickens and do a little grass mowing."

So, I'm spending this Saturday morning trying to catch up and wrangle the house back into submission, ahem... leisurely sipping coffee and I might swish over the floors after I nibble a piece of toast.